Bad news, journoladies: If you want to remain in the profession it appears that your only two options are writing columns where you deliver deeply personal revelations torn from your sexual and emotional experiences, or you deliver deeply defiant columns about how all anybody wants from women writers anymore are deeply personal revelations torn from their sexual and emotional experiences. There is, however, one way to avoid this and still receive commissions: be famous.
ah, celebrities: 2009's "it" way to fill that ever-more-yawning gap between slimmed-down budgets and hyped-up news cycles. (see also: rs, julia stiles on the mets in the wsj, etc., etc. why did i not go to accounting school again?)
I call it the Jezebel effect.
I always thought the Jezebel effect was a cross between irritable bowel syndrome and intolerable smugness.
+1 to WestVillager. first chuckle of the day for me.
It's enough to make you want to buy a bunch of Andrew Lloyd Webber records.
Looks like y'awl are right in line with contemporary expectations.
Tell me about it. I was actually working on my own body issues piece when I saw this story.
Inaugural Dangly Bits post?
Yays!
There are other options. Football game sideline reporting, for example.
This is where she lost me: "Sorry, but who benefits from being told this sort of stuff?" People do benefit from "weird" or "shameful" stuff being normalized via "confessional" writing. There's a difference between self-revelation and self-exploitation -- though sure, okay, the line is fine.
Also "Sorry, but ..." is so creepy and false, always.
But is it oversharing if nobody reads it?
People do benefit from “weird†or “shameful†stuff being normalized via “confessional†writing.
For your sake, I hope so Emily.
I'm glad you picked up on this; I was thinking about sending it in as a tip when I saw it this morning in the Guardian. I see Emily's point in a way; a lot of issues that were taboo years ago have been brought to light by people who were brave enough to write about their experiences. However, I think she refers to enough gross-out examples to make her point well.(Read the Daily Mail a bit more.) And yeah, the line is fine
but so what? Stay on the right side of it.
And " Also `Sorry, but …' is so creepy and false, always." What? Why?
sorry, but she's right.
see?
No.