Comments

1
YOU SHOULD READ THIS COMMENT - I LOVE YOU
2
Seems fairly obvious that misogynist losers have nothing but time to troll the net and make shitty comments. Until mommy calls down to the basement to let them know dinner is ready. Then, ya know, they only have another 20 minutes before they get threatened with dinner being thrown out. Then, they will be too busy to comment while they get their food and take it back to their hole. And bio breaks.
Non douchemonkeys are too busy being real people to comment on all of the net, sadly. We just have to satisfy ourselves with a minute to read and maybe comment if we're.... Oops times up!
3
How did I not really notice that this is a humorous column? I like the column! I don't complain about it or about you. But... now I feel sort of dumb for not noticing these jokes you speak of. Maybe you can change the tag on the post from "sexual politics" to something else (or just add "humor" to it).
4
Can your next column be about the difference between using the C-word and the D-word?
5
Your jokes and your columns are always wonderful and you are a delightful person. People are dumbdumbs. Next time you're at a bar I'll leave a sloth dressed up as Rogue with the bartender. It'll be a magical one that doesn't need to eat, drink or poop...All it needs is a hug once a day
6
XBox isn't hyphenated.
7
Dear Barbara,

Your bracing, lighthearted commentary on gender inequality never ceases to warm my heart/threaten the deeply ingrained socioeconomic advantages of my external genitals and oafish physique. Your refusal to give into the spiteful shit-slinging of doucheholes, asswagons, fuckhorses and general internet bigots is invigorating and inspiring.

Thank you.

Bestfully Wishes,

Patrick
8
A WOMAN IS TALKING AND I AM UPSET ABOUT IT GRUMP GRUMP FART
9
"C'mon people, trolling others with snarky comments is never okay. It's a form of bullying that ... oh, it's cocktail hour. Time to go pick a fight at the local tavern. Good thing I'm a woman, because if I were a man and started yelling at the nearest asshole running his mouth, I might get my ass beat."
10
Because of my intense love of veracity, I checked on the comments section of all of Ms Holm's posts (this actually goes really quick if you know all the browser keyboard shortcuts, maybe took me five minutes). At no point did anyone in the comments of any of her columns actually say that they hate her. I could be wrong about this, and willingly accept the fact checking of my fact checking. Maybe these comments about hating her happened elsewhere?

The closest anyone came was something like, "I really hope that we can make her hate herself". But I did learn that Ms Holm says that *she* hates something on average of about twice per column.

The reason that I did this is not because I hate women, or feminism or Ms Holm (quite the opposite). It's because I really find the core messaging in these columns to be weak and I want them to be better. If statements in an argument can be so easily disproven, it casts the general argument (one that I whole-heartedly agree with) in a negative light.
11
I just checked your last seven columns and didn't find the word "hate" in the comments, except when used by people talking about all the "haters" who comment.

(Well, there *was* iceprez saying he hates pretty much everyone.)

You write for the snarkiest paper in town, and some people make fun of you.

Anyway, you're on course to be mentioned in the letters column for the third week in a row, so that's something. Best of luck with "Hategate."
12
@Todd: u r 2 slo
13
Barbara has had a fair amount of vitriol spouted her direction since she has started writing here. It's not hard to think a group of people hate you if they insult you week in and week out for some dumbfuck reason like Graham's. This might be the first time that she's posted something where she wasn't completely lambasted by a small group of commenters on here. So yeah, you are a bunch of dicks.
14
@Graham: u lyk me dont u
15
Barbara Holm writes good things that I like to read, and trolls can eat it.
16
I think that some people don't like your blog here because you take overly simplified stances on topics that are very near and dear and important to some folks, and your wishy-washy approach, especially as someone who hasn't first hand experienced some of the things you've covered, makes people feel like you're writing about it to glorify yourself and bad puns rather than offering a true look at these topics.
Your writings are awfully short and written like you churned them out an hour before they were due. A weekly column is hard work, surely, but there's a level of care that must be taken, out of respect to yourself and others, namely those you're attempting to speak for without, I'm assuming, actually asking those people how they feel about what they experienced.
I'm a fan of yours. I've seen you perform, and it never not makes me laugh. But this column... makes me feel awkward. Please don't discount everyone who's not a fan of this column as a misogynist asshole. There are folks who do just hate feminists, but those who dislike this column seem to have a problem with you as a writer, not you as a feminist. Not saying that's not harsh, but it's not the same as being hated for having a belief.
17
Barbara, you can take this as patronizing trolling, but my sincere goal is constructive. I've seen your standup, and you definitely have the raw materials to succeed, but your writing here is problematic.

1. You recast every interaction with an idiot into Babs Takes On Patriarchy. Being simplistic makes for boring reading and insults the intelligence of your audience.

2. Too often you just artlessly call bullshit on something. Hectoring may provide you catharsis, but it doesn't do much for us. The challenge we're here to see you rise to is finding new/creative/funny ways to call bullshit.

I used the word "artlessly" deliberately. Art is about communicating creatively towards some purpose. Simply telling people what they should think is not art and as you've seen, people really resist it.

That's because people's strongest beliefs are the ones they form themselves, and we're hard-wired to defend our core beliefs, no matter how ridiculous they may be. Our mental defenses are formidable, as they don't readily yield to facts or logic.

