Wednesday

chat me up

Hey there. Pop on over to the Mothering Magazine special event chat room at 1pm EST today. I'll be answering questions from readers about stuff like making a living freelancing (writing) and the politics of breastfeeding.

Same kind of stuff I talk about when I am invited to speak, but neither you nor I have to leave the comfort of our own desk chairs.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

it strikes me as very interesting
as to how someone can be considered an "expert" in our culture just by deciding to be one. my eyes were opened on this when I read a bio of a fiction author I rather like and she revealed as to having written a financial self help book. she was not an expert, oh no...she was assigned to write it by a publisher who had assigned said book to her husband who had too much work on his plate. she had also written many magazine articles. this was not stated..but she wasnt an expert..it was just her job as a writer to produce so off she went to research. I dont hold it against this woman because she wasnt coming off like some expert. but it really opened my eyes that these articles and books that a lot of people swallow like candy are written by people with no more inside track than I have. they are simply people who want to make a living using thier writing skills and have found an avenue with which to do so. yet in our culture people buy magazines, self help books, parenting books and on and on ad nauseum..expecting these people to know more than they do... meaning reader beware and put on the big filter. personally I think that self helf, parenting, marriage books are a humongous moneymaker that capitalizes on the generalized insecurity of the american

Anonymous said...

man, people are real good at putting words in other peoples mouths. I never said that I look down on people who are highly educated. I said its not all its cracked up to be and theres a lot of intellectual snobs out there. if you knew how much college education I have accumulated over the years.....and honestly I have learned more from life than from much of the "book learning". no I do not read "how to" guides very much because I think a lot of its a big money making racket. I gain knowledge by praying to my God. I am very very selective about the people whose ideas I let into my headspace. besides, if "attachment parenting" is about "knowing it all within yourself' anyway..isnt it rather a contradiction to need to refer to all these other people? anyone with decent writing skills can write a book and claim to be an "expert" of sorts. and many experts with impeccable credentials contradict each other, so someone's wrong. or they get more info later and retract it (the lastest example of that being the big vitamin E mea culpa going on...yet still..while surfing my TV this am I caught some health foodie claiming its all a big conspiracy and doctors dont want you to get well so they say bad stuff about natural remedies, so eat up on the vitamin E...really big eye roll going there...) mostly I read fiction. (probably you wouldnt approve...I'm a big fan of Stephen King, among others). I also never said I adored Jimmy Buffett..so what if I do like him...he's not on my top ten list but I really dislike people who look down on people whose tastes arent "arty" enough for them. and I have been around a lot of that type in multiple environments. it has nothing to do with peoples actual levels of intelligence and more about doing the big eye roll at people who are old enough to be past the whole image thing who clearly arent.
as far as the breastfeeding stuff...why do certain folks always assume that if someone doesnt buy the whole attachment parenting package they are "guilt ridden"???then theres the bit of assuming that someone is neglectful because they are not an attachment parenter. newflash to me: I know a lot of parents that are more neglectful than I realized because they are not attachment parenters. PUL EEZE.....
I repeat..if someone doesnt want to be critiqued they shouldnt make themselves and thier opinions public figures. you dont want online criticism..dont put up a public blog.

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous,
Did the God you pray to tell you to get on this blog and attack somebody? What kind of God is that?
Did the God you pray to give you knowledge of vitamins and breastfeeding? Wow, give me some of the drugs you're on...

Anonymous said...

so, uh, I guess disagreeing with someone is attacking them?