From “ad hominem! no fair!” to “you’re a bitch!” in exactly four words:
gee erica, angry feminist much? hater of white men much? that’s one of the lamest most ad hominem reviews i’ve ever read. you are a true bitch. and you truly need an editor.
cheers
philip
And the follow-up:
you are a clueless nasty, no talent editrix bitch and everyone knows what your middle initial stands for.
From a former colleague of mine, unemployed writer and mental-health blogger (!) Philip Dawdy (who helpfully included his Paypal button at the end of both emails). Read my review of Skip Berger’s book, Pugetopolis, here.
That’s one of the perks of working for the stranger, right Erica? People stalking you, harassing you and talking mad shit.
I thought the review was great, though I thought the “white man” thing was a little ridiculous.
I consider it my new volunteer job to give props to ECB’s every post because I don’t understand why so many Sloggers hate her so much. I heart you, Erica.
@2, it’s funny that people hate her when they don’t like what she’s saying. It’s weird, I don’t get that from everyone here.
Not to make it all about me or anything, but as the editor of that review, I resent Dawdy’s implication that the piece was unedited.
@3 Yeah, but it seems to often take much nastier, creepier turns than the comments on other writers’ posts that people just “don’t like.”
Weird. Well, no accounting for people with mental problems, eh?
Greg, I thought we agreed no negative comments …
Admit it, Erica, the reason you wrote a 1200-word book “review” was largely personal.
Erica’s the only one who gets “it’s because of your sex organs” when people don’t like her arguments. I don’t like her arguments most of the time, but there’s definitely something funny going on there. In Dawdy’s case, it may be mental illness. Most of you, though, it’s a little more obvious than that.
Always with the drama.
Heh. I thought your comment on Crosscut couldn’t have been more dead-on.
I think David Brewster should put it on his business cards.
Irony, thy name is Dawdy. And Fnarf is right, half the nasty attacks on Erica are specifically because she is female and a feminist, not because of the content of the post or article being thus attacked. I find that…disturbing. GTFU, fellas.
I heart Erica too. She is thoughtful, provocative opinionated, and fun to read.
What can I say? ECB just has a way of bringing out the best in people.
I’m a man, and I like ECB’s posts.
Well, the review WAS pretty annoying…condescendingly insisting that Seattle must have sucked before her era because it was, well, different than it was in her era. And that if a writer is a white male of an older age group than her age group, he must inherently have nothing of value to say. The 2nd part at least falls under the ad hominem category, doesn’t it?
That “review” certainly did have some ad hominem elements. It almost seems that ECB had an axe to grind with her former boss, and employed the review as a tool to that end.
Also, I think it’s funny that Erica doesn’t hesitate to make a dig at white men, but when an angry white man writes in, she’s all “*gasp* He called me a bitch!” What did you expect?
But hey, she got another chance to create a mini-controversy and link back to her review, so this post is good for her. She has the provocation thing down pat.
I’m a man, too, who LOVES ECB’s posts.
I agree here. I think Erica’s a lazy thinker and a hack writer (none of which has to do with her gender, fwiw), but the venom in the blog comments — personal stuff — goes WAAAY beyond the pale. Which is sad, because she then ignores valid criticisms that she really needs to hear.
I loved ECB’s review. I really can’t stand Knute Berger’s point of view because it perpetuates the “it was okay when I or my parents or my grandparents moved here, but you? Not okay.” Sure, I have a nostalgic list as long as my arm about all the things I miss about ‘old’ Seattle, but I can’t pine after every damn eatery and coffee cart all day. We have to work to save the things we love, plan well, and stay fully engaged, not throw up our hands and say “It will never work!”
Seattle was great before and it’s great now, Knute. Deal with it!
As a footnote: If anyone wants a little “old” Seattle, spend some time in the U-District. There are many things there that haven’t changed at all since 1990, including the dive bars. Enjoy!
i think phil’s off his meds.
I find a lot in ECB’s articles to get irritated about, but I still respect what she has to say most of the time. She’s as consistent as anyone at the Stranger in that regard. None of this changes the fact that Knute “Mossback” Berger is an idiot and a dinosaur.
Erica hates.
It’s all about Erica’s gender/organs/whatever in the comments because just about everything she writes turns into an epic tale of her oppression due to her gender/organs/whatever.
I usually find it hard to relate to ECB even on the things that I agree with her about because I get tired of her constant whining. That said, those comments were out of line.
BTW, if someone was going to go to the trouble to “edit” that review, they maybe should have, you know, taken some time to actually edit some of it — I’d like to see what was taken OUT.
Very middle school and inappropriate to post this email exchange as part of your flame war.
“Very middle school and inappropriate to post this email exchange as part of your flame war.”
Nice try, Philip/Trevor.
Perhaps you’re an unemployed writer and experiencing difficulty networking because you’re terribly unbalanced in the head.
I think Dawdy is either a loonie or has a big crush on ECB. Perhaps, both.
I’m a feminist leaning into post-feminist, but reading the anti-ECB comments is pretty much enough to push me back into “feminist.” We’ve got a long way to go if people think that kind of rampant misogyny is OK.
whether anyone likes it or not, you put a thumb tack on the map. that’s what you do. everything from there is measurement. everyone else can wipe their shoes on the welcome to slog mat all they want. don’t let your curlers fall out over it ; )
Real men love ECB.
