I have two blogs that I have read for years, Pioneer Woman and Dooce. Lately, I have gotten disenchanted with them both.
I started reading Pioneer Woman because I have always wanted to go out west and be a rancher. I also have to admit, sometimes I could get my sister Annabelle to make some of the yummy-sounding recipes on there. (Shit, I can’t believe I just used the word “yummy”!) Anyway, back when Ree was just a ranch wife stuck out on the prairie, writing funny little essays and fixing good food photographically, I could relate, a bit. Being a mom, I could certainly sympathize with laundry issues.
Now Ree is an industry. She has a cookbook. She goes all over the country promoting her book. She does TV shows. She won’t admit it but I bet you anything if she were honest she’d admit she has an assistant or two or three and probably a maid. Her husband, I read, is one of the richest men in Oklahoma. They just went to Orlando and stayed in some posh hotel and did Disney for a week.
I can barely afford to take my son Bo to the carnival in the mall parking lot.
I cannot relate to Pioneer Woman any more. She’s gone Hollyweird.
Dooce also really pisses me off. Unlike Ree, Heather [Dooce’s real name] is actually funny, some of the time. She used to be a regular person. Years ago, she was fired from her job because of writing things about her boss on her blog, assuming he’d never see it. I could relate to that. I got fired from the Piggly Wiggly years ago after writing my bosses name on an underpass, because he’d grabbed my ass in the frozen food aisle. (I’ll tell the whole story sometime, after I’ve had a few beers.)
Now Dooce and her husband support themselves by her blog alone. She doesn’t even blog every day. She is too busy now writing books, and flying off to do TV appearances. She has a nanny, and she’s a stay at home mom! Now she’s hired some guy to be a butler or a personal manager or something. So they have BIG BUCKS. How the hell am I supposed to relate to THAT?!?
Too Big for your Britches
Why is it Ree and Heather don’t just be quiet about their gym memberships and expensive trips and shoes, and try to act like normal people?!? I don’t want to read about some freakin’ celebrity blogger. I want to read about someone like me – someone who struggles to pay bills, who has to budget carefully to go out to Applebees once a month, who can’t afford new tires and is scared to wreck every time it rains. When you’re hiring personal assistants and appearing all over the boob tube, I can’t relate. Change your name to SELLOUT Dooce and SELLOUT Pioneer Woman, so at least readers understand what exactly you ARE.