That means the artist's challenge is a benign manipulation: how do you use your art to get people to adopt new beliefs, but think they arrived at them independently? The best artists don't frontally assault our defenses, because they know they can't win. Instead, they sneak past them. They effect change in us by a variety of methods, e.g. surprise, subtlety and subterfuge ("we're just here to get a few laughs"). Effective art isn't a battering ram, it's a Trojan Horse.

3. Every week after you build up your straw man and kick it in the straw cock, you heartily congratulate yourself for your bravery, ideals and pluck. Knock it off. If you're doing your job as a writer correctly, you can trust your audience to glean values and give credit where and when it's due.
18
Yay Barbara! I'm happy you keep writing this column and making great comedy. Don't let the haters (whether they be in comment threads, in insane emails or confusingly passionate facebook posts) get you down.
19
Please don't confuse critisism of your blog as an attack upon feminism itself.
You seem nice enough, and 'true of heart'.
The goal is constructive critisism, though I realize I can sound harsh, for my own part.
20
She hates herself, like most people do, and is a young person searching for an identity. I thinks she's trying on defensive feminist right now and it's not working out too well for her. She'll move on to something else soon; she's already changed the name of her column after a just a few months.
21
Thanks for turning Blogtown into Tumblr! What the Portland/Seattle corridor was REALLY lacking was a winsome type with zero sense of the comedic craft to tell us about words we shouldn't use and why we shouldn't use them. I've only been to college, like many people here, and I've only traveled around the country and the world, meeting a variety of different races, cultures, genders, and potato products. I don't always remember that the N-word is bad, or that an indignant hipster screeching at me to be nice is supposed to turn me into Andrea Dworkin.
22
This is gonna be such a cute story to recount at Barbara and Graham's wedding.
23
Todd, to be fair, I'm pretty tolerant of my dog, Malcolm.
24
I like when you say that you're not going away. You stepped into a really true voice there.

People saying that you need to do a better job or write better or say you are creating straw men are so patronizing. You don't have to toe to their standards.
25
Frankieb: what piece of constructive criticism towards Barbara almost got you banned? I know it wasn't when you posted that she'd "earned" being called a bimbo, although that comment's been scrubbed, too.
26
Never mind, I made an educated guess and googled it (hint: rhymes with bunt) along with "frankieb" and "barbara holm," and it still pops up.
27
In that same post I had wrote 2 words that make people uncomfortable. I believe I had made a referance to "that horrible word, N*****" and also suggested that Holms not be a C***, as her fave saying of late seems to be 'Don't be a Dick'. This seems fair to me. So, if I had to guess, I think Alison in particular cannot stand the word C*** for some reason, and it made me wonder if she was in charge of going through comments that day. If they put people in charge of such things. In another post I later quoted a bunch of derogatory names for just about all colors of people, and it had no problem with the editorial board of the MERC, so I guess it had to be the awful C word. Talk about hypocrisy though, The day before there was a pretty funny Sarah Silverman video where she was complaining about so-called divas and calling them c*** . Sticks and Stones people.
28
In an added level of hilarious complexity, the comment that I had previously found that referenced attempting to try and make Ms Holm hate herself, may have actually been written by Ms Holm herself (or someone creating a convincing simulacrum commenting account).

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Pr…
29
Like others have said, don't mistake genuine criticism with internet trolling or misogyny, simply because of your subject matter. Grow some skin, and learn to accept that some might not like your humor or your column. Your "I'm not going away" sounds mostly like a refusal to consider how you might improve, and by labeling all these people trolls you are also sidestepping a lot of genuine, no-malice criticism from many non-trolls. Some commenters have certainly been hard on you, but... it's a comments section on the internet, on the Mercury for Chrissakes. What do you expect? When aren't comments that way? You're not going to find a lawn without dandelions, unless it's 'moderated' with toxic chemicals or constant plucking. Well, dandelions are nutritious, what trolls produce generally isn't, but you get the idea.
30
Eat more broccoli and grow some hair on yer chest.
31
@A-minus: I agree with most of what you said, but I think we should steer clear of the "it's the intarwebz what did you expect?" criticisms. That just reeks of victim-blaming to me and makes my bile think about the idea that it could maybe rise.
32
So, Ms. Holm- From what I read here you seem to dislike internet commenters, except the ones who are willing to pay your bar tab. Sounds fair.
33
...or you can eat more hair and grow some broccoli on your chest?
34
Barbara Holm's column has become its own comment section. Imagine if someone from out of town with zero affiliation with "the scene" read this column. After, say Googling for sexual politics or comedy. Perhaps Holm should consider posting articles in her comments sections, and then you'd have some quirky Portland gag like the world's first upside-down website. How self-identified-as-nerdy!
35
You can tell that barbara made up the part about someone paying for her drinks because she signed the note "a fan". I would have believed it if it was unsigned, but no one is "a fan of barb"
36
Thanks to everyone for their never-ending obsessiveness with Barb's weekly column. Every comment you write (negative or positive) puts a silver dollar in my pocket. CONFIDENTIAL TO NORMAL PEOPLE (of which I still remain convinced there are more of than the meanies you see here): Please report any instances you see of "hate words"—you know what they are. If you're unsure what a "hate word" is... report 'em anyway. I'll make the call. It gives me great pleasure to scrub the offenders comments and maybe even ban them forever. (Double standard? FUCK YOU. It's my party, and you're lucky to be invited.) TO EVERYONE: Your constructive criticism is always welcome!
37
HATE WORD

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