I heard about Hugh Howey’s Wool in mid-2012, but only picked it up earlier this year (January maybe) and was absolutely stunned by it. The shocking ending of part one of the series made me download the Omnibus and devour the whole thing.
So, I occasionally read Howey’s blog and articles related to his goings on. Earlier this month, I caught a glimpse of a column titled, “The Bitch from WorldCon.” Upon seeing this, I thought, “What did this person do to deserve such vitriol?” I read the post, which was about a mean-spirited, know-nothing who pretended to have insider knowledge she clearly didn’t posses. I filed it away under the “interesting things to know about Hugh Howey” category of my brain and forgot about it.
Until, I saw this Daily Dot article . In it, Aja Roman suggests Howey went on a “misogynist rant.” Reading that headline, I thought Howey had gone and done something horrible. Yet the article was referring to Howey’s “Bitch” post. While I would agree it’s not nice to call a person the b-word, I’ve got to say, to suggest someone is a woman hater in general because he hated one particular woman is a bit much.
And whether you think Howey ought to have been taken to task for this or not, I think the controversy strikes at a greater point: people can’t let others in anymore. I found the post an interesting view of what made Howey angry, at what kind of thing gets under his skin. It was a post written like he was telling an amusing story to a good friend. And he used language he might use when talking to a friend. I found it nice to be considered such a friend, a kind of person he could rant to.
But in this day of political correctness, people in the public eye don’t get to rant without being taken to task. And what is so odd about this is, I can’t imagine there are people out there (adult people who’ve been in a workplace for more than 6 months) who haven’t met someone they’ve thought was a “bitch.” But, let alone someone say it–and not even mention the person by name–they’re suddenly a woman hater? What? I think we can all hate a specific woman without being woman haters. I can recall the backstabber out for my job at my college newspaper who answered the telephone, and said, “Hey, there’s a sexy man with a deep voice on the line for you.” Curious, I picked up. And what I wanted to say afterwards was, “That was my dad, B-.” But I didn’t, as that wouldn’t have been appropriate. And, guess what, I’m not a woman hater for thinking it, or telling my now-husband what I thought. I was a hater of that woman, however.
I hope that Howey and others who blog like the public is their friend will continue to do so, but somehow I doubt it. Because if a friend called me a misogynist after I ranted to him, I don’t think I’d spend much time to talking to him again.