Small Strokes Big Oaks

Bio
frau sally benz is a twenty-something blogger from New York City. On her blog, Jump off the Bridge, she writes about feminism, race and ethnicity, activism, politics, and just about everything else you can think of, all through a feminist lens. Her work has also been featured on CHICKS ROCK!, The Feminist Underground, Feminist Review and Feministe.

When she’s not writing, she’s making a living in the non-profit world, fighting for human rights and women’s rights everywhere. She loves singing, dancing, walking, and yoga. All of these things keep her terribly busy and she doesn’t spend nearly enough time with her family and friends.

Define the online feminist blogging community.
To me, the feminist blogging community is a group whose goal it is to promote gender equality, first and foremost. There are a lot of people I would consider a part of the feminist blogging community even though they do not consider themselves feminist. I think that’s the one thing I don’t like about that label – it’s not completely inclusive. It also devalues, to some extent, the fact that many people I consider a part of this community don’t only focus on gender. We also focus on race, immigration, (dis)ability, trans issues, politics, the list goes on and on.

But regardless of what we focus on, I think having a feminist presence online is crucial. With the lack of women’s voices in traditional forms of media, it is so important to be able to create a space where we are not afraid to talk about women’s issues and the broad range of experiences we all have.

I became involved in the community as a reader and commenter first. I read a lot of blogs and was mostly a lurker (somebody who doesn’t speak up but reads constantly). I commented whenever I felt the urge – if a post was particularly interesting or if I was passionate about a particular issue.

I use the community in a number of ways. If there’s a call-to-action I receive that I feel particularly passionate about, I share it on my blog. If there’s something bothering me personally, I let it out on my blog. If there’s work that other bloggers have done that I admire and respect, I promote it on my blog. And so on…

My own work helps strengthen my voice. It lets me work out the things that come up in my head that I don’t have any other outlet for. I also learn a lot from reading the work of other bloggers in the community. Their passion, causes, words, and so forth are very inspiring and teach me so much. I think that’s the thing I love the most about the feminist blogging community – the way we all feed off of one another. Sometimes it leads to problems, and the back and forth, and the “blog wars” and all of that. But, mostly, it’s a way for all of us to engage in real dialogue and push each other to become better feminists, activists, and people.

I think the feminist bloggers who have been able to use their blogging as a way to get book deals and the like is actually a good thing. I don’t think that everyone who blogs does so with the intention of being published, but I don’t think there’s any shame in using the feminist blogging community as a way to lift your own voice to the point of selling your work.

We all need to make money in this world, and if our talent and passion is writing, then why shouldn’t we make money off of it?

I have nothing but respect for the bloggers who absolutely refuse to have ads on their blogs or only write for places where they will get paid. Whether their intention is to use their blogs as journals, or as a form of online activism, I don’t think this makes their writing any less valid or valuable. But I also respect those who want to sell their work. There is a tradition of women’s work being unpaid, so breaking out of that in the blogosphere is no different.

Tell me about how you came to be a blogger.
I used to read a lot of blogs for some time before I started my own. I used to comment on the bigger feminist blogs and get shut down constantly. If I expressed a sentiment they didn’t agree with, I was labeled a troll and ignored. I liked the “smaller” feminist blogs – I like to call them the “indy blogs.” I felt that even when I disagreed with the blogger or the commenters, my opinion was at least heard, but I still wanted my own space to do that in. It started to drain me and I became frustrated that I didn’t have an outlet where I could voice my own opinion how I wanted, when I wanted. So I started my own blog!

When I started, my goal was to write about feminist issues and the things I’m passionate about through a feminist lens. I have always written whatever I felt like writing so it’s hard to think of one thing I started writing about. But looking back at my earlier posts, it was a lot of feminism, but also a lot of book-related posts and music.

Tell me about your blogging experience now.
I think my blog is a bit different from some of the others in the feminist blogosphere. It leans towards the personal– it’s my thoughts, my interests, my pet peeves, my frustrations, my experiences. Of course, a lot of my interests are feminist issues, activism, politics and the like. But I also try to keep it balanced, primarily for my own sanity and also to keep things interesting for my readers.

I like to say that I blog about the things I’m passionate about, all through a feminist lens. It’s hard to turn off that voice in my head.

Over time, it has shifted a bit. During the election season, I wrote almost exclusively about politics. When it was over, I wanted to disconnect from that and I’ve rarely written about politics since then. There have been periods of time when I wasn’t inspired to write anything substantial, so I would simply link to other blog posts or online advocacy campaigns. In general though, I don’t think my blog has changed much over time.

Tell me about a time you were misread or misunderstood on your blog.
I think this probably happens more than I realize. Even when I do realize, I don’t really make a big deal out of it. I usually change my phrasing if I feel I actually was unclear originally, or reiterate what I said if I feel they are simply not paying attention.

