According to my recent stats, we are practically back to START, boys and girls. Ain't nobody reading. (But if you are, HI!) I figure this means I can post whatever I want, such as (see left) photos of myself selling important books about fiber diets, taken by my co-worker's brand new iphone. I think I have earned a bad reputation in lefty/feminist Blogdonia: argumentative; always defending Jesus, Krishna and All Their Friends; not fully understanding why the people from good homes are talking this year.* (And last year, and next year, too.)
I am trying to formulate some ideas/theories about CLASS in Blogdonia. Being working class or coming from poor people, etc...how do we fit in? Well, that's just it. We don't. We are embarrassing. We uncomfortably remind the so-called progressives that their references to chi-chi vacations, private preschools and hoity-toity colleges, summer homes, pricey co-op apartments, frou-frou dinner parties, et. al. just JUMP RIGHT OUT AT US while reading blog posts. (Damn, I wish they didn't, but they just do.)
I am reminded of Roy Clark on The Beverly Hillbillies, the poor, dumb relations from back home who bother everybody, till we do some sort of minstrel act, some kind of savant show: Hey, we got talent, we know a few things!
In short, we are intimidated and do not belong. And they very much want us to go away, which is probably the reason I don't; I'm awfully stubborn. (Four different Virgos in my astrological chart! Just try and make me!) But certain big blogs have all but banished me/us, jumping on working class comments with aplomb; correcting, cajoling, intimidating. This reads: Who the hell are you, and what the fuck are you doing here?
Add AGE to the mix, and well, you get the idea.
In the past couple of weeks, I have commented on blogs in which the Original Poster was careful to thank EVERY PARTICIPANT BUT ME for their opinion. (I mean, come on, do you have to be so damned obvious about it?) Direct questions ignored, in favor of dialogue sought with young, stupid punks. Well, okay. I get it. If I knew the hip lingo, the cool shit to say, if I knew the right brand names and the right schools, maybe they'd thank me too. But I won't hold my breath.
I mean, I was long-ago run off the cool-kids sooper-seekrit email list (see last post for my opinion about those) for using politically-incorrect language, so this is just more of the same. Thing is, as in the last instance, I dunno exactly what I am saying that is so wrong, and nobody will tell me. You are just supposed to KNOW. That is part of being the right kind of person, the right class and age.
Meanwhile (punch line) they all blabber on about diversity and inclusion. While the average participants of their blogs are all 20 years younger than me, have college degrees, etc. Yes, real diverse!
I try very hard to erase difference when posting on other blogs... I edit several times, I go through and take out simple words and insert longer, educated-sounding ones. (they are far easier on those posts, I've noticed) I don't think it matters, in the end: WE KNOW WHO YOU ARE. And I've been placed on moderation on several of my favorite blogs... and I don't even cuss usually, while other people are effing all over the place. Huh? (Is it more than cuss words? Then what is it?)
What to do? Quit blogging? They wouldn't miss us at all; that is exactly what they want us to do. They want Blogdonia to themselves, the way they run everything else. Well, maybe it makes no difference then. They run things, always have, and we only have the illusion of being part of what they have crafted for themselves.
Try to engage? And get either ignored or singled out in embarrassing ways?
I have no idea.
Opening the floor for discussion, and all 4 of my present readers can respond!
~*~
I missed some stuff in my rather hurried post yesterday, and wanted to add some links:
Talk radio guru Trevor Carey of Colorado's KNUS, made some really ferocious comments on his show, condoning violence against transgendered people, since they have supposedly "committed fraud." This is pretty gross. I have emailed everybody in protest, and so should you. He really deserves to lose his job, not simply "disavow comments"--but I realize this is TALK RADIO and that is quite unlikely to happen.
But it should.
The idea that transgendered people are "committing fraud" is just, well, good God, do you think you have the right to know everything about a person? If a cisgendered woman seduces you, and you get home and discover she only has one breast, has she committed FRAUD by not sharing that with you until you are in an intimate setting? Not hardly. That is called DECENCY AND MODESTY, asshole. (Not that I would expect a talk-radio maven to comprehend that.)
You can download the Feminist Quran at Irshad Manji's website!Chinese parliament has just passed a law making celebrities who endorse products LIABLE, if the product is questionable and/or harmful. Not a bad idea AT ALL, and since I hear about celebrities who pontificate about products every single day (yes, Oprah, I'm lookin at you)--I wouldn't mind if the USA had such a law, too. Maybe then the glut of celebrity-infomercials would finally come to a grinding (and very welcome) halt.
~*~
*The title of this post is from David Bowie's "Fashion"--which of course, has all embedding disabled and I can't post it here. It is linked in the second paragraph.
The lyrics--
Listen to me (don't listen to me)
Talk to me (don't talk to me)
Dance with me (don't dance with me)
No
...just reminds me so much of Blogdonia...