As we reported earlier this week, Heather Armstrong traveled to Bangladesh on a media trip to bring awareness to Every Mother Counts, a charity dedicated to child and maternal health. Shortly after her first post about the trip, UK news outlet The Guardian posted a critical article about the trip, with the provocative title Blogging from Bangladesh – more poverty tourism? In the article, the author suggests that such trips are lacking in sustainable solutions, and takes jabs at blogger/charity partnerships as being merely vehicles for high-profile bloggers to go slum-touring in third world conditions:
“Where blogger engagement projects often fall down is in closing the deal: having aroused the empathy of an engaged audience, they fail to provide something potent for people to do next. If you’ve just read a post about children working 14 hours a day scavenging material from towering heaps of putrefied waste, you probably want to do something more effective than signing a petition or sending an email to your elected representative; but frequently, this is all that’s on offer. Engagement, information and a powerful completion strategy allow westerners to stand behind those in absolute poverty: not to attempt to save them, but to recognize our outrageous luck and try to change global systems for the better. Deciding what this completion strategy should be is the hard part. But without an answer, blogging trips risk being little more than groovy PowerPoint slides in the campaign department’s next quarterly report.”
In describing such trips, author Rowan Davies raised eyebrows with this condescending description of media trip preparations: “Bloggers are firmly discouraged from poking paupers with sticks and asking people to wave their stumps for the cameras.”
The criticism of Armstrong’s trip struck a nerve with many bloggers who responded to The Guardian piece with frustration. As Liz from Mom-101 pointed out in a post entitled Here’s an idea! Let’s attack bloggers who do good things:
“This is a line of thinking that keeps westerners in our own little bubbles, afraid to step out and do more– for fear that we’re doing it wrong. For fear that someone with more poverty cred and more commitment to The Cause will take us to task for it.”
Similarly, Suebob from Red Stapler responded:
[Heather] didn’t write with the attitude of “OMG I saw amazing things in Bangladesh and now I’m going to fix everything.” She was very open about her feelings of helplessness and that she didn’t know what to do to help the people she met, but that she felt compelled to tell their stories.
The singling out of Armstrong’s trip is surprising, as many celebrities and bloggers have visited struggling countries in the past with the mission of bringing awareness and attention to charitable needs. There are valid questions in looking at whether or not simply “raising awareness” is an effective use of resources. No doubt there are examples of people taking trips with the sole mission of being photographed with impoverished people for good publicity. On a personal note, I observed this in Haiti during the aftermath of the earthquake, where I witnessed both bloggers and pastors flying into the tragedy site with little motivation or plan of action beyond collecting some compelling stories and photos to use on their blog or in a sermon. That felt like tragedy tourism. However, it bears noting that Heather visited with a reputable charity that has many important end goals and models for lasting change, on a trip that she paid for herself. It is likely that Heather’s audience will give Every Mother Counts a significant boost in the work that they do, and Heather wisely partnered with an organization that has a clear model of sustainability beyond handing out soccer balls and taking photos. In addition, it is clear that the people of Bangladesh are desperate for their stories to be told and appreciative of her presences there.
But even if Armstrong’s trip had not been self-expensed, would it be worthy of criticism? Charitable organizations have to market their work as much as any organization, and celebrity spokespersons are not a new concept. As more and more companies are turning to bloggers as brand ambassadors, it is no surprise that some NGO’s are partnering in this way as way. Compassion, World Vision, and the ONE campaign have all used blogger trips to bring attention (and a boost in fundraising) to the work they do. Shaun Groves talks about the return investment on taking blogging teams to countries where Compassion works:
“I have been cautious from the beginning about these blog trips devolving into poverty porn – a titillating high for readers that results in no real change for them or the developing world. . . Compassion has been awarded again for again for its financial integrity. Maintaining that integrity necessitates that every dollar spent be scrutinized, every return on investment measured in terms of benefit to the children Compassion serves. The blog trips I oversee are no different. They are among Compassion International’s most efficient marketing endeavors – if not the most efficient at times. Thousands of children have been sponsored because of the very clear call to action given by the bloggers we’ve partnered with in the past.”
