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Heather Armstrong Bully? dooce.com Blogger Calls Out the Haters
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by Tina Kells | August 27, 2009 at 06:52 pm
5998 views | 16 Recommendations | 16 comments
Heather Armstrong is no stranger to controversy. The popular blogger of dooce.com has had her share of heartache and anger thanks to the internet. In 2005 Heather Armstrong orally agreed to publish a blogger memoir with Kensington's Rebel Base Books, an agreement on which she later reneged.
Kensington's Rebel Base Books sued Heather Armstrong for breech or oral contract and won. The win came, in part, because Armstrong was proven to have been shopping the book around to other publishers after her blog dooce.com took off. dooce.com took off, by the way, in part because of the aforementioned book deal. But that's a minor detail.
When she lost in 2006, a year later, Heather Armstrong posted a scathing comment on the legal system to her readers. In that post she stated that she had lost faith in the legal system and that it allowed rich companies to bully private citizens by allowing them to sue on cases without merit, and win only because they could afford to play the system. In short, the power and influence of those with wealth had built a legal system that was amiable to bullies.
Settlement papers were filed earlier this week officially ending what has been the most traumatic, agonizing, demoralizing experience of my life. I have no faith in our legal system, one that guarantees victory only for the party who can afford to pay for it, one that would allow a large company to bully a private citizen because it knows that she has no money with which to defend herself. I am angry and bitter and feeling all sorts of unbecoming emotions. More than that, though, I am afraid that these people are watching everything I say here, ready to pounce on a single word, twist it, manipulate it, and then sue me again.
Fast forward three years to August 2009. Now Heather Armstrong is not only a popular blogger, but one of the most influential people on Twitter. With 1,143,076 followers at the time of writing, she is arguably one of social media's stars. So is it ironic that Heather Armstrong herself has now been called a bully?
On her blog this week she addressed the woes of internet fame. The self proclaimed "Mommyblogger, tyrant, snugglebunny" who rose to Web 2.0 power despite her lawsuit loss, was quick to rant on her haters, the people who have called her "bully" among other things. The cause of her bully status? The internet fame that her failed book "deal" helped build.
Did you know there is steam coming out of my ears? ACTUAL STEAM. You could hold up your wrinkled silk blouse next to my head and it'd be ready to wear to church in no time! And your granny would be all, honey! Look at you all fancy!
Let me begin this by saying that I have been called all sorts of names by anonymous and not so anonymous people on the Internet, names I won't repeat here so as not to hurt your delicate ears. And one that keeps being hurled at me is Bully. Heather Armstrong is a bully! She bullies! Look at her bullying! Because I have a website with a large audience, and whenever I say something about anything, that audience wields torches in its honor! AND THEY EAT PEOPLE!
So what is the moral of this story? Well, honestly, there isn't one...
But Heather Armstrong, who once cried bully against those with more power than her, has now been called a bully for her treatment of a fellow blogger at a conference a few months back. Heather Armstrong has been deemed a bully, not really because of her behavior at that conference, but because of the level of influence she has on the web.
Armstrong even recounts a story of a recent interaction with Maytag that, as she puts it, "escalated to Twitter" and how that escalation led to an increased online awareness of "Heather Armstrong bully." For a woman who describes herself as a "tyrant" I find it crazy that being called a tyrant's lesser cousin "bully" would rattle her feathers, but it does.
Heather Armstrong and her online presence on dooce.com do wield a certain degree of real power in this Web 2.0 driven world. She does have the power to influence, and by the way she chooses to exercise that influence some may feel bullied. How is that for ironic?
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at 19:58 on August 27th, 2009
Oh, that is rich. I recently unfollowed her because of her Maytag rant on Twitter. Not because she dissed Maytag, because I no longer cared what she thought.
at 21:14 on August 27th, 2009
Just because she has enough power to potentially be a bully doesn't mean that she is one. She calls herself a tyrant as a joke. She also says about her daughter, "Not only do I leave her alone with paper towels, I set her in the middle of a flea-infested floor and surround her with sharp objects and porn. Then I turn on a wood-burning stove in the corner of the room and seal all the windows. Before I leave the room and lock the door, I stick a bottle full of vodka in her mouth to muffle the screaming." It's one thing to joke; it would be another if she actually did any of that. Similarly, it's one thing to call herself a tyrant jokingly (she's a mother; most small children think their parents are tyrannical), and another to face a serious insult.Personally, I can't remember hearing of that book deal. That said, most writers don't get famous from unpublished books not yet printed by relatively small presses, as the PR doesn't get kicked into high gear until shortly before release, if there is any PR at all. In fact, looking at the Rebel Base Books offerings, all the bloggers there that I recognize had well-established websites before the book. The publishers wouldn't offer a deal to someone with a website that wasn't relatively popular in the first place, especially a press that size. They want writers with pre-existing fan bases. By mentioning the book deal, you've made your own point about 'the book deal establishing dooce's fame' moot, since dooce.com would have to be well-established and growing to get a book deal in the first place.
