When You Are A Product
Hold on to your butts.
I’ll have to admit I’ve sat in silent frustration for a few months but Medium’s recent shitshow in regards to our brilliant Kel and the subsequent fall out is the straw that broke my back.
Not the camel’s. Mine. I drink so much Diet Coke that I’m sure my bones are pretty much styrofoam at this point.
Someone said, and forgive me, I can’t remember who- that we are essentially products here. It was someone I look up to- either alto, Gutbloom, Vikram (I can’t tag you with the emojis), Justin Cox 🌮, Todd Hannula 🤓 or perhaps Kel herself. And that beautiful genius, whoever it was, wasn’t wrong.
What can be said about Medium as a platform and structure has already been said, but let me also say:
There is a significant lack of respect here among readers and we are all complicit.
I don’t know how to say it without it sounding like sour grapes but also, fuck it, I am a human person who gets her feelings hurt or feels jealous or craves validation. I am not a soulless content demon, churning out essays about boy butts from my own corner of hell- as much as I’d like to be.
As most of you will not know- because I’ve been quietly chipping away for the past month or so, I am working pretty steadily as a grown-up, real-life writer lady. I write for several publications that pay me a valid currency. I have started a publication with a group of truly phenomenal female creatives and we are venturing into print media next month. I wrote a book. Also I have a day job that keeps me busy and fills in the gaps that freelancing leaves. On top of that I have a boyfriend who enjoys day trips and has spotty wifi.
As a result, I have not been posting as much free content as I would like to. In addition to that, it has been decided that the parts of my writing that I believed made me a unique voice are just selling points.
- Boys
- Witchcraft
- Tacos
- Dinosaurs
- Adult Baby Ennui
My stats are down and I am no longer shouted out in features. It’s to be expected given how my output has dropped- but also it’s shitty. I don’t enjoy the feeling and I don’t enjoy that I have probably made another writer feel this way at one point or another in my career here.
I’m sure this happens to other writers but I can’t cite them because I don’t know their lives so I can only speak for myself. But by treating each other like products instead of respected writers, we are creating the type of website that Medium was supposed to be a refuge from.
People are plagiarized. Writers are used interchangeably. Readership dictates content. Shitty listicles and wankfests over how American culture went ass-up over Paris Hilton (without mentioning how she had to take that shitty hand she was dealt and run with it because she’d been disinherited over a violation of her privacy) dominate our Top Stories.
We are treating each other like products. Instead of nurturing a collective of artists we are creating competition where it does not need to be.
I would love to be able to come here and find new voices, new writers to feature in The Swamp Hag Rag- but more and more I find myself disheartened, tired, unsure of whether or not I should even stay here; If I should pull my publications elsewhere. I’d like to celebrate the other female comedians on here instead of feeling like we have to compete to see who can write the better essay about post-Chipotle firehole.
But none of that matters when you are a product.