In addition to the questions raised by The Guardian article, Armstrong was also subjected to a number of critical posts on Twitter, most notably from Anna Viele:
Viele raised ire from both Armstrong and a slew of other bloggers for her mocking tweets. No doubt buoyed by both a personal frustration with this blogger’s history of criticizing others. coupled by her passion for what she just saw in Bangladesh, Heather was not taking the jabs lying down. A twitter storm erupted, with Armstrong responding strongly to Viele’s posts:
Many bloggers came to Armstrong’s defense, while others suggested that she stand down and “stop feeding the trolls”. The twitter fight drove so much traffic to Viele’s site that her server crashed, and some felt that this was exactly what she was seeking in her scathing tweets about Armstrong. Some feel that Viele has built a brand around provoking other bloggers, having taken swipes at everything from MamaPop to the Mighty Summit in the past year. Jessica Gottlieb elaborates, “I’ve tried with all my might to like Anna. I’ve tried to forgive her for undermining every decent campaign hard working bloggers have snagged. I’ve turned a blind eye when she piled grief on bloggers who were protecting their children. I feel badly for that. Anna is clearly angry, likely quite envious (I’m envious of Heather) and frankly she’s bad for business. I’m tongue tied because being on Anna’s bad side is exhausting, but she’s put Heather’s picture on the center of her Media Kit so maybe this is all just part of a plan to somehow garner page views.”
A number of tweets called Armstrong’s public reactions to Viele unprofessional. This prompted commentary on the effort to silence those in social media from defending themselves against slander. Tracey Gaughran-Perez of Sweetney noted:
“it so often seems that remaining silent is the only means we have as individuals to protect (or defend) ourselves anymore. Stating the obvious here, but there’s a terrible and rotten irony in that — that we’re writers who’re slowly being trained and groomed to be gutless and stay silent when we should most stand up and say something, for fear of making ourselves targets.”
Blogger Schmutzie made the following observations about the potential consequences of not responding to personal attacks online:
We falsely cast experiences of anything that happens on the internet as inferior to experiences of anything that happen off the internet, even though actions in both places bear demonstrable effects upon actual human beings . . .
Remaining silent about those who bullied me offline, whether it was in elementary school or in a work environment, never stopped the bullying and, in fact, lead to a continuance of that abuse over years of my life.
Trolls, who by any other name would be bullies, can be a serious matter, and if we discourage silence about offline bullies, it does not make much sense to then encourage silence when it comes to online trolls.
Even Armstrong’s husband weighed in on her decision to defend herself:
“What if you are tired of seeing your colleagues equally lied about, made fun of and belittled? What then? I’m increasingly of the mind that one of the beauties of Twitter is that it allows people to stand up for themselves in a public way, regardless of follower count. . . .
I love that Heather called out those who were trolling her charity work. It’s one thing to have a cogent, well-argued difference of opinion. The second clothing choice, hair cut/color, income level, choice in friends or other superficial note creeps in, it’s no longer a critique, it’s being mean. And mean people need to be told they are being mean.”
Heather responded on twitter as well, pointing out that professionalism was not exactly her brand.
Advocacy, however, does seem to be an emerging part of her brand, and many in the blogging community are inspired and proud that Armstrong is using her significant influence to bring attention to important global concerns. As she said on her blog today, “The truth is that I paid my own expenses. The truth is that this is just the beginning for me, and I plan to get more involved wherever I can, wherever it is the best place for me to get involved. If a reputable organization wants to use me, I am here for the using.”
Stay tuned next week as we feature an exclusive interview between Heather Armstrong and our own Kim Tracy Prince, where Armstrong will share her thoughts on the twitter drama, and, more importantly, her plans for continued advocacy for maternal health.
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Nicely written post Kristen. I met Anna during auditions for Project MomCasting at Blogher ’10. I imagine this controversy would be (is?) appealing to reality tv show producers.
Heija
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I really and truly think some people are so jealous of Dooce and similar high profile bloggers they can’t see straight and will criticize them about anything. Even though I know I’ll never have that kind of high profile, the work of those kinds of pioneers is making it possible for me to earn money using my journalism skills in new media and for that I’m extremely grateful.
I’ve been moving and then on vacation for the past couple weeks, so I didn’t know about this. I agree that merely “raising awareness” is sort of a cliched way to not improve much of anything. But if there are goals in place for trips like the one taken (and action items for those who read about it), then it’s certainly beneficial and worthwhile. Ultimately, however, it’s no one’s damned business how we spend our vacations or travel budgets.
