Angry and Hateful

We recently received a tweet (and her account is public, so I’m going to share it here) from a longtime reader who thinks we’re funny smart and women (comma jokes), but that recently we’ve become angry and hateful:

It’s not the first time we’ve gotten “feedback” like this – whether that be in recent days, since 2012 when we launched That’s Normal, or since Nikki and I have been saying controversial things on the internet since 2008.

The reality of posting day in and day out opinions about pop culture and entertainment news and lifestyle is that not everyone agrees with what you think or say. Not everyone gets offended by the things that offend you. And not everyone will agree that the things you say that you don’t find offensives aren’t.

So, She’s Crafty Crochet, I’m not calling you out specifically, but since you are the most recent tweet, I am addressing you today:

I’m not angry. Or hateful.

That’s not to say I haven’t been really angry about political things happening in our country these days. I’ve been much angrier than I’ve let it be known here on TN.  Amy does some of my favorite political anger pieces (check her rant towards Mike Pence the other day).

But TN has been a place of comfort for me. Whether it’s by writing about things that don’t “matter” in a scary time of political unrest where it feels like half the country wants to take us back to a time when things were just not fair for a lot of people. Or, like so many of you who found friends through TN topics on twitter or in the comments, through my group of TN pals which vary from topic to topic, but generally consist of Amy, Heidi, Nikki, Beth, Tiff and Julie. This escape, and it is one for me, has helped me be less angry. And feel less alone.

I know our coverage in recent months has excluded people who may be on the other side of the political spectrum. But not everyone on Team TN has the same opinions on politics. Some of our writers are conservative, live in red states and aren’t “east coast elitist” fem nazis or socialist-loving, tree-hugging Californians. They love Star Wars and Star Trek (Probably- do those fandoms intertwine?) and go to Comic Cons and don’t get involved in our loud-mouth #feministing rants that pop up more and more frequently these days. And that’s okay. But as one of the owners, co-founders and editors of That’s Normal, I get to dictate the direction of content on this site, and as a result, it’s generally going to have content that appeals to me… an east coast feminist liberal in a F*CKING RED STATE – EFF YOU PENNSYLVANIA.

But I’m not really angry.

And I’m definitely not hateful.

We’ve had a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, during our #IntheWaterweeds, our Voyager (Outlander book 3) book club we’ve been holding for the past 8 weeks. In fact, I’d venture to guess the majority of the negative feedback we’ve gotten over the past few years has been Outlander-related.

But let me assure you, as someone who has edited countless hours of podcasts (lol, jk those aren’t edited), posts, images, videos, transcribed notes and watched grainy screeners of episodes multiple times to write recaps, I am not an Outlander hater. I would never dedicate the hundred (literally) of hours I have given this book series and show to provide the snarky coverage of Outlander we do here on TN. And it’s not just me— Beth is Queen B of Outlander around here and we wouldn’t have Outlander coverage if it weren’t for her wrangling. And Nikki flew to Scotland to see the sets and interview the cast, and we promise one day she’ll be able to talk about it!

We love Outlander.

We’re just not “Insert Outlander Site”. We don’t want to be that site. We don’t want to compete with “I love Outlander Dot Com” because we’re different. And that means we say when we think something isn’t right or is right and disagree among friends and call shit what it is and make fun of it and say those controversial things that “Insert Outlander Site” isn’t saying because they choose to operate differently. We don’t operate that way and never have. That goes for all the fandoms we cover. All the cons. All the TV shows and movies.  We have Snarky opinions on today’s news. Do some people read “Snarky” as mean? Probably. But I don’t know that we’ve published a single item that was mean spirited. Ever.

Nikki and I often remark how different the internet is in 2017 than when we first started writing daily together in 2008. After that convo, we remark how old we are getting. But before we get there, we generally talk about how many sites have come and gone since we’ve been “around.” How sites that were small merged with other sites eventually to be bought by conglomerates. How people consume content on social media these days. Remember when Google killed their RSS reader? Who even remembers why that was a big deal? 

We have this conversation because we’re proud of That’s Normal. And proud of everyone involved, readers and opinions we don’t agree with included. Because there aren’t many sites like TN left out there. Most blogs and entertainment sites are backed by big media money. They have paid staff and office chairs. We have pins floating around in the bottom of our purses that we remember exist only when we’re rooting deep for a dropped lip color and get stabbed by the sharp end of the pin. 

That’s Normal is important to me in more ways than I can ever express. As a creative outlet. As a thing I created with a bunch of friends that people get joy from. Because it introduced me to some of my best friends. And gave me experiences where 185,000 people have watched (and many ugly comments have arisen)

So no, I’m not angry or hateful. And I don’t usually speak for other people, but as Editor, Co-Founder, and Owner of this little piece of the internet, no one else at TN is either.

So whether you’ve been around forever, you’re a new friend to TN or you’re considering giving up on us, thank you. For reading. For giving us a small part of your day or every few weeks or dominating your twitter feed some evenings. You don’t know how much YOU mean to me.

Love,

Grateful and Proud*

 Also,

Girl with annoying accent