I have no idea what ECB looks like. I’d like to evaluate whether there’s a lot of sexism toward her — but could I see a picture first?
Haven’t read the review yet and don’t need to in order to comment on this thread. It’s about this weird hate reaction on more or less anything Erica puts out there.
Maybe it’s leftover rage for her vocal support for Hillary and wariness of the Obama package. Maybe it is the consistent gender lens she applies. Maybe it is her penchant for lengthy detail rich posts on items you-really-should-care-about.
Whatever.
I like her writing. I like that she stands against the tide (and occasionally her colleagues) and speaks her mind. Don’t always agree with her, but that would be a boring class of conversation, now wouldn’t it.
So keep on keeping on Erica. You’ve got readers.
My issue with ECB arises from the fact that she flees into the comfortable embrace of identity politics whenever she is being criticized legitimately. This shithead Philip Dawdy was out of line, yes, but ECB regularly seems to look at issues with a worn-out and dusty ideology. Does she produce some great and legitimate points about sexism? Yes. Is she guilty of the crime of sexism as well? Sometimes, yes. I routinely feel insulted by her because so many of her posts seem to be derived from a deeply rooted misandry. I can give some of it a pass because of the crimes of men against women both past and present but it is something that I would love to see her address in herself. It’s easier to stomach a person who screams “MISOGYNY” if they aren’t guilty of the obverse…
Yup, that sounds like Dawdy. Still classy after all these years…
When Dawdy called ECB an “editrix”, he stepped over a line. I don’t know what it means, but it sounds really dirty.
Erica, you get plenty of shit, but much of it seems undeserved to me. Sure, you’re a little on the over-sensitive side of feminism, but we need a watchdog in this city. Sometimes I get a little over-involved in my play of “being one of the boys” and start finding myself acting the part of chauvinist pig!
I liked your review of Pugetopolis, and Knute Berger sounds like just the kind of “mossback” that I can make no connection with. I’m a “mossback” myself, born and raised in the Puget Sound Region, but it doesn’t make me a douchebaggy “No” man like Berger. There are those of us who are mossbacks who support sustainable growth (sustainable economically, environmentally, and culturally), and who are excited about the “Manhattan-ization” of Seattle–bridges, pizza, transit. I sure as hell am. I wish folks would hurry up on the pizza, tho. Pagliacci’s just really doesn’t cut it for me.
Take care,
N
If you don’t like a work published in a paper or on the internet, you can email the author. You should remember that there is no expectation that the content of their correspondence is private. Now if you go and call the author a bitch and a cunt and use your real name, you’re a clueless twerp who just might get what’s coming to him/her.
ECB’s pathology is too obscure and irrelevant to catch fire. It’s still infuriating but only if you’re dumb enough to take it seriously. It’s cool though. We need outsider agitators like her. Just not anyplace you intend to loosen up and enjoy yourself.
@35: I was thinking that too! He spits out “editrix” like there’s nothing filthier than a feminine suffix. No doubt it’s the relation to “dominatrix” and the image of the leather boots and the whip.
Puritanical, suppressed, and thoroughly creepy! Sounds like a fun guy.
Isn’t the premise of Dawdy’s blog that the meds aren’t working? These e-mails are exhibit A.
California?
Cauliflower?
Cornrows?
Chapultepec?
Crawdaddy?
Coup de Grace?
Quality?
If it makes you feel any better Erica, you are my favorite imaginary girlfriend.
If I was working for the Stranger. I wouldn’t want my picture, address, phone number etc. . .avaliable to the public at large. It wouldn’t be prudent. Most of the people who say . . . things are reasonable, a lot are just attention getting devices and then when that doesn’t work. . .
Erica makes so many of her posts about her gender, and her status as an oppressed white female, that it just encourages commenters to do the same. And of course, Erica only thinks she’s an oppressed female because commenters are always attacking her gender (though one might hope she’d have some perspective about what is oppression and what’s just people on the Internet being jackasses).
It’s a nasty feedback loop that prevents Erica from realizing that she’s a terrible writer on her own merits.
I’m not a fan of ECB, but unlike many Slog commenters I can express this without derogatory allusions to her sex or politics, and without demanding that she be fired.
and even I like ECB’s posts, even though on slashdot they’d be modded Flamebait.
Dawdy’s comments may have been out of line but so was that nasty review. Is it so much to ask that you write a review of the book instead of how much you dislike its author? And by the way, disregarding a preson’s comments because they have a diagnosed mental illness is as discriminatory as disregarding them because they are female.
My only problem with ECB’s review was her omitting mention of Emmett (Mossback) Watson. I went to his Pike Place Market dive for lunch once, years ago. It was such a shrine to his ego I thought he had died, but he was still alive.
To make the experience more irritating, they were out of half the things on their oh-so-cutesy paper bag menu. I tried pointing out that they could BUY MORE FOOD from the FREAKIN FRESH FOOD market they were so proud of being located near, but they were unmoved by my logic and reason.
well, for the record, erica c. barnett is my favorite stranger writer. i don’t know why some white dudes got so upset when they read the word “white male” in the article, but it could have a lil something to do with privilege and how it works best when it’s invisible.
I liked the review. I don’t always agree, but I do always appreciate ya, ECB. And the vitriol-filled attacks every time you seem to walk near slog are just too too much. Props!