As an aside, a friend of mine from high school started this project, and I don’t think it was a waste of time or effort at all: http://voicesofhaiti.com/
Great post, Kristen…I appreciate seeing the most important points and responses all in one place here
Nobody but me sees the inherent racism in sending privileged white mommybloggers out on these campaigns ? REALLY? Because it is all I can see. There are dozens of poc blogging about these problems who are FAR more qualified to manage a campaign of this sort. They are NEVER considered? nope. Never. Not once.
The deal with Dooce and Blurb ALWAYS calling out ANY critique as trolling is really ridiculous. The IDEA of labeling Anna Viehl a troll or click manipulator is equally ridiculous.
This IS poverty tourism. Nothing gets accopmplished except publicity for the bloggers. The posts on returns are so treacly and ignorantly racist that they make me tremble in embarrassment for the writers. Honestly. I’m not singling Dooce out here, her writing skiulls at least are better than most. However, ignoring the issues critiqued by the Guardian and others solves nothing. The issues they bring up are valid. But it all devolves down to the good ol mommyblogger twitter snit.
Honestly, Dooce is from Utah, does she even SEE a person ogf color in her usual day ? How can anyone be credible when thier lives are so exclusively privledghed? Thinking that we, as American white women, CAN be credible in any effective manner is racist itself.
Dooce is not the problem. Anna is NOT the problem. The people thinking up these campaigns and ignoring any other candidates who ARE people of color becos they have less than a kabillion page views is the problem.
Bloggers of color are NEVER considered? Perhaps you should click on the link for the ONE campaign trip.
Also, it’s dismissive to suggest that Heather cannot be compassionate or inspire action in her readers just because she is white and/or lives in Utah.
I said nothing about Heathers compassion , which I believe to be sincere. I ‘m discussing CREDIBILITY issues with ALL these campaigns. Her Bad Mother, McMama’s etc. Living in Utah hardly immerses one in the social problems and poverty in third world countries. Sending affluent WHITE mommybloggers off on these trips smacks of the racism and cultural ignorance of missionaries “saving” savages in the 1800′s. There is no denying that, even if you have found ONE campaign featuring a WOC.
I think there is enough need out there for bloggers of every color to get involved in social justice issues . . . I don’t think it needs to be an either/or.
Clearly it was a mistake to subscribe to follow up comments, because I can’t stand not responding!
Send in the white women! Both of them!
I am puzzled as to how sending a person of any race to experience the country, culture and challenges of another person can be considered racism? What if an organization in Bangladesh wanted to document my American life? Are you suggesting that for the report to be accurate and compelling, my story would have to be told by a person of a particular color? Isn’t that ludicrous? In fact, isn’t it smart to send a mom with a nearly opposite experience and excellent storytelling skills to relay the realities and struggles faced by other moms in order to motivate us to support and empower the work of those in the best and proven positions to improve the maternal health of mothers around the world?
Perhaps your greater frustration is that Blog Stars seem to get the all the interesting gigs. But I don’t understand why that is surprising. It is illogical for a lesser known blogger with a developing audience to feel rejected when companies OR non-profits choose to work with a known quantity. Go ahead and feel motivated, or envious, but don’t feel passed over and angry. I doubt many health and beauty bloggers burned with feelings of rejection when the Kardashians got the Quick Trim and Fusion Beauty endorsement gigs.
@Dooce has worked for a decade to build a loyal audience. Her readers appreciate her perspective and clearly like the way she conveys information. It makes as much sense for Heather to facilitate and document her own immersion and education about this specific issue, as it does for Christy Turlington to have turned a Documentary camera lens upon it. Have you seen “No Woman, No Cry?”
As for Anna’s response, I can be generous and consider it possible that she merely Tweeted her off-the-cuff response and then plowed ahead out of stubborn pride and attention whore delight at the considerable response. (I say that with love because I am no less an exhibitionist) I hope it was not an intentional effort to borrow more eyeballs as footage of her is reportedly included in the pitch reel for a potential Mom Blogger reality show. I think she would experience an incredible and richly deserved increase in fans if she does as she suggests and gives birth in Bangladesh to help draw even more attention to maternal health issues. Talk about measurable results…or rather deliverables!
While I disagree that there is inherent racism in people of one color learning about people of another color. I do believe there is inherent hypocrisy in criticizing another person’s charitable contributions unless our own efforts can survive the same critique.
