Sick of SFF Sexism, or Why I've Given Up On Tor

[hapaxnym]

So Tor.com got themselves a new blogger, one Jacob Clifton, who is ostensibly blogging about geek culture. Unfortunately, in each of his columns, he has managed to offend several female readers. Whenever they pointed out the implicit sexism of his posts, he would respond vigorously with classic silencing techniques:

You don’t know how to read!

• Why

Comments

[girasole]

The only blogger I read on TOR is Keith, so I don't know this guy. I passed along a link to this post to him, as I hope he can shed some light.
ps You sound perfectly reasonable to me.

[kradical]

I'm afraid I can't shed much of anything. I don't know Jacob Clifton and I haven't read any of his posts that I'm aware of. My only experience with nastiness in a thread was one douchenozzle who kept making personal attacks on people who disagreed with him.

So I can't help much, except to say that if your boycott is only of Tor, unless you're also boycotting Forge, St. Martins, and every other Macmillan imprint, it's arbitrary, as the web site and the publisher are separate (though obviously related) parts of a very large company.

[hapaxnym]

Thanks krad. But I'm not "boycotting" Tor; that would imply a more systematic and principled stand (and zero chance of effectiveness). I'm just "avoiding" Tor for right now. (I would never not buy their books for my library, for example, although since I'm not reading their reviews anymore, I'll probably have less new-to-me authors brought to my attention.)

I know that the company and the website aren't the same, but they do use it to establish a brand, and right now the brand is feeling kind of poisonous to me. I was processing a paperback cart this afternoon and I literally felt sick looking at those spines. I hope that wears off soon, honestly; I don't like collateral damage.

If I *were*boycotting a publisher, I'd probably add MacMillan to the list, since the CEO is a clueless jackass. But if that's my criteria, I'd probably have to give up buying books entirely!

[hapaxnym]

Yeah, I'll miss Keith's Star Trek posts, and the Buffy posts. And the monthly new releases round-ups.

But I think I've got to start vetting the sites I visit more carefully.

[ext_1440684]

Absolutely nothing to do with the current post. I was just looking back at one of Ana Mardoll's old Narnia posts for completely unrelated reasons and I ran across you doing the symbolism of marmalade and this feeling of, "I miss hapax washed over me." So I thought I'd stop by and say hi. So, Hi

[hapaxnym]

Hiya, Chris!

I should absolutely put "Stealing Commas" back on my blog feed -- I lost everything in the last computer meltdown, and I'm constantly discovering things (and people) that I miss.

In all fairness, I think the whole Internet (including me, alas) is becoming a more angry and unhappy place of late. Maybe it's the economy; maybe it's politics. Maybe the whole shiny newness is wearing off, and we're looking at each other and suddenly noticing that "The Internet is MADE OF PEOPLE!!!" /Charlton Heston

[redrose3125]

The only reason I read Clifton's posts is to see what an ass he's being this time.

[hapaxnym]

Yeah, I did that for a while.

But I've begun to realize that *I* am beginning to turn into one of those Cranky People On The Internet.

So my mental health project for the next few months is to try and focus on nice things. Beauty, kindness, class... competence.

I *love* competence. I think observing people doing something -- ANYthing -- well, with craft and style and dedication, is one of the sexiest things in the world.

[redrose3125]

That makes sense.

I will keep an eye on myself for signs of crankiness.