Monday, March 15, 2010

Mother May I... Call You Something Else?

Heh. I saw this at The Resistance (with the whole piece at Wyblog), and it made me laugh.

A feminist blogger is upset with the NYTimes because they're marginalizing her as a "mommy blogger".

The punchline? She calls herself "PunditMom".

She rants goes on to demonstrate the unfairness by pointing out that Markos Moulitsas is a father (as are many bloggers) and nobody is making an issue of that. I'd like to point out to her that his website is called The Daily Kos, not the Daily Daddy or DaddyKos. She goes on (and on, and on) wondering about the NYT reporter:

Did she try to find out how many attendees were women with professional degrees and careers?


I dunno. Did she? And did any of the bloggers have names like "Dr. Blogger" or "Professor Pundit"? Or did you all have cutie-pie names like "PunditMom" and "MOMocrats"? I mean, let's be fair here. When I set up a blog, I got to choose a screen name to use. I chose one that made a joke when combined with my blog name (and had a tattoo connotation that's another, private joke). Maybe some folks aren't partial to it - but I chose it, I like it, and I'll live with it. I find it hard to believe her screen name was forced on her simply because she has reproduced, and so I can't see why she should be complaining about being "marginalized" as something when that's how she chose to self-identify.

Maybe if PunditMOM doesn't like the way mommy bloggers are perceived, she should have put herself across more professionally, and less cutesy. I freely admit that some people take things differently from a woman's perspective, and that women bloggers may have to work harder to be taken seriously... but it would be helpful if they would take themselves more seriously first.

7 comments:

Don said...

I'm thinking she should change her online name to PunditCryBaby...

PunditMom said...

Sorry you don't like my blog name. It was chosen to represent the fact that so few mothers are taken seriously in the world of op-ed writing, which I have done. If your read my blog with any regularity, you can see I write about political issues important to mothers. But I guess that wouldn't make unsubstantiated mockery.

Oh, and next time the NY Times treats men the way they treat women in their writing, I'll be there standing up for you.

PunditMom said...

And I guess "Makes My Brain Itch" is better than PunditMom?

ScratcherMMBI said...

@ PunditMom - I don't have a problem with your name. But I find it silly that you would label yourself "Mom", and then complain about being pigeonholed as a "mommy blogger".

"Makes My Brain Itch" isn't any better or worse than any other blog name. I know what it means to me, and anyone who'd like to be snarky about it can knock themselves out. I guess I'm not overly sensitive about it...

"Unsubstantiated mockery"? Really? Perhaps you're just too thin skinned about it all.

"Oh, and next time the NY Times treats men the way they treat women in their writing, I'll be there standing up for you."

Better yet... If you catch me overreacting to something silly, and being overly sensitive to someone else's sense of humor, feel free to tell me the same thing I'm about to tell you:

Lighten up.

Thats Right said...

"Feminists"...nature's easiest punchline.

Nice try MommyPundit. Get over yourself.

Panela Na Janela said...

Lovely post thanks for posting.

Panela Na Janela said...

Thank you foor being you