Honey, Don’t Bother Mommy. I’m Too Busy Defending my Blogging. Again.

By now, I’m sure many have seen a little of the fallout from the NY Times article by Jennifer Mendelsohn. For those trying to catch up, Mendelsohn wrote a piece covering “Bloggy Bootcamp“, yet another blogging conference, this one organized by the SITS girls. So what was wrong with the piece? Not much, in reality. Yes, it was a little snarky (real time girly bonding, anyone?). She could have been better about providing links to the bloggers she mentions. Basically, though, this article was written about one particular conference, it’s focus and attendees. It wasn’t meant to be an all-encompassing look at mommy bloggers, even though many are up in arms because of all the article did not say. They’re pissed the article didn’t talk about the charity work, the fundraising they do. They’re pissed with the title, which was a little derogatory and misleading, but aren’t most titles misleading? Mostly, though, they’re pissed over their PERCEPTIONS of what the article said. Even when the article said nothing close to what they claim.

Holy crapola, you’d think the NY Times had written in BIG BLACK LETTERS that mommy bloggers abused and neglected their children, from the posted reactions. You’d swear that perhaps Mendelsohn had suggested that mommy bloggers should kick off those women’s lib shoes and haul their pregnant, barefoot asses back to the kitchen. Dozens of angry responses, dozens of bloggers taking great exception to this article. Except that many of the angriest responses are centering on what the article did not say and, embarrassingly enough, many are from people who freely admit they didn’t take the two minutes necessary to read the article. And yet, they still want their opinions to be taken seriously. The ironic thing, to me, is that the NY Times piece was more reasonable and balanced than some of the “squeeeeee!!!!!” type reviews I’ve read of BlogHer, and other blogger conferences. At least the NY Times piece didn’t have the obligatory “look at me with my hands on the tits (oh, excuse me “BEWBS”)  of some woman I hardly know. Aren’t I just the coooolest?”

There are far, far too many women blogging under the “mommyblogger” genre. Most of these mommy blogs are far from professional; most are far from achieving financial security through their blogs. Very, very few are making enough money to be considered true income, and very few ever will. Yes, there are notable exceptions. Yes, there are some very professional blogs, with talented authors behind them. These are exceptions to the rule. Not the norm. I remember when blogging was still pretty new, and how entrancing some of those blogs were. Now, unfortunately, most of what were once good blogs are now ugly affairs, with ads outweighing the writing, products and giveaways being the focus for many.

Mommybloggers want to be seen as something more than just a mom, yet an overwhelming number choose to refer to themselves and their blogs with yet another cutesy variation of mama, mommy, momalicious? How can you expect to be taken seriously as a businessperson, to be considered something more than “just a mom” if you CHOOSE to brand yourself (and branding is what ALL the cool moms are doing) as a mom? How can you expect to be taken seriously as a business person when you suggest in your taglines that motherhood is such a chore, that you risk your sanity with motherhood? How many “mom” blogs have we all seen that imply that a good stiff drink is what’s necessary to survive?

Mommy bloggers want you to know they are more than just SAHM. They want the world to know that they are contributing to their families finances with their blogs. They want the world to understand that they are not just bloggers, they are BRANDS, by God. But they aren’t. Most blogs will never, ever make more than a pittance through advertising. Most mommy bloggers are indeed just moms. There’s nothing wrong with the “glorified electronic scrapbooks” of most mombloggers. Not everyone can, or indeed should, shoot for those branded stars. And they should definitely never, ever engage in blogging just for the swag. And yet, we hear over and over again, mostly from mommy bloggers it should be noted, that there is indeed a culture of swag-starved mommy bloggers attending these events. Remember the uproar over swag at BlogHer? Remember all the controversy that has come from most female dominated blog conferences? I don’t know about you, but I haven’t read any accounts of face slapping pregnant women at SXSW. I don’t recall ever hearing anything coming from male tech conferences about concerted online campaigns to malign a fellow attendee. I don’t read too many accounts of tech conferences that refer to men literally pushing each other down in an attempt to get a Mr. Potato Head, or water bottle, either.

Mombloggers want to be taken as seriously as the men, but don’t want to act that way. They object to being consider frivolous, flighty little things without a brain in their head, but then proceed to drink mimosas from plastic sippy cups. WITH A REPORTER IN ATTENDANCE. It’s hard to understand how going to a conference labelled “Bloggy Bootcamp” (what are we? Twelve?), run by a group of women who refer to themselves as girls, is supposed to enhance your professional street cred. Perhaps when mommybloggers themselves start treating their professional events professionally, then the media might just catch up.

PS – I’d like to make it clear from the beginning that I do not know the SITS girls, and I know nothing about Bloggy Bootcamp. This post is not intended to disparage them, or the work they do.

