Last BlogHer post, I promise. I got an email from a reader today who asked me:
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the women bloggers out there who didn’t go to or didn’t find Blogher empowering. Like Kathy Sierra’s reaction.
Interesting question. I didn’t go to blogher to explore gender issues or feel empowered, I went to meet people and network. Maybe that sounds callous, but I didn’t go to the event looking go learn more about my identity as a woman or a blogger … I went because, well, I’m a blogger who just wrote a book for women and I needed to meet and learn about my readership. Lest I sound like a totally disgusting PR monster, I must add the caveat that I’ve been wanting to meet these many amazing women for years, and this was a nice opportunity. But honestly, I went to Blogher because my book editor told me that I should. And I’m really really glad I did. I met other authors and entrepreneurs (who happened to be women) and talked about writing all weekend. That’s awesome.
I don’t define myself as a blogHER, but I sure was happy to have all those awesome women all in one place to meet and greet and get to know. It was wonderful on lots of levels, but since I didn’t go into it looking for an identity, I didn’t come out perplexed or perturbed by the gender dynamics. I wrote a book for brides that’s being published by an imprint focused on women’s issues. Of course I’m going to go to a conference full of savvy, smart women.
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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amy.leblanc
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:37 am
even though it was in my hometown, i wasn’t interested in attending, pretty much becuase i don’t care if i ever make a cent off of my blog and also because i don’t care that much about what’s going on with the rest of the blogosphere. i’m THAT self-centered.
tangentially related to discussions of gender issues, i also wondered what the level of catiness (esp. toward more well-known bloggers) would be, and i see, in fact, it was pretty high:
http://www.lasadh.com/archives.....m#comments
get a few drinks in a few women who heard someone said/wrote something and POW. serious drama.
i’m pretty glad i stayed home.
Ariel
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:52 am
Wow, jesus. That is some petty, ugly, lame-ass shit. Seems like the blogger you linked went out looking for a fight, and got exactly what she wanted.
As for me? I had a great, drama-free weekend talking to cool women about writing and I’m incredibly glad I went.
amy.leblanc
August 3rd, 2006 at 12:05 pm
definitely: your editor was right in that it was a really good thing for you to attend, and i’m sure, like anything else, it’s what you make of it. i probably would not have ended up doing anything personally productive as a result of attending (other than finding a few more good blogs to read) and thus, i didn’t think it was worth my time/$$ to go.
as for the gender issue with the HER part of blogHer, it seems that people who say they don’t focus on gender issues are often the ones to bring them up. funny that way.
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