There comes a point with your online reputation that you become so careful and so quick to appeal to whomever may be googling you, that you become very boring. I mean, a love a good Nilla cookie as much as anyone else, but who wants to hire/interview/be BFF with a wafer?
You can’t be everything to every one. (Is Everclear in your head yet?) At some point, you have to take a stand. Figure out where you stand on a controversy or topic, and stake your claim. Defend it, discuss it if you must, but be willing to be associated with the stand that you took. Not on everything – but on the stuff that really, really matters to you. Topics that if it lost you a job or a friend or major interview because of it, your conscience would be clear. I’m not advising being overly contentious or starting a controversy for argument’s sake. Just — don’t be so afraid of being palatable, that you lose your flavor.
I have opinions. On lots of stuff. Some of them are even educated. I can take a stand on anything from prison reform to the right way to hang my toilet paper. And sometimes I write about them and I don’t generally shy away from controversy. And sometimes I say stuff that I have no idea is going to be controversial.( Seriously, I had no idea I had friends who were going to defend Roman Polanski.)
But, on a lot of stuff – I can manage to keep my mouth shut, depending on the speaker, and just hold my tongue until the urge to fight passes. On some topics, I cannot.
Possibly Controversial Topics On Which I Will Freely and Publicly Take A Stand
- A woman’s right to choose what to do with her body should be protected
- Same-sex couples should have the right to civil marriage
- Science classes should teach students about evolution. Creationism or Intelligent Design have no place in a science classroom.
If any of the above lose me readers or my online reputation is forever associated with, then – well, I can still sleep easy at night.
What are you willing to take a stand on?
Hi! Welcome to "You Should Only Know." I believe we've just met. Please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. If you have a question of your own, please email me!
Email
{ 1 trackback }
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
still here.
April´s last blog ..Just a small update
Happy to hear it!
I respect and subscribe to most of your views, but FYI I’m reassessing our friendship after that Everclear namedrop.
I really wouldn’t blame you.
I think I’ve yet to find a controversial topic I won’t open my yap (and turn the volume up to a gajillion) on.
I’ll even stand up and defend your Everclear reference!
Katie, I think you and I are going to be friends for a long, long time. You hear that Sean?!
I just found your blog from a recommendation from Ms.Careergirl, and I’m glad I did. You have some chutzpah, I’ll give you that! I personally deleted my entire blog, more than once, because of this very reason. I was so afraid of what people online were going to think of me if I let my opinionated little self be heard. Even though I had all of maybe 10 followers. HA! Actually, I was more concered that a possible employer would google me and find out what I really think about things. In particular I was scared because I’m a liberal Northerner who just transplanted to the Bible belt (yikes!!!). I’m finding that right now at this point in my life and career (read- I need money to pay my bills) that it is best to bite my tongue on most things. Sometimes I think, ‘well if I don’t get hired because I believe in xyz and the hiring manager stumbles upon my blog, then I don’t want to work for that company anyway’, but that isn’t necessarily true. So I’ll come here and read your blog instead.
Thanks.
Thanks Jen! I totally hear you – sometimes the need to find work trumps the need to speak your mind, especially if speaking your mind doesn’t always have a tangible, positive benefit. I have been lucky that I am nowhere near a minority in my views in my Liberal Elitist neighborhood of NYC, and that I am employed.
But, I look forward to you as a new reader. Especially one with a masterful command of Yiddish
Be excellent to each other.
(Oh, and all of the other stuff you said too….)