Something interesting happened last night. I was visiting my usual list of blogs and I came across the latest entry on Brazen Careerist, a career advice column by Yahoo! Finance writer Penelope Trunk. The weird thing about this entry is Trunk attacked a female writer she didn't agree with -- a woman named Leslie Bennetts -- by saying that as a baby boomer, Bennetts is unqualified to tell Gen X women how to take care of themselves because Bennetts is "incredibly fat". Trunk also linked to a photo that indeed confirmed Leslie Bennetts is (or maybe was) overweight and puffy.
Actually let me be more specific. Trunk used capitalization and exclamation points and red lettering so it read, "SHE IS SO INCREDIBLY FAT!!!" Good thing she didn't go one step further and italicize the word FAT because that would have really crossed the line.
The moment after I finished the post I knew I had to write a comment because I had a pretty strong reaction to what Trunk said. But not only that, it was how she said it and why. The post was out of character for Brazen Careerist, it was a very strong personal attack and the tone of voice was weird. Usually Trunk is a great writer and the blog is insightful and relevant. I like it so much I've introduced it to friends.
In my comment, I wrote that it was bizarre for Trunk to speak on behalf of not only a generation of women (Gen Xers), but also to make generalizations about their marriages, husbands and community values. Yes, that's what she does in the post. I wrote it seemed like the target readership for the blog was suddenly very narrow. And thin. And I felt like I was reading the wrong blog.
By the time I had come across the new post, I noticed there were already three comments up. In the fifteen minutes it took me to write and rewrite my comment (I wanted to be succinct -- this takes time!) another four comments went up. One of them was Trunk herself saying she was "shocked at the uproar" the post had caused. But she stood her ground, defending what she had written. I went to sleep in the early morning knowing Penelope Trunk was in trouble. INCREDIBLY DEEP TROUBLE!!!
This afternoon I woke up (yes, afternoon, quit judging me) and I went to Brazen Careerist. I found that Trunk had taken the original post down and replaced it with this one, explaining why she had taken it down. What she did was extremely brave. She admitted to making a mistake and fixed it as best she can. And I think she did a good job of patching things up. Then I checked my email and I found Trunk had written me three times. In the first note she thanked me for my comment. In the second she wrote she had replied to my comment on the blog. And in the third she wrote to say she had decided to take the post down. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to read her response to my comment.
What happened last night goes to show how dangerously fast the blogosphere is. You write something, you post it, people read it, react and give feedback straight away. And if it goes awry, well, too late. Sometimes it takes me hours to write a post on this blog because even though it's just a personal blog, I know very well that what I write and how I express myself is important. Not least because I'm a writer and if you Google my name this blog will come up.
I also want to say that I did have reservations about how incompetent I portrayed myself and my jobsearch back in the three-part "How not to look for a job" series. But then I realized that what I try to do on this blog isn't put on my best face. I just want the blog to be entertaining. And I try to have fun writing it because I write seriously when I work and this blog is recreational for me. So in most of my posts I use the word "freaking" and I do things like "shake my fist" and I say other extremely silly things I don't do (so much) in real life. Having said that, while I have no hesitation about making fun of myself, I'm also careful not to cross the line between the personal and the professional. Well I like to think so anyway.
Perhaps I'm lucky so few of you bother to write comments!
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