Honestly, there’s bigger fish to fry...

In class, we discussed the fine line of oversharing and not sharing enough in books written by women authors. The books that we’ve read are all by women comedians, all of whom are successful in their own rights. As I tried to come up with a blog topic, my mind drifted to my plans after college. I want to be elected into a political office, which means I have to be very careful about what I say and do in person and online. I’m not exactly a “Nancy Pelosi” or “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez” figure as a college student who’s going through bagel withdrawal (cutting out gluten is a nightmare, by the way),  so most, if not everything, I say is inconsequential (unless I do something-or rather somethings-really stupid. See Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, and Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel.)

You might be wondering how any of this connects with our readings. Think about Hess’ article for a second: her main argument was that women authors hide who they are from the public. She isn’t explicitly stating that this is for their own safety, but there’s an implication that these authors are trying to keep some control over what information is shared with the public. If that’s true, then something like “painting your face black without thinking about how you’re perpetrating cultural stereotypes at the expense of other racial groups” is something they would want hidden. Of course, I don’t think any of the authors we have studied so far would do anything like that, but there are other life events that aren’t for public consumption. 

Let’s take Amy Poehler as an example: she mentions in her book Yes Please that had a “depressing run-in with a grabby producer”, according to Hess. However, she never says the name of the producer-why? She names the nanny, and that was after describing an embarrassing situation even I wouldn’t admit to (I stand by my statement that I have never texted the wrong person. I am too paranoid for that.), so what exactly is the issue here? Is she afraid that naming the producer will cause her to have legal troubles? If the name is kept anonymous, does it save the producer’s and her own reputation? Why does she have to admit this happened to her, but not have the ability in sharing the name of the man who made her feel uncomfortable?

And why is this okay for the public to know about? Are we really that nosy that little tidbits like this are required for a book to fly off the shelves?

Perhaps the point of writing out this sequence of events was for Poehler to illustrate an important point: it doesn’t matter who made you feel uncomfortable. It matters how you deal with it. Or maybe it really is about making more money. For some reason, though, I don’t care about the motives behind it. As long as no one is digging into her personal life without her permission, then my only role is to make people see the real issues presented by other characters in women authors’ books: sexual misconduct, misogyny, and micro-aggressions.