13 November 2007

Bad at the Buzz

When I updated my previous post, I said that I thought it was OK that Mother Talk, on its summary of what the MT bloggers are saying about the Daring book, had quoted a single sentence from my previous post. The more I thought about this, especially in light of Jody's post about the book and Mother Talk today, the more that troubles me. I don't know that this is a fair reaction--after all, as Politica reminded me tonight, when publicists ask you to read and talk about a book, they're asking you to blurb it, not review it. And I don't think I fully understood this aspect of Mother Talk. I had envisioned it as a little more of a conversation-based site. And I'm a little irritated that the single sentence they pulled out of my review fundamentally misrepresents my post (even if what they say in the summary is literally true. I did say that.)

So I'm bad at the buzz. But it would't be a bad thing for more of us were talking about gender and parenting. How do we raise kids to move beyond oversimplified notions of gender? I loved Jody's story about Gemma and the shoes "from the boys side" of the store. Head over there and check out her post and the comments (unless, that is, you've arrived here from there: statcounter shows a lot of people are stopping by from Jody's today. Welcome!)

5 comments:

niobe said...

You're an awfully good sport. I'd be extremely annoyed at them. When you said (for example):

So I'm conflicted, and I'm honestly not sure I'd buy the book.

you had a right to expect you wouldn't be quoted as saying:

I'm honestly . . .sure I'd buy the book.

Even if, literally, that's what you did say.

Anonymous said...

What Niobe said. I think you're being awfully kind to them.

--michaela
(formerly mc)

susan said...

Well, the comments over at Jody's place keeping making the point that of course the MT bloggers know that they're part of a viral marketing campaign. So I'm feeling a little clueless, and more uncomfortable about having done the review. Ack.

chichimama said...

I seem to have missed the whole thing all together, so I am even more clueless than you. But I guess it would have been an after the fact realization for me as well...

Anonymous said...

Um, yes. I was under the exact same misimpression about the nature of Mother-Talk. Silly me, I put the substance of what should have been said here in a comment on the last entry.

I just don't see how this approach--let's all say how great this is!--can ever really be interesting. Or effective.