Okay, lesson learned about driving traffic to my blog:
1. Get involved in one big intra-feminist hullabaloo.
2. Blog about my penis, where it’s been, and what I did to it.
3. Get involved in a second big intra-feminist hullabaloo.
Do all three in a three-day period, and presto, I’ve tripled my visitors to this site. Take notes, people.
Bitch-Lab dedicates a post to me today. Though I am a bear of exceedingly small brain, I think BL takes issue with what she sees as my insistence on filtering discussions of feminism through a white, middle-class lens. I mean, jeez. What’s this crazy WASP dude teaching courses on feminism to classrooms filled with first-generation women of color? And then name-dropping the prominent feministas whose courses I took in college? Sorry, don’t mean to be snarky. Oh hell, maybe I do.
And someone named Funniekins is righteously angry that Amp’s long, comments-open post about his decision to sell amptoons began as a response to me. Actually, Funniekins is only one of several to express annoyance that Amp’s reply was addressed initially to me, and then to his other critics. As both Amp and I have explained, that’s because I thought it best to shoot him an email before I posted on Tuesday night about him. No one else, apparently, did the same. But this courtesy was clearly an example of white male privilege, the old boys network at work even within the feminist community. Funniekins writes:
Interestingly, when asked why the fuck Hugo hung the moon, Barry replied:
I picked Hugo out because he is the one person who emailed me personally asking me to open up such a thread.
And there you have it! Public criticism of public actions is most APPROPRIATELY handled only after discreet and private inquiries among men. I’m sorry, I mean, among friends.
Look, I’m the grand champion of mea culpas when it’s called for. But yeah, Amp is my cyber friend. We’ve been linking to each other for two years, and I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s been an immensely valuable ally. And I think he screwed up big-time on this one issue of selling his blog, and I called him on it. Do I think I’m a better person because I e-mailed him first when others didn’t? No. Did I e-mail him first because he’s a man? No. If I were about to take to task a female "blog friend" in a public way (an Amanda, a Zuzu, an HF, a Lauren, a Jill, a Lorie, a Jenell, a Jessica, a Mermade, etc.), I would damn sure give ‘em a heads up first. Is that male privilege hiding behind good manners? I really, really don’t think so.
Okay, enough navel gazing. Watch the soft scrub ad with the chinchilla in it. That’s the ticket.
Ya know, I remember someone once said that you are, “Paid to be a feminist.” Or something like that. That pissed me off. Thats like saying someone who teaches theology is paid to be a Christian. But anyway, I wonder if Bitch Lab knows that you make your students address your position outside the classroom (tell three people that we’re taking a class on feminism by a white, straight male). I certainly got some interesting reactions. I think you recieve undeserved criticism. Anyone who has taken your class knows that you can change lives!
no no no. The women of color community and allies have declared it “take a break from feminism” week for reasons I think you should dedicate a post to elaborating on your own. How ’bout it? In support of feminists of color, it would be wonderful if you could explain the issues to your devotees, students, and I’m not sure what to call the critics who hand out here. :p Tx.
Gosh, Hugo, I’m sorry to see it’s not paying to be polite in this instance. You know of course, that there will always be folks who think your exercise of courtesy is old-boyism if the recipient is another man. Why those folks don’t just come right out and say that they think being XY disqualifies you from being a feminist, I’ll never know.
Mermade, I agree with your disgruntlement. I’d have just asked these silly folks what’s so wrong about being paid to be a feminist. Back in the day, I’d have loved to have been paid to be a Trotskyist, but I didn’t have the luck.
Out of curiosity…
You seemed to have come somewhat late to the party, so if there was such concern, how come you were the first to email?
and a comment
Preceptual filters sometimes cause people to jump to conclusions. An open mind before adding the filter often helps.
be well
Good on you for having the courtesy to email Amp.
Chose not to read the BL post. It isn’t SFW IMO.
I thought that calling out your friends and allies in private before lambasting them in public was always the polite thing to do, no matter who they are.
I don’t understand the point being made by those who are complaining, except that it illustrates that on some level they simply don’t trust you and are predisposed to take your actions ill.
But, Hugo, do you not see how ill-advised it was for Amp in that post to acknowledge only you and not his female critics? He had already done something that was stunningly ill-advised and had made himself seem, to many, like a user of women. Then he followed it up by finally opening up comments, but only publicly acknowledging the urgings of another man. It doesn’t look good.
Amp’s purity of heart aside (and I’m inclined to think he’s more dimwit than sociopath) wouldn’t that have been a good time to avoid the appearance of sexism? Surely it would have been. So the question in my mind is, why didn’t he bother?
Apparently, Hugo, as many have observed, good manners are a tool of the Patriarchy.
Public denunciation is the way to go. If the malefactors don’t immediately immolate themselves *because it is the right thing to do*, then more bad on them.
Private communication subverts the edifying power of public punishment.
Acknowledging that private courtesy works to effect correction is an even *worse offense.
Gosh; Puritans. God love ‘em.
Dear Mr. Schwyzer,
While personal correspondence is always appropriate, it is perfectly acceptable to weigh, in public, the actions of a public entity, particularly when those actions affect at least some members of the public. I do hope you are not casting aspersions upon my own manners, but in such an event I’d love to explain:
The internet can make it difficult to navigate the traditional standards of etiquette concerning public information. That said, Barry Deutsch can accurately be said to be a public entity as Ampersand…in the sense that he made blog-related decisions as the owner of a public blog. Were a privately-owned local newspaper sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the prior owner/editor, no matter how privately s/he conducted everyday fiscal affairs, would be considered a public actor on the occasion of the sale.
While human nature, it is generally in bad taste for those who have made public their decisions affecting the public interest only upon threat of exposure, to then openly favor courteous correspondence over publicized “righteous anger,” as Barry has consistently done. Certainly everyone prefers the kindness of strangers as well as friends. And many have said that he owes no consideration to his readers at all, but certainly it is impolite to view manners and consideration in such terms! Miss Manners would faint at the thought of bean-counting who deserves which tiny considerations, and punishing all for the perceived rudeness of a few; mere honest dialogue is, after all, the smallest of all concessions.
It ought be a simple matter to discuss one’s own behavior in the face of offense; when it is not, there is usually a problem larger than the offense, no matter how rudely that offense was expressed. Large problems benefit from a good airing in the presence of all interested parties; without this sometimes-ugly occurrence, there can be neither justice nor the peace justice brings, after all. Justice and peace are always more civil, and civilized, than quiet scandals and hushed half-truths.
Barry, like you, had readers in the first place due to associating himself with a particular point of view, one contradictory to the badge (courtesy Nikki Craft) I do hope you’ll both have the good manners to place prominently on your respective sites posthaste, if you find it too onerous to behave in a manner that belies the label:
http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/ohBROTHER/anotherman.gif
Most sincerely,
funnie
Hugo was neither the only, nor the first person to email Barry. As I explained here, I emailed him right at the start of September, long before all the broke publicly.
Another way to gain traffic is to compile a huge bunch of links on a controvertial subject. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must go blog about my penis.