BLOG CHALLENGED BY POPULARITY
Read today's interesting entry from Mistress Matisse:". . . as this blog grows more popular, blogging here grows a little more challenging."

So, here I have a plethora of disjointed reflection on blogging, particularly as it relates to women in the sex industry and blogging "excellence" in general.

Matisse's blog is one of the most entertaining and ethically-responsible I've read. She's smart without writing over the average reader's head, and she never assumes people will understand lifestyle-, field- or fetish-specific terminology without an explanation from her. Her blog is topical enough for people to glom onto and look forward to recurrent themes while still being very personal and giving us well-rounded knowledge of her as a whole person. She doesn't hide her identity and wisely uses her writing as a tool to promote her business, without every word sounding like an advertisement.

I have seen a shitload of excellent blogs bite the dust since I started blogging . . . hey . . . almost exactly four years ago (March 2nd, 2001)! Those excellent blogs are often victims of their own success (and I don't mean fame or fortune, but the short-lived circumstances that provide for excellent blog fodder). Because the great personal blogs are usually topical (the beginning or end of a relationship, the secret frustrations and observations of a particular type of professional, etc.) folks usually quit and/or delete them due to one (or more) of the following: the blog was TOO personal, exposed TOO much and the author was outed (or feared being outed). The blogger changed careers, ran out of things to say about the career, or got fired. The blogger naturally got tired of writing about something that thrilled or challenged them when they began the blog, but became a boring chore to write about or the problem worked itself out (partly BECAUSE of the reflective process of writing).

And then I also think there are so many people who only write in the blog for attention, and once they get the acknowledgement and emotional reinforcement they sought, weary of writing in search of something they no longer need. And then I think some people probably stop writing because their readers become demanding assholes who think they are entitled to regularly-posted customized free entertainment, but that's a whole other ball of wax. Furthermore, few great bloggers seem to be motivated to try to make a few dollars on their blogs so once the emotional motivation to blog is gone, they really have no reason to continue.

But back to the feedback Matisse has been getting, causing her to second-guess posting potentially hurtful or easily-misunderstood content . . . like I said, one of the things I admire most about her blog is the ethical way that she writes about her profession and her customers in a respectful way, while still finding enough funny material to make people laugh. She only seems to make fun of the behavior of people who are true peckerheads or rudely clueless. I have laughed harder at a lot of other LESS-ethical bloggers' writing, but felt kind of uncomfortable knowing it was at other people's expense and rooted in contempt and disdain for the people paying them (this is *particularly* uncomfortable to me when it's some kind of a sex worker making fun of her clientele). Matisse's blog never makes me feel that way; she perfectly exhibits respect for her customers, while never kissing their asses in a cheap fawning way, and she ALWAYS communicates her expectations and limits. Her writing and her attitude clarify the mutual kind of respect that should exist between clients and sex workers. Basically she conveys how much she loves her work, under what circumstances she loves it, and never makes it sound like a big crock of shit.

Is this a boring entry? Not for me, writing it. I love thinking about us . . . sex workers. I love thinking about what makes this "blog" thing work. I love thinking about what motivates people to write and to read them.

And when I think about my own blog in relation to all of this, it makes me kind of glad it's not "great". Mediocrity and scattiness are what keep me posting, and makes me believe this project will have longevity that I haven't experienced in any other realm.

When I started writing my blog I intended to make it more entertaining and rewarding for my customers, full of ego-stroking customer-mentions and descriptions of great private camshow exchanges. Then it morphed into a lot of stories of bachelorette promiscuity and some annoying girly-girl crap. And now I think it's more about running my business and just being human. Actually, I don't know what it's about from day to day.

I'm not sure how many of you know that I majored in History. Not because I have a mind for names, dates, and places . . . precisely the opposite. Part of me is just obsessed with writing shit down for safekeeping. I haven't mastered or even begun to understand the art of storytelling, all I know is it's important.

*****

On another note from the big book of sex-worker challenges, here's an excellent journal entry from my friend AmberLily.
posted by Trixie at 3/01/2005 10:50:00 PM -