One funny story that comes to mind though is from my Manly Men Wear Skirts post. I am still surprised at how much interest there was in that post from people around the world who commented on it. Anyway, one anonymous commenter in particular seemed to get the impression that I was a man. I thought that was really weird and still don’t know why he thought I was a man. It was obvious that he hadn’t read the post because he completely missed the point I was making: I think it’s cool for men to wear skirts and he was arguing with me assuming that I had a problem with it. To assume I was a man just sort of topped it all off for me.

I responded by basically saying you’re a troll who didn’t read my post, and you think I’m a man, how interesting. It wasn’t a big blow-up or anything juicy like that, but I still think about it even a year later because the way I wrote my post somehow indicated to him that I was man and I find that very interesting indeed.

Describe your process of writing online.
When I write online, it’s more of a gut reaction than it is, say, a researched 10-page paper. Not to say that I don’t do research for any of my posts, but that is the general difference between my writing online and off-line.

With my online writing, everything sort of ebbs and flows from wherever my brain is at the time. That’s a strength of my blogging I think, but also a great weakness. If I’m not feeling inspired, I can go several weeks without writing a substantial post and I don’t like that at all. I don’t want to feel forced in my writing because people usually tell me that they love how passionate I am about what I wrote about – whether it’s a musician or Obama or feminism. But if things are going on in my personal life, it’s really hard to tap into my brain to get anything out.

Also, when I used to write off-line (I’m not in school anymore, so I don’t ever write if it’s not online), there was usually some sort of topic I had to write about. Even if I could choose the topic, there was a structure I was supposed to follow or some theme I was supposed to cover or something. That might be limiting in some cases, but at least it gives you a direction. There is really no direction in my blog. Again, some people think it’s a good thing because they like that I write about anything and everything. But it’s also a bad thing because I have to really think about what to write next.

There are usually two types of posts – the improvised, gut-reaction posts, and the planned, researched posts. My methods for these are completely different.

If I read something that annoys me or excites me, I sit and think about what is really getting to me. Is it the tone of the author? Is it the obvious sexism? Is it the underlying racism? Is it praising something I also love? Once I’ve put my finger on what’s bugging me, I start writing. I just let the words come to me and let them all out. Once I’m done, I try to read through and edit. This is the tricky part because most of these types of posts aren’t happy at all. The neutral or happy posts are easy to read through again and sometimes I try to organize things better and whatnot. But it’s usually a rant, and I have no patience for reading and editing when I’m ranting because it just makes me mad all over again. These are usually the posts with the most grammatical errors and curses. But it’s written, and I post it as is. To me, it’s more important to have it written and have my voice documented than it is to be perfectly correct in my delivery.

The planned posts have an entirely different routine. I’ll think of something I want to write about and start to collect links about it or make notes about things I’ve observed or read off-line. Then I try to outline the post – why am I writing this, what am I trying to say, what are the points I want to make, etc. If it’s a series of posts, I try to think about how to break them up in a way that makes sense. Then I draft something without referring to the outline at first. This helps me figure out if there’s more I wanted to say that I haven’t even included in the outline. I then change the outline and write another draft, this time referring to the outline while I’m writing. Depending on what I’m writing, I either leave it at its form after the second draft, or keep on going.

For example, I did a series I called Legendary Latinas for Women’s History Month. I finalized the idea about a week before March began, and I started outlines for all six posts right away. Each post went through at least four drafts before I got to the version I published, a couple of them were as many as eight drafts. It was definitely the most work I’ve ever done on any of my posts.

Describe your online reading habits.
In the past couple of months, I haven’t had the time to keep up with my regular reading, but I generally love reading other blogs. I find new blogs through friends on Twitter, links on Tumblr, or through the blogrolls of blogs I already read and like. Also, if somebody has a guest blogger and I really like their post, I check out their blog right away and see if I like that as well. When I find a blog I like, I add it to my Google Reader, and try to keep up with the posts. I then share links to posts I like the same way I find them – through Twitter, Tumblr, and Google Reader. If I have enough posts I really like back to back, I’ll add a link love post to my blog, which I call blog-hopping.

Sharing the material we each read and write is definitely what helps foster this online community. Even though a lot of us might interact through Twitter, Tumblr, over email, in person, whatever, our documented voices are in the blogosphere. That is where we go to make sure we compliment each other on a job well done, or when we want to start featuring guest bloggers, or if we take issue with something somebody has written. It usually comes full circle in some way.

Without that sharing and exchanging of links and ideas, I think we’d all have a lot less material to write about and we would all feel very much in our own bubbles. Nobody would read my work but me and a handful of others, and that’s not much of a community at all.

You can follow frau sally benz on Twitter at http://twitter.com/frausallybenz
For more information on the Literacy in the Feminist Blogging Community project, and to see all of the interviews, click here. Have something to add? Comment or e-mail me at smallstroke (at) gmail (dot) com.