As a follow-up to her original post on Confessions of a Fashion Editor (where I first read about Nati Hell, and what inspired my previous fashion blogger bashing post) Amy interviewed the writer of Fashion Bloggers, Why? in an effort to understand a bit more about why she writes what she does about fashion bloggers. READ IT. I could go on and on about my feelings on the interview, but I won’t except to say that for some reason, I was interested, and I hoped that Nati would give us a good “reason” for what she’s doing. But she doesn’t; she’s just defensive and apathetic.
But really, read it, then form your own opinion.
I also feel like I should address a few things that came up in the comments on my previous post:
- I don’t believe in “censorship” in any way, and respect everyone’s right to their own opinion, and to write/create whatever they want and have the passion for. Nati Hell certainly has the “right” to publish her blog, and to say whatever she wants about her fellow bloggers. But with RIGHTS come RESPONSIBILITIES, and I believe you are responsible for your words as well as your actions. Everything you say and do should be backed up with conviction and passion; then I think we can all at least respectfully disagree, but after reading Nati’s responses, I didn’t feel like she HAS any conviction or passion for what’s she’s writing – it’s just something to do…
- there was at least one comment that reflected a feeling that fashion bloggers expect too much from our readers and that we are arrogant; we just assume that they’ll be receptive to whatever we write/post and tolerate our flaunting our “lines of credit” all over the Internet. Again, all I have to say to that is don’t read the blogs you don’t relate to if you can’t at least appreciate them. If you get “upset” that one blogger has more money than you do, then quit reading her blog. If you don’t appreciate a certain bloggers aesthetic, then don’t read it. I can only speak for myself, but I started my first site to solve a problem, but also to write about things I love. I was astonished that others actually wanted to READ was I was writing – and lots of people do. But many more people don’t want to read it. That’s okay too. It’s just a reflection of how childish a person is that she would choose to say nasty things about a blog/blogger that she doesn’t like instead of just choose not to read that blog and move on. NOTHING good happens when you focus only on the negative. EVER.
- And finally, Lara, in a comment, brought up an interesting point that sometimes we confuse criticism with insults. That’s totally valid, and not being able to handle criticism is a reflection of weakness in my opinion. BUT Nati Hell’s blog is NOT critical, it is insulting. If she was being critical in a clever way, and perhaps a bit constructive with her criticism, that would be an entirely different ballgame, but she’s not clever or funny, and she’s not interested in being constructive at all. Fashion Bloggers, Why? is destructive.
That’s it, I think after this, I’m done talking about this – but I think it was important to address some of the issues/comments that surfaced before.
What are your thoughts?
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Again, thank you for linking to me, and for your interest.
I agree wholeheartedly with all the points you make, but especially with the one re crit vs insults; it’s definitely the latter, in Nati’s case.
Amy COAFE´s last blog ..Every girls guide to Hiker Chic
I too expected her to defend what she was doing with some kind of conviction. She’s obviously someone who just enjoys being nasty about people. As you say, it would be much better if it was done in the context of constructive criticism rather than just insulting people. We all see outfits etc when whe think ‘what are they thinking’ but just because you think something doesn’t mean that you have say it. I would personally never want to humiliate or upset someone by posting pictures of them and tearing them to pieces.
I had read Amy’s original post and just linked to yours from twitter.
I agree with what you said. I also read the interview with the hopes that Nat would say something of substance. That she would give us a sense of where she is coming from with her blog. I didn’t find that at all – it just seems like bashing something – anything — is fun to do. I said this before on Amy’s blog, but maybe as her blog grows she’ll become wittier and it will become more enjoyable, but right now it’s just mean.
Beautifully Invisible´s last blog ..Sometimes I
Sometimes people just act shitty and get away with it. But I would be lying if some of the things she says out loud on her blog about certain bloggers aren’t things that I haven’t thought about or talked about with fashion blogging friends.
You can sum her up as thus: She’s a 20 year old girl just being a bitch. Sorry to be so crass, but that’s all I see it as. I don’t take what she says as anything too serious. I laugh at some of things she says, and I CRINGE at a lot of it because it is just so mean.
Alyson´s last blog ..The Golden Age of Couture
i honestly believed it was all done tongue in cheek, but after reading her interview she obviously has no clue what she is doing. i mean, how could she honestly be serious about all this? admittedly there are some funny, and rather odd phenomenons going on in the industry, but i don’t know, it seems strange she would go out of her way to create a serious bitchy blog.
on the other hand, part of me thinks it goes part in parcel with going mainstream. there are always going to be people who make fun of the famous or the succesful… i mean look at all the celebrity blogs, not one of these is ‘positive’ and several, i enjoy reading them very much. does it all the sudden become bad when the poking is directed at my own profession? i’d feel like a hypocrite if i said it did.
jennine´s last blog ..The Build a Better Blog Vlog
Why does she have to always be rude and nasty to people. She definitely had an opp to defend herself and instead, no, she’s just mean – again.