BlogHer '14: This is not That

Pheeeew, I am so glad to say that today at BlogHer was so much better than I expected after the disappointment of last night.

It's doing me good to be adrift in a sea of corporate shills. Very clarifying, to say the least.

Shill is perhaps a strong word. Shill is a strong word. I've met some lovely, funny people, and some kindred spirits perhaps, but mostly I've been stunned by the industry of this -- the way that this construct has created a conduit for money from big companies to flow to bloggers in the form of ad revenue, sponsored posts and affiliate marketing. It's great that there's a path, I suppose, for women to get paid for writing about their experience.

But I'm super uncomfortable about where the money's coming from.

And, if I'm honest, about the quality of some of the writing.

But this is not a writers conference or a writers retreat or any of that. As I remind myself all the time,

Blogging is not the same as Writing, and vice versa.

At their best, the two collide, are one, but generally it ain't that.

I really do think there's so much room to broaden the dialogue here -- fortunately found myself seated with other mid-life writers and bloggers at breakfast, which was soothing considering the predominance of the Mommy-talk -- so much room to take on greener practices and greener sponsorship, to be a little more careful that the expo isn't so heavy on chemical-laden cleaning products, for example, with one tiny booth devoted to breast cancer (hello? have you even heard of environmental causation?). 

BlogHer could be more modern, for sure, more reflective of some of the women I gravitated toward this weekend, without intending to -- women who grow food, who have grown kids, who have careers outside the home. It could be more self-reliant, too -- in the break-out sessions I attended, the women panelists stood by helplessly waiting for male techs to come make the presentations work. Oh dear.

It's fine, for what it is. But I keep flashing back, naturally to MisfitCon in Fargo, to how handcrafted it was, to how every single detail down to the most (seemingly) trivial was considered from the vantage point of values and the artistic quality of the total experience.

This is not that. BlogHer is not Misfit. Not by a long shot.

But still, Pollyanna says, I'm learning. I know I don't want to take that kind of advertisement. I know I don't want to do some of the affiliate marketing I've seen here. I know I want to keep thinking critically and writing well about issues that matter to me. About going my own way. About living a big life.

And I know there are others who want to read that, who don't just want to read a post (sponsored by Vitamix) about a smoothie (using Silk Almond Milk) I made for my kids after school. If you want to write that, if you want to read that, that's great. 

But this is not that.

For all my culture-schock, this is GOOD for me,as I knew it would be, ever since I decided that every experience, no matter how wretched, was for the best, was at least material for something, a story, a post. SURE, no doubt: I'd rather be in Fargo -- what else is new -- but this will do.

xo