Philobiblon

Curiously it was only today that off-blog I was talking about women chosing to blog anonymously or pseudonymously, through reasons of fear. (Sometimes related to gender, sometimes to purely professional concerns.)

Then I found that one of my favourite bloggers, Bitch PhD, has been threatened with exposure, legal action and general unpleasantness by an obnoxious commenter. (The issue, perhaps unsurprisingly, seems to have been abortion – something that does seem to get the unbalanced particularly wound up.)

As for me, well I started this blog quasi-anonymously, but very quickly decided here I was, there was no reason to hide. (Although I have, for employment reasons, until now, pulled punches on the odd media issue.) Partly that’s because as a journalist I’m used to having my name attached to sometimes unpopular things (try reporting court in a small Australian country town), and partly because as a feminist I’ve always regarded the best way of facing up to fears is standing up to them and challenging them. (Not that I’m in any way saying that someone who isn’t comfortable with it should do it.)

I’m sure someone determined could go from this blog to track me down personally, not that I could see why they should bother, but even if they did, I’d expect to be able to deal with them just as I’ve dealt with other varieties of unpleasantness over the years.

I’m sure Bitch PhD can stand up for herself – as her logo suggests – but it wouldn’t do any harm to pop over and offer a line of support.