I applaud both Heather and Anna for having strong voices and the balls to use them at top volume, keep it up! Maybe 14 weeks from now we’ll all be obsessed with a new Twitter drama; @Dooce Delivers @ADBPBT’s Baby in @Bangladesh! That. Would be. The Hollywood. Ending.
If you take issue with Heather’s level of privilege then you must have similar disdain for celebrities endorsing causes (including this one). While there is a valid concern there, if you step back and look at the overall picture having no endorsements or involvement from people who are in the spotlight would simply mean less eyes on causes around the world. While the idea of bloggers or celebrities endorsing causes can be problematic (as pointed out above) in most cases it does more good than bad.
I think the point of sending bloggers with significant readerships on trips such as the ones Heather Armstrong and Catherine Connors went on is that they both have a venue that reaches a lot of people that perhaps the 5am TV airing of “Save the Children” does not.
Additionally, these blogs remain in place and continue to draw traffic to their posts on the issues at hand, to be read for as long as that blog exists and perhaps even beyond.
I’m making an educated guess that there is a decent return on any investment made in sending prominent bloggers on these kinds of trips and even more so when one covers the expenses of their own trip.
Additionally, one doesn’t really know for sure what kind of impact Heather’s trip will have on helping Every Mother Counts. Without specific metrics, it’s merely an assumption that there is no benefit to these NGO’s and their missions from working with bloggers.
I see the point you are trying to make about racism but the fact that bloggers of many colors (re: ONE) are being asked to help in these kinds of campaigns illustrates otherwise.
wow the things people have time to scrutinize when they themselves aren’t doing anything to raise awareness.
the only thing I can say to the nay-sayers is great job! you helped heather get the word out about her charity; you have set yourself up for a big stink on your end because us bloggers stick together especially when they are doing something amazing, and are being attacke for it. we do care what’s happenng in other ountries & f you
would have done your homework you would see that-but it’s always easier to single one person out then a whole group!
keep on keepin’ on Heather forget about the trolls & remember who you are and what your doing will make a great impact on their lives and that has to feel more rewarding than winning a twitter tat with some lady who is jealous & doesn’t have a charity she loves & supports on her media page:)
i am going to be making a donation and hope others will do the same because just as other charities we have supported, this one needs us more now than ever and what better way than to show heather & Bangladesh hat we suppport them than to donate!
This is a sad example of what passes for reportage lately.
Why the extensive quotes and such from everyone but Anna? Did you even bother to talk to her?
Here’s a bit you missed, “Some bloggers agree with Viele that these trips and similar deals deserve questioning but they are afraid to speak out because they fear being attacked for doing so.”
Are we to believe that because a few mommybloggers share a dislike for a person who is willing to ask awkward questions, that person IS a troll?
How do you let Heather’s egregious behavior and that of her followers go unnoted?
I heard a new term: solidarity bully It’s apparently sort of like a concern troll, but with more followers to do their bidding. You know, like calling in favors from people who threaten to rain hell down on Anna on Heather’s behalf.
Why don’t you cover the whole story instead of just your friend’s side? I’ll be waiting for your interview with Anna following on your interview with Heather so that you get both sides of the story.
The only quote I secured for this article was from Shaun Groves in regards to his work with blogger trips – any other quotes were derived from blogs written in reaction to the controversy and reflect the opinions of those bloggers. Had Anna written about it, I would have quoted her as well. As such, I posted what I thought were the most relevant of her tweets. If it comes off as making her look bad, well, those are her own words. Were there some tweets of hers that were less mocking/condescending and more constructive/thoughtful/productive that I missed?
Incidentally, the interview with Heather was scheduled prior to the twitter firestorm, and it was scheduled because she is doing something of note. We typically don’t schedule interviews on the basis of someone starting a twitter war. Hence, we won’t be scheduling one with Anna at this time.
Anna made comments without linking to Heather, which means Heather had to go looking for Anna’s tweets. How does that make it Anna that started a twitter war?
Your bias is clear, I just wish you’d be honest about it. This is you, right?
“Catching up on @dooce @abdpbt feud. Blogger who uses her influence for social justice vs. one who mocks her for it. Not hard to pick a side”
http://twitter.com/#!/kristenhowerton/status/86269986452160512
My bias: I like people who ask questions, dislike people who can’t take even a little critique.