Traffic at any cost

This was sent to me by Suzanne, a former reader at Poop on Peeps. She had posted this in the comments section of Poop on Peeps, but got no response from the great defender of children, Chicken Liver. She forwarded this to me, and while I’ve added a little commentary, the gist of this post is from Suzanne. Thanks for bringing this to my attention, Suzanne.

Tricia Haas of MomDot.com has posted some very disturbing posts about little girls and thongs. She actually titled her post “Little Girls…..and thongs”.  http://www.momdot.com/little-girlsand-thongs

Ostensibly she is outraged by the idea that someone would let their little girl wear thongs but she actually photographed a strange child in the park, cropping to highlight the thong. This woman is running around in parks taking ass shots of children, NOT her own kids, but strangers and posting them to the internet. She said it was no wonder dirty old men look at little girls!!!

What’s worse is her follow up post in which she basically brags about how many hits that thong post got. How? Search engine referrals for freaks looking for pictures of kids in thongs!!!!! There’s actually comments from freaks THANKING her for the images, and she STILL has them up.
http://www.momdot.com/morelittlegirlsinthongs

I think she wrote this post for NO other reason other than to get even more traffic to her kiddie porn images. And that’s why she wrote all of these:
http://www.momdot.com/littlegirlsinthongssearch
 
http://www.momdot.com/weird-keyword-hits-today

http://www.momdot.com/if-i-get-one-more-google-hit-with-people-typing-in

She complains about having to deal with all the pervs coming to her site to see images of children in thongs, but won’t remove the images or the multiple lists of keyword searches. Go figure. Anything to drive traffic numbers, right?  A real class act for a woman who holds herself out to be a leader of her community of mommy bloggers. This woman has had her share of controversy but this takes the cake for me. She is knowingly participating in distribution of images that could be construed as child pornography.

Tricia Haas is no stranger to controversy, and there is at least one website out there devoted to slamming her. I hadn’t read her site before, most mommybloggers bore the crap out of me. What I did read there, I’m not impressed with.  I don’t get how mother, especially one who portrays herself as a leader, can be so crass and disgusting. Then again, this is the same blogger who caused an uproar a few months ago for making fun of underage, overweight teens on her blog, posting photos to have her devoted fans ridicule.  

Is this acceptable behaviour from a mommyblogger, a leader in her community?

QB

Play nice

 

When this blog first started, I never, ever, pictured a time when I would have more than random spam comments. Not that I get that many now, but those I do get, I love. Even comments I disagree with are enlightening, and I value each one.

I had hoped that an official comment policy would not be necessary here at The Bitch Sessions. However, that appears to be nothing more than foolish wishful thinking. The comment policy is now in effect, and I’d appreciate you taking a look before posting comments.

Thanks for stopping by. A new post will be available shortly.

QB

Farewell, Chicken

The Chicken has flown the coop. The Poop is no more.

Hell must have frozen over. It’s the most likely explanation I’ve come to.

Words can only begin to convey my thoughts when I clicked over to read Chicken Liver’s Farewell as she shuts down Poop on Peeps. Flabbergasted. Astounded. Delirious. Delighted. Even though I knew she couldn’t continue forever, I never really saw this coming. Not the way it has happened, with the explanations she has given. Or lack of explanations, however you want to look at it.

Her stated reasons for closing down the Poop don’t really ring true for me.  I’m sorry for any personal drama and family problems she has, but to use that as an explanation to quite suddenly close up shop? It’s not like she suddenly grew a family and had no time to blog. She always had a family that she always claimed was not impacted by her blogging time. She says ” it would really kill me to be spending my time here when I should be improving myself for my son”.  If that was the case, she’d be dead now, considering she’s been devoting her time to shitting on others for three years. Shitting on others, at times, for spending too much time online, away from their families.  She says “You don’t know how much it would kill me to be a hypocrite.”   Really, Chick? She embodied hypocrisy with her Poop. She made vicious attacks on many bloggers, incited hatred, encouraged cyberbullying. A marshmallow heart? Please. The Grinch analogy is more apt.  

I think real life caught up to her and bit her on the ass.  Once her real name was out there, the pressure started to mount, culminating in the threat of legal action by Sandi Benson. Which may yet have been less threats and more action, for all we know.  My guess is that even the threat of legal action may have put the brakes on for her. Even if her family supported her blog, they would balk at the notion of coughing up legal fees. And, who knows, maybe having the tables turned on her by Sandi really did have a eye-opening effect.

Bottom line?  The Wicked Chick of the West is gone. Her Chicklets have lost their leader. She’s done, her power, such as it was, is over.

Raise a glass high and join me in a toast to the demise of Poop on Peeps.