Scab Labor?

In recent months, I have become more and more interested in the mom blogger phenomenon, both on a personal and intellectual level. I have started following conversations concerning the validity of the creative work and compensation regarding these women on the internet, and while most of the articles I have come across are well-balanced and supportive, the ones that aren’t are more than offensive. They are downright shocking—like this one. Or this one—which, while written in a more respectful voice, still knocks amateurs. I ran across it when I read some responses linked from ShePosts.

Let me get this straight: I am writing my blog for fun. I don’t plan to make money from it. I am not searching for a book deal, advertisers, or free trips for reviewing products (barring Shakespeare Pizza, of course—I love their pizza, and everyone has a price).

I would also love a vacation, but hey, my idea of a vacation does not usually include a all-inclusive resort, so I am not going to get much from reviewing a hotel or an airline (I hate flying) or a cruise (I get sea-sick). I would also have significant problems accepting anything like this from an advertiser, because I am a cynical, glass-half-empty kind of girl. What’s the catch?

I just like to write, in the way that I write. I always seem to have an opinion, and while it is not the only way I keep in touch with those who are geographically removed from me (not to mention that I’m certain I don’t know some of my readers), it’s nice to see comments from friends I have not seen in person for some time. I don’t try to pass myself off as a professional blogger or an accomplished writer.

That, right there, is about it. I have a professional life in another arena, I am the breadwinner in our household from the work I do there, and while I respect and admire those ladies who are putting their creative work out there in the blogosphere in order to financially support their family and lifestyle, that is not my primary concern. I am meeting that aspect of my life in another way. This—my blog—meets other needs in my life, and I think that this is about all it’s ever going to do.

I also don’t really concern myself about how many comments I receive, or how many people follow me on the Twitter, and I don’t have a Facebook fan page. I also don’t get spam, and that, my friends, makes me pretty darn happy.

So, oftentimes, when I run across something like this, I just ignore it, because it just doesn’t pertain to me. I have no jealousy of the A-listers, or B-listers, or anyone else.

The connotation in the conversation made my emotions well up this time around. I don’t like the connotation that amateurs are ruining it for everyone else. I don’t like the implication that those of us who are willing to blog for free are ruining the compensation rate for others—or that somehow, by my having a handful of readers, I am cornering a (very small) part of the market—as if blog readers are a limited resource, and if you read my blog you won’t read others.

Are you trying to say I am some type of scab labor willing to cross the picket line of professional bloggers who are trying to eke out an existence, just for the fact that I felt like keeping something akin to a diary online? Is it because I have no intention of making money? Why, I think that there reeks of something like a double standard, doesn’t it? Don’t you get the same type of nasty innuendo from a handful of ‘professional’ writers already? Are you just passing along the putdowns to me—so that I don’t feel left out?

I don’t think that the lady who voluntarily plays the piano at church (amateur) receives negative feedback from the person who plays piano at the symphony (professional). I don’t think that the plumber gives your uncle crap when he comes and fixes your frozen pipes and helps you out when money is tight. I don’t think that the poet laureate knocks the person who wants to read their poetry at the local bookstore for the first time, no matter how amateur their work. I think that, for the most part, they accept that this stuff happens, and perhaps, in some cases, they support the work of those underneath them.

To me—my own little opinion in my own little neck of the internet woods—I think that anyone who wants to put in the time to place their voice online has the right. We do have the freedom of speech, correct? It doesn’t matter to me how much time you put into your project, or if you want to create a place for you and your friends, or people who are similar to you, or to try to get some publisher’s attention, or to get free products. You have a right to be here like everyone else. I may not like you and your opinion, but I am not going to tell you that you don’t have the right to be here, or that you are taking something away from me, because you’re not!

In turn, I am not ruining it for you.

Now, if you will excuse me, Super-Sophie is downright begging me to go and play ball with her, and that’s the next entertaining activity I in which I would like to participate. And* I’m not going to tell you what kind of ball I bought her, either.

*Yes- I know that I am an amateur because I don’t always use proper grammar—I started a sentence with the word ‘AND’. I also enjoy run-on sentences. And ending sentences with participles. There- I did it again. I make no assertions that I am a “quality-blogger.”