Again, what tweets are you referring to, where Anna is asking a question without mocking?
I like people who ask critical questions, too. Show me where I’m missing them.
I didn’t say she didn’t mock, what is mocking s a highly personal opinion and we will probably never agree on that. Nor did I claim she was asking questions on twitter – she does that on her site – was just making my biases clear. What I said is that she neither linked to nor mentioned Heather in her initial tweets.
Heather, on the other hand, went off on Davies (Guardian) early in the morning and never left the warpath all day.
http://twitter.com/#!/dooce/status/86078834797051904
At the point that she decided to switch her wrath from Davies to Anna, she name-checked Anna as a troll repeatedly, made unverifiable claims about prior harassment (if asking questions on a blog is harassment, we had all better stop now), and generally loosed hell on her. Her fans went off on Anna is a round of solidarity bullying that was rather horrendous.
So how Heather is the victim here is mind-boggling.
Also, no comment on your being on Heather’s team and purporting to write as if unbiased? Interesting.
If the only comment secured specifically for this article was from Shaun Groves, where was the comment from Jessica Gottlieb posted?
I think the appeal and conundrum of the blogging phenom is that it is biased by nature. So, one person’s “…sad example of what passes for reportage” may be another person’s idea of a well written *blog* post. The further beauty of blogs, Twitter, Facebook and the immediacy of online interactions is that anyone, that’s right, anyone, is free to take the keyboard into their hands and contribute to the conversation in large or small ways.
Something to celebrate.
good work, kristen.
How come when anyone (blogger, writer, etc) criticizes Dooce, she and Jon and her followers rant and rave and claim jealousy or trolls? Some of us just do not like Dooce or her tactics – is that so hard to believe?? Why is she the one blogger who is constantly at war with others?? Horrible reporting on this one Kristin.
I missed this sh^%storm while it was happening but am happy to be caught up. It’s utterly ridiculous. I’ve been enjoying @dooce’s series and look forward to reading more.
You just got schooled, Kristen.
I think the congratulations for good “reporting” should go to the commenter Not like Normal People.
You should be ashamed about the way you chose to go about covering this. I learned about what was going on by popping on to Dooce to read while I had my tea. A few hours of digging later and it’s obvious to me that HEATHER is in the wrong. I’m so sad that my initial impression of her was wrong and the fact that she’s trying to cause harm under the guise of standing up for herself is unforgivable.
The women of Bangladesh can rest easy now that Dooce finally, at long last, stood up to a critic. Phew.
I mean honestly, if she wanted to prove Anna’s point about the inherent egotism of poverty tourism, she could not have chosen a better way of doing so. She could have ignored Anna’s tweets or basically said “yeah, so?” in regard to the criticism of Yahoo sponsored ads but instead she escalated and made the entire discussion about her…not Bangladesh….not No Woman No Cry. Talk about first world problems.
However snarky or disrespectful Anna’s tweets may have been in tone they don’t come close to the total disrespect Dooce demonstrated for her cause….which she sanctimoniously insists everyone else care about while simultaneously doing the exact opposite in trading barbs with Anna. It was deeply unprofessional and in no way promoted her cause in a positive way. Hey but it did give “No Woman No Cry” a new ironic meaning, so there’s that.
I work for an NGO (unrelated to my blog, one that isn’t large enough to pay for bloggers to go on trips) and so I can see both sides of this story.
One, yes, it makes me cringe when I read the posts from affluent suburban women going on these tours. The paternalism and Western worldview that they aren’t even aware of comes through loud and clear. I have no idea what type of orientation they receive, but I hope it includes some sort of community development 101 and culture of poverty training. When we send short term volunteers to the field, we give them three days of intense orientation.
On the other hand, advocacy IS an important part of what relief and development organizations do. To dismiss calls to write to officials is offensive to the organizations that work tirelessly to bring awareness to the general public and yes, to our public officials who are responsible for channeling foreign aid dollars and making policies which directly affect the quality of life of people in other countries.
I’m not sure what the answer is. I am going to be visiting Uganda for work and will be blogging about it (I have nowhere near the audience of Dooce, but I hope I will make a small difference). One of the biggest challenges has been how do I distill in-depth knowledge of how to fight the cycle of poverty and what we can do about it into small blog posts. I want to avoid poverty porn. The answer is much deeper than “sponsor this child,” but for audiences with little attention span and not much knowledge to build on, how does one communicate the nuances?
