Call for anonymous posts

When I wrote The things we won’t blog, I had no idea I would get such a reaction: over 30 comments in 24 hours, talking about the things we don’t feel comfortable writing about on our own blogs, but nevertheless want to get out of us. Obviously, we have things to say that aren’t getting said. And that, I think, is a problem. For myself, I have found that the unbearable and unspeakable become so much smaller once spoken, once the burden is shared¹.

So I had an idea²: I’ll publish here what you won’t say there.

I’m inviting anyone who wants to submit a post to be published here anonymously, or pseudonymously, or even with a link back to your blog but not vice versa. I’ve already had several contacts about such a post, so you don’t have to worry about yours standing out as the only one.

Ground rules and guidelines:

No naming names. If you’re anonymous, so are they.
Rants about individuals, while sometimes cathartic, are not generally interesting or helpful. Rants about how something someone else did affected you, and how you struggle to cope with it, can be. If you’re not sure of the difference, talk to me, we can work it out.
Topics should more or less be within this blog’s purview — which, granted, is rather wide³.
I will do my best to preserve your anonymity as much as possible and as you desire, including making suggestions about which details to remove or alter to obscure your identity. However, I cannot guarantee true anonymity; as with all online interactions, there is some possibility people you do not want to read it will find it, and may even recognize you or themselves in it. Do not post if doing so would violate the law or put your life in danger.

Pretty easy as far as rules go, eh?

If you’re interested, send me an email: arwyn at raisingmyboychick dot com

NOTE 7 Feb 2010: The first post is already up, as part of the newly named Naked Pictures of Faceless People project (points to those who recognize the Jon Stewart reference). Please read, comment — and be welcome to submit your own story.

Plus I completely don’t care if my family reads about your things-I-wouldn’t-blog-about-here! ↩
Not an original idea, in retrospect, but then nothing is. ↩
Anything related to: parenting, especially biologically appropriate parenting or struggles with it or frustration with the -isms that often accompany its promotion; womanism, feminism, or the biases and oppressions that often accompany these philosophies (such as cissexism and transphobia); social justice, -isms, and privilege, from either or many sides of that multi-faceted fence; disability, sexuality, gender, and all those other things that make us us. Like I said, it’s pretty wide. ↩