at 21:16 on August 27th, 2009
Just because she has enough power to potentially be a bully doesn't mean that she is one. She calls herself a tyrant as a joke. She also says about her daughter, "Not only do I leave her alone with paper towels, I set her in the middle of a flea-infested floor and surround her with sharp objects and porn. Then I turn on a wood-burning stove in the corner of the room and seal all the windows. Before I leave the room and lock the door, I stick a bottle full of vodka in her mouth to muffle the screaming." It's one thing to joke; it would be another if she actually did any of that. Similarly, it's one thing to call herself a tyrant jokingly (she's a mother; most small children think their parents are tyrannical), and another to face a serious insult. Personally, I can't remember hearing of that book deal. That said, most writers don't get famous from unpublished books not yet printed by relatively small presses, as the PR doesn't get kicked into high gear until shortly before release, if there is any PR at all. In fact, looking at the Rebel Base Books offerings, all the bloggers there that I recognize had well-established websites before the book. The publishers wouldn't offer a deal to someone with a website that wasn't relatively popular in the first place, especially a press that size. They want writers with pre-existing fan bases. By mentioning the book deal, you've made your own point about 'the book deal establishing dooce's fame' moot, since dooce.com would have to be well-established and growing to get a book deal in the first place.
at 02:57 on August 28th, 2009
I agree with Alexa- Dooce was extremely popular way before the book deal debacle. Its also kind of a stupid arguement to talk about how she calls herself a tyrant since she's obviously just joking.
at 06:18 on August 28th, 2009
I'm not a huge Dooce fan, but I think your post is silly. Not solid points at all. It sounds highschoolish and weak.
at 06:33 on August 28th, 2009
Am I the only one dying to know what went on at the conference? Or am I the only one that doesn't know?
at 07:11 on August 28th, 2009
No Corrin, I am dying to know too......anyone have the scoop??
at 08:04 on August 28th, 2009
perhaps this is the dramz?fourplusfourequalsten.blogspot.com/2008/07/blogher-recap-for-me.html
at 08:05 on August 28th, 2009
fourplusfourequalsten.blogspot.com/2008/07/blogher-recap-for-me.html
at 09:12 on August 28th, 2009
Ditto to Jill, Caitlin and Alexa. This post is just a petty attack at Dooce's popularity and a silly playground argument about who's a bully and who isn't.
at 10:15 on August 28th, 2009
Wow. Just another poorly written internet article. I'm sorry I wasted my time reading this!!
at 12:19 on August 28th, 2009
Having lots of followers just means having a bigger microphone, it doesn't necessarily translate into "influence". I follow a lot of people and for many of them, I don't even see their daily Tweets because of the flow of messages. I went through the day completely unaware of this controversy even though I follow Dooce.I'm sure if you did a count, you'd find she got something like 100 replies out of her 1,000,000+ followers. Not exactly a tidal wave of response. The people who really care about these matters are marketing folks who are watching to see if her rant has a financial impact on Maytag so they know whether they can include it as a case study in their next PowerPoint presentation.Another day of drama on Twitter. And somehow, life continues pretty much the same.
at 18:21 on August 28th, 2009
Does anyone know where I can get more information on the whole "argument at the blogging conference" thing? I am lost, confused and curious!
at 16:38 on September 18th, 2009
The argument at the blogging conference is referring to another blogger calling Armstrong a mythical Hobbit - and it wasn't said to be mean. Unfortunately, Armstrong took it in a very mean way and the resulting drama that unfolded exploded all over the internets.Armstrong "apologized" (if you want to call it that) a year later.If some of you would have done your research on her book deal before making comments about it here, you would have realized that the person who wrote this article is indeed making solid points. Reneging on a book deal while shopping for a better, more lucrative offer is a big no-no in the publishing world. She got what she asked for and being sued for it is something that would have happened to anyone else who did the same thing. Her blog was popular enough at that point to warrant a book deal and Kensington is a big enough publishing company to have a bit of a fit after finding out she reneged. What, did she think she'd just tell them "oh, I've changed my mind! I'm going to go with this other publishing company that will pay me more money!" and they'd say "oh, OK. That's fine, even though you verbally agreed to sign with us." I don't know many companies out there that would allow that to happen.
at 17:26 on September 18th, 2009
Dana,I'm well aware of the history surrounding Armstrong's book deal. My point wasn't that she was somehow justified in reneging on an oral contract. My point was simply that the above written 'article' is lame. It lacks punch and reads like the author followed an 11th grade English class template for "how to write a persuasive paper."Also, are you sure you and the author are on the same page? She argues that, in part, the book deal lead to the crazy popularity of dooce.com while you yourself say, "Her blog was popular enough at that point to warrant a book deal..."
at 10:12 on September 29th, 2009
I thought this was funny: doocefans.com/