As for the commenter who spoke about race, I would take the challenge one step further and say where are the voices of people from these developing countries? Are there no indigenous bloggers who could perhaps do guest posts on these popular blogs or be used by organizations to provide a more authentic voice? One organization that did it well is Vestergaard Frandsen and their Women Deliver competition. http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/women-bloggers-deliver/ I love that a Nigerian and someone from the USA won the trip to Kenya.
To me, Anna is like the Omarosa of the mommysphere. She is intelligent, often has a point, but never gets anywhere with it because a)her communication skills rely on aggression and fall back on personal attacks and b) she is clearly drumming up traffic, which is obvious to anyone who matters in this business.
Emme
Did Heather make a difference? Yes, any one who is bringing the reality of emerging countries to the forefront makes a difference.
Instead of wasting time on twitter, donate. Use those 142 characters to DO something and then you will make a difference.
Free speech is what the 4th of July is about and so is the graciousness of the American public. Instead of complaining about ‘poverty porn’ change it. I don’t need to know about it, but the people on the other end of the poverty do need to know the rest of the world is aware.
It’s pretty ridiculous to claim you have no voice with over 1million twitter followers and an A-List blog. Heather’s is the only voice and sometimes she needs to STFU. During Maytag Gate, I really thought it was funny she was able to use Twitter to get such great results so quickly, due to her popularity. I’ve been a long-time fan of Dooce. We’ve emailed back and forth, I get her sense of humor, especially about her kids. I’ve never read anything she’s posted about any of her family members as coming from anywhere but a place of love.
However, Maytag is a huge company and Anna Viele is a small time blogger who blogs about blogging. Since Blurbodoocery isn’t always transparent about the business and dealings (which they are NOT required to be), she does do a lot of speculation about new deals and projects they embark upon, because 1. It’s interesting, 2. To smaller bloggers, it’s good business to try to model yours after the very best. Hello Six Sigma!
Maybe if either Armstrong spent more time in the real world business world (they were both creatives), they would understand this?
However, as a long time reader of Anna, I have never read her say a nasty word about Dooce. I’ve read her speculations and some conjecture, but it was never mean. Also, as a long time reader, I know Alphabits has a lot of respect for Heather and her ability to build her empire.
All of this “SHE’S BEEN BULLYING ME FOR YEARS!” crap is just crap that isn’t true.
Heather is a perfectionist that suffers from extreme anxiety and depression. I get it. We’re cut from the same cloth. I think her striving to be perfect in all forms makes her very thin skinned about her professional life and her knee jerk reaction is to come out swinging and flailing. Since she is so popular, nobody ever tells her she may be wrong. Not because she has such great friends, but everyone who claims to love her out there in blog land is trying to get a piece of her and praying her popularity will rub off on them. Since she surrounds herself with such fake friends, she thinks she’s right and completely vindicated in her actions.
The only times you can read where she has been sorry for her actions, are when she was not popular and got fired for blogging about her boss. She does, at one point, recognize that this was phenomenally stupid, short sighted and incredibly unprofessional. Though, as the years click on by, I think she also sees it as the best thing that ever happened to her and herself as above reproach for bad behavior. She’s made millions off of it.
I work for in the non-profit world and we are constantly under scrutiny as to where our funds are coming from, from whom, what exactly they are earmarked for and how they are being appropriated towards their marks. EVERY FUCKING WEEK I have to send out reports to our grantors, Foundations, and other organizations. It’s part of the life of a 501-3C. If Heather had any concept on how things work in the real world, maybe she wouldn’t act like a giant asshole on the internet.
It makes me sad. I loved Dooce. Now, I have a really bad taste in my mouth when it comes to Heather. I hope she calms down and lays off Anna.
Like you said, Anna has lots of “speculations and some conjecture”. I would clarify that much of it is not grounded in truth or reality. It’s destructive. When she gets called out on it, she claims it’s a personal attack.
It’s not just this Anna Viele episode, it’s taking the long view to see the path of destruction that is eating up what others are working hard to create.
Destructive? Really? Hyperbole, much? Do you really think Anna expressing her opinion on TWITTER, without even @dooce is going to destroy the Blurbodoocery empire, add to the pain and misery to the Bengali women, or ruin a “profession” that is so rampant with sycophants, double standards, hysteria, it is laughable to claim Mommyblogging as a profession at all?
