Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Open Letter To Valerie D'Orazio

http://occasionalsuperheroine.blogspot.com/2008/05/monday-morning-meditation.html

OK, so most people know I'm not a fan of Valerie D'Orazio. But I'm really trying to look at her declaration that she's going to give up blogging on certain comic book topics from a less-biased position.

She's indicated she's going to stop blogging so much about mainstream comics news because she's tired of people being mean to her. Whatever side she comes down on an issue, invariably there's some internet jerk out there giving her an inordinate amount of grief about it.

I can get that frustration. I really can. But that was supposedly why she put all her blog comments under moderation: because she wanted to prevent purely flaming/trolling comments from appearing on her page. Now she's abandoning whole topics because of it?

Valerie is the head of the Friends of Lulu. Whatever problems I have with how she personally carries herself, I am not aware of anyone who has major problems with how she does that job. But I can't imagine that cutting and running from internet bullies is what people want to see from a leader. I think declining to share your opinion on the issues of the day as they pertain to the most popular comic books because people shout at you about it isn't what people want to see in their leader.

I still attribute negative motivations to her clamping down on comments in her blogs, but I'm obviously aware that an argument can be made that there are ethically-sound reasons to want to moderate. But publicly announcing that you are now going to avoid certain topics because you can't suffer the verbal slings and arrows of your less civil opponents doesn't demonstrate the strength of will and character that I think an organization such as the Friends of Lulu needs at the top.

Here's hoping that Valerie reconsiders her decision. Everyone is entitled to get sick of it all and want to get away from the noise, but leaders don't really get to indulge in that luxury. If you can't take the pressure, then it would seem that there'd have to be someone better suited to lead.

Posted by Kevin Huxford at 11:52 PM
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4 comments:

  1. Well, there is nothing to say that a leader has to have a blog. I suspect the leaders of most groups never had blogs. I see your point, but I doubt it'll mean much in the long run. I don't think people are looking at Lulu and making decisions on whether they read about certain topics in Val's blog.

    Oh, and you didn't write this in the form of an open letter. You aren't talking to Val, but about Val.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, the title is a bit of a misnomer...but that's because I renamed it at the last second. People would have focused more on the title than the subject matter.

    And you're missing the point. Her way of dealing with adversity in this case is to run from it. From her quoted scenarios, she won't be discussing feminist issues within the comic book industry:

    My Headline: "Women In Comics Shouldn't Be Defined By Just How They Are Oppressed By Men"
    Commentary: "But then who will I continually blame for my failure and bitterness?"

    If not for that being included amongst so many more trivial bits, I'd probably not comment on her decision...or at least not argue that it isn't something that demonstrates the characteristics you'd think the leader of the Friends of Lulu would want.
    ReplyDelete
  3. To be fair, Valerie creates a victim-mentality for herself which I find only partly justified. I found her to be a bit of an internet bully herself, to be quite honest. She rarely engaged with arguments but presented everything as a personal attack that she responds to with accusation, wrath and vitriol. Valerie's internet bullying became especially apparent in two recent cases:

    1.) When a female commenter defended DC comics in a polite, rational way, Valerie (The head of a feminist organization) claimed that she "could not consider her a feminist".

    2.) When Valerie recently used a murderer in Belgium, who apparently dressed up as the Ledger-Joker as a launching point for a discussion abhout responsibility of artists for their work, she sarcastically wrote: "There should not be any stigma to idolizing a serial murderer, especially if he looks really cool in a vest. And if anybody has the temerity to say otherwise, I'm all for you being abusive and obsessive towards them until they are silenced. It's a good plan. It makes sense to me. I'm on your side. Please don't stab me."

    The last line, the "Please don't stab me" is nothing but nefarious and mean-spirited. Comparing commenters making passionate arguments with a Belgian child killer is probably as low as it gets.

    It is probably for the best that occasionalsuperheroine ends.
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  4. Hey, random anonymous person, you think a lot like I do. (I'm also Anonymous because I'm afraid to say anything about her publicly anymore). I used to comment there but now it's like talking to an angry sarcastic wall...if you post anything rational she'll either ignore it or make fun of you for it. She accused me of being a pedophile because I asked her a question. I was over anything she had to say after that. There's absolutely no dialogue. She gets angry and declares herself a martyr whenever her comments dare to try to examine whatever proclamation she's just made. It's baffling. At this point I know more people who read her blog because they're hoping for a daily trainwreck, not comics news.

    It's interesting that she's pulled the "I'm taking my internet and going home!" stunt twice this year now. I was googling her last hissy fit and this one came up. You really have to wonder what her mental state is like behind that computer.
    ReplyDelete

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