What the Frak?

[TW: Threats]

I suppose I'm not really surprised about this:

'Paula Brooks,' editor of Lez Gets Real, also a man."

The "also" is in reference to the other straight married dude who was recently exposed as pretending to be a lesbian blogger in Syria.

Good times. I mean, why wouldn't the "lesbian bloggers" most in the news be in the news for being straight men pretending to be lesbians on Internet? OMG, where are the women bloggers?!?!?

For the record, I really am a lesbian, a woman, and a blogger.

Shocking! Daring! Jazz hands!

Anyway, why I think these two dudes suck is that it puts pressure on pseudonymous lesbian bloggers like me to authenticate that we are who we say we are. And yes, I've already seen some gay bloggers boast about how they use their real identities on their blogs. Yet, given that this blog is not a money-making endeavor for me, I don't see many gains in doing so.

People have many legitimate reasons for writing under pen names, including threats, fear of violence, possible professional/career retribution, real-life stalkers, and/or a simple wish for privacy.

So, before they conducted their Edgy Blogging Experiments, I wish these two straight married men who don't actually live in the real world as women and thus experience violence, harassment, and rape culture differently than, say, someone like me, would have thought about shit like that before they took a piss on the credibility of lesbian bloggers.

And, I wish bloggers writing under their real names wouldn't build themselves up by casting aspersions on the motives and morals of all bloggers who choose to write under a pen name.

On a lighter note, I read Lez Gets Real only a handful of times, although I had often seen it referenced and linked to around Internet. Honestly, I could never get past the name of the blog. I've just can't get into calling myself a "lez." That right there should have been a big clue that the editor was a straight dude.