Anna has never made a bad post about Dooce. Maybe if you went and read her archives, instead of deep-throating the handwringing of every idiot on the internet with a bad case of “PLEASEBEMYFRIENDHEATHER”, you would know this?
Anna isn’t a troll. Expressing an opinion contrary to what a popular blogger does is not trolling. I don’t care if she was snarky about it. I find it repugnant that the Armstrongs are using their influence to try and squash someone who doesn’t agree with them. I think Heather’s heart, and frankly anyone who travels to an area as intense and heart wrenching as Bangladesh, is in the right place. I DO, however, take issue with trips like this and poverty tourism, because there are a lot of “organizations” who use this as a business and not for genuine purposes.
The Guardian article did not accuse Heather of doing something wrong, they touched on an issue that has been around way before Heather got a typhoid shot and spent 30 hours on a plane. Since she was the latest pseudo-celeb to embark on such a journey, it was relevant to use her trip as an example, not as a critique. Anyone with half a brain cell could read that. However, the Dooce Death Before Dishonor Brigade goes haywire if anyone writes anything contrary to “DOOCE IS THE MOST AWESOMEST OF THE AWESEOME EVER!” It’s ridiculous and to the large majority of the world who don’t worship Dooce, it makes her look like a joke. There’s an expiration date on her popularity and these outbursts are going to speed that up, rather than give her longevity in the rest of the world.
Anna was snarking out over the e-rage that was being hurled at Rowan Davies. Not just from Dooce, but from the Dooce fangirls as well..Why? Because it was ridiculous and didn’t do jack squat to further the cause of Every Mother Counts. It was also hysterical. It’s funny to watch a bunch of pseudo-literate house fraus spread their vapors all over the internet.
Also, Sweetney, Her Bad Mother, Mom101 and every other hapry jumping on the TEAMHEATHER bandwagon is especially rich. I think it’s time for the Mommyblogosphere to take a teaspoon of get the f** over yourself and call the rest of the internet in the morning.
I find it sad that Heather and Jon, who seem to be pretty cool when they aren’t high on the smell of their own farts, are becoming a parody of their former selves. I think it would serve their brand better if they listened to some real talk coming from their critics, along with the praise coming from all of their fans.
Yes…yes and YEEEEES. You preach the truth!
I think this comment is better written than anything Heather’s cranked out in years. Heather and Jon are classic examples of people who lost touch with their core audience once they experienced ginormous success. You’re absolutely right, they’ve surrounded themselves with sycophantic bloggers who lack the stones to tell them they’re WRONG.
And the claims by Jon that Anna is just jealous of Dooce’s vast audience? Come on. That’s the best retaliation he could muster? Lame.
I agree wholeheartedly with No Longer A Dooce Fan. That is all.
A couple months ago, I watched Dooce unleash her 1 million Twitter followers on a woman with 200 followers who tweeted: “Someone should tell @dooce that her hair looks awful.”
3 hours of vicious fan tweets later, the poor woman was tripping all over herself to apologize–over one bad hair comment–and Anna was the only blogger with the balls to jump in with a tweet that sending 1.5 million out to attack a “bully” was even worse BULLYING.
I hope Heather calms down, too, but more than that, I hope she learns to handle criticism in better ways than unleashing the hounds.
Anna’s tweets were funny. If we don’t relearn the lost art of taking a joke and continue our love affair with the persecution complex the world is going to be a miserable place in another ten years. Oh, who am I kidding? It’s already miserable.
Great job Kristen. Even this controversy is gaining more attention to the women in Bangladesh…
So, I don’t care about this fight and ended up here through a RT of a RT. But here’s a different account of the fra fra at the Salt Lake Tribune, Dooce’s hometown newspaper: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsmoviecricket/52109427-66/armstrong-viele-mommy-trip.html.csp
Wow. What an excellent summary of this whole mess. I have been a fan of Ms. Armstrong’s for some time and was saddened to hear that her trip to Bangladesh was so maligned. I didn’t have time to read through the tweets and editorials, and have no interest in reading Ms. Viele’s rebukes. I take no position in the “Mommy Blog Wars,” but it seems to me that the people who are willing to put themselves in uncomfortable places that challenge their worldviews are far more credible than those who snipe from their comfort zones.
Thanks for the excellent summary!
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