A Feministe reader asks how she can blog about her personal life without “selling out” her friends and family. As long as I’ve been doing this thing, and as many fights I’ve had about it with friends and family, here’s the gist:
1) Don’t record anything too personal for posterity’s sake. I won’t write about a fight I had with Chef or my parents, for example. And 2) Don’t tell other people’s stories for them. This is an issue of perspective, obviously, because my interpretation of truth is going to be different than others’. I had fights with friends in the past because they asserted that my version wasn’t how things really happened, or they felt I left out information to make myself appear a certain way.
Students, if you blog and you have an opportunity to take a class on autobiography as literature, I suggest you do. The greatest literary autobiographies are political (think Malcolm X and captivity narratives, for example), and autobiography is largely an American genre. It’s really helpful to lend some perspective to what we do when we blend personal and political for a larger narrative.
My third rule is a little more squidgy because it kind of negates points 1 and 2. 3) Don’t record anything too personal and don’t tell other people’s stories for them unless it directly contributes to that larger narrative in a way that is illustrative and constructive. And if you do, be careful and sensitive to the fact that you’re appropriating someone else’s life for your political point. That’s a dangerous thing if it isn’t done with honesty and care.
Great post Lauren. Timely as well, given some of the recent discussions about ideas and their ownership, both literal and ethical.
I agree with you about number three, and that always seems to be the tension doesn’t it? Finding that balance that hits the mark we can see for both ourselves and our writing.