In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Q&A

Lauren

I’ve decided that I’m not going to address the topic of my panel directly (too much Me Talk), but if anyone has any questions following the panel discussion and live-blogging of Next Level Naked, feel free to post them here and I’ll answer them the best I can.

11 thoughts on Q&A

  1. So this “blog anonomous” thing… ah really? I know Indiana can be rough, but is it that that made that neccesary?

    And what can you say about your alter ego?

  3. We were all quite literally naked. They got a space heater just for us. The panel table did have a long table cloth, so we didn’t have to worry about crossing our legs.

  8. So, wait: You have an anonymous blogging gig? Wild.

    I guess my questions would be: Do people ever demand a backstory for your secret identity, or are they content to accept whatever you tell them about it? Do they want to know where your alter ego lives, what your alter ego does for a living, anything like that? Do they try to get too friendly with the fake you?

    I was always afraid people would want a backstory, and I have no inclination towards fiction. I’m terrible at making things up. That’s a good chunk of what prevented me from trying to change identities online. So it’s the coverup aspect I guess I’m most curious about here.

    Unless you’re just contributing to a group forum with no bylines somewhere, in which case my questions are irrelevant. Please disregard in that case.

  10. Mark: I say nothing about my alter-ego. Really I’m just enacting something Ilyka threatened to do a long while back. Occurred to me as I realized people were imposing masculinity on my pseudonym.

    Ilyka: No fiction, I make nothing up, just leave out the more important bits (which is what makes it excruciatingly hard). Honestly I don’t like it that much in part because I’ve been so “out there” on Feministe. Which is, not coincidentally, partly why I left. I was in part tired of airing out private bits for political consumption. Then again, I realize now just how much of my experience in life depends on my being a single, white, underemployed single mom, and how this affects my politics. Remember I’ve been blogging since I reached legal adulthood, and since I’ve been a parent. It’s been a large part of my adult life. Conundrum, no?

    Also, nobody has yet asked me for a background. Really, I’m not sure that they’re necessary in the blogiverse, and considering that that kind of personal context really isn’t that necessary in any sort of journalism other than blogging, I’m not all that surprised.

  11. Occurred to me as I realized people were imposing masculinity on my pseudonym.

    That’s one of the reasons I chose a ridiculously girly pseudonym. My real name is androgynous, and I am often expected to be male by those who have not met me in person. I wanted to see if it would make a difference to have an “identifiable’ name attached to a persona who spends a lot of time talking about facts. Not that I have hard comparative data, but my sense is that “binky” gets more attention when she writes about “girl stuff” and gets ignored (or gets less attention) for other things.

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