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July 18, 2005
"Nannies Gone Wild," or Ivan Tribble, Meet Helaine Olen
Helaine Olen's New York Times essay about reading her nanny's blog has been making the rounds this weekend. The nanny, Tessa, has her response to the Times article, and Bitch Ph.D. joins in with some valuable insights as well. Olen reports that "within two months of my starting to read her entries our entire relationship unraveled. Not only were there things I didn't want to know about the person who was watching my children, it turned out her online revelations brought feelings of mine to the surface I'd just as soon not have to face as well." In short, Olen reports that she became uncomfortable with having Tessa as a nanny because of what Olen describes as Tessa's "accounts of semi-promiscuous couplings and tales of too much drinking for my comfort."
Like Dylan, I'm concerned about the effects of Olen's article for Tessa, who is naturally defending herself against Olen's representation of her and seeking to debunk the "nannies gone wild" image that Olen fabricates, and while the blog furor over the Chronicle article on blogging has subsided, these two articles seem to serve as companion pieces to illustrate some of the misconceptions about blogging.
As Professor B notes, one purpose of Olen's article seems to be that Tessa's writing "brought feelings of mine to the surface I'd just as soon not have to face as well," which is certainly valuable and a testament to teh strength of Tessa's writing. It's one of the reasons that I enjoy reading the academic bloggers who speak so honestly about their experiences. But, as Professor B adds, "Olen's understanding of her nanny's humanity goes beyond what it has with previous nannies," which ultimately leads to the decision to fire her (or "let her go" to use Olen's self-protective phrasing). Professor B's analysis of the situation is, in this regard, very similar to mine. Olen's essay isn't really about Tessa or her blog; it's about Olen herself and her own desire for her nanny to fulfill a specific role.
In this regard, Olen's discomfort with her nanny's blog is not unlike Tribble's reactionary comments in the Chronicle several weeks ago. Tribble plucks several remarks out of his job candidates' blogs and concludes that these candidates might be too interested in technology or too opinionated to fit into his department, implying that they might not fulfill what he imagines to be the role of the ideal colleague. As he puts it: "we can't afford to have our new hire ditching us to hang out in computer science after a few weeks on the job" (my emphasis).
I've already discussed the professional connections I've made via blogging, so I won't repeat that argument here. Instead, I think it's worth noting the degree to which blogs are seen to complicate what Professor B aptly describes as the "necessary fictions," whether of a nanny or a colleague. I'm troubled by Olen's reaction to Tessa's blog and by Tribble's treatment of his department's job candidates. But I'm intrigued by the degree to which a weblog's personal writing can disrupt these "necessary fictions." Because both articles take such a cautious tone about the effects of blogging, it's tempting to think, in fact, that these bloggers have are succeeding, to some extent, in challenging definitions of what it means to be a good colleague or confronting expectations about the work expected of nannies (expectations that, quite clearly, have significant gendered implications).
Posted by chuck at July 18, 2005 12:02 PM
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