Several things, from Alison

I have several things to blog about today. I'll try to keep them short and not include too much information. Including too much information is one of the common pitfalls for academic writers who are trying to pitch a book to trade presses. I learned this tonight in a really cool online/teleconferencing seminar called "Making It Pop: Translating Your Ideas for Trade." It's a five-week seminar being led by Deborah Siegel of Girl with Pen, in collaboration with the National Women's Studies Association. And she knows what she's talking about, because her book just got reviewed by the New York Times. It looks like it's going to be really useful, not least because the other participants include several feminist writers I admire a great deal. Perhaps it wouldn't be right to out them here on the blog, but trust me--they're cool.

Another thing I'd like to blog about is Black History Month. I was going to write a whole post about the fact that Harriet Tubman led a Civil War campaign at the Combahee River not far from Charleston and freed around 750 slaves, but then I saw a clip from The Daily Show on Afrogeek Mom and Dad in which Larry Wilmore points out that all we ever hear about during Black History Month are Harriet Tubman and the Tuskegee Airmen...and I realized he was right. So rather than give you information you probably already know, I'll direct you to Conseula and Brian's blog, where you can find out an interesting black history fact every day in February.

And finally, let me recount this story that may give you a picture of life in South Carolina. As some of you know, the Women's and Gender Studies magazine, Cheek, was held up at the printer's this fall because at the very last minute, the printer told us he wouldn't print the cover because it featured a painting of a nude woman, and it's their policy not to print nudity. We were on a very tight deadline and couldn't find another printer on such short notice, so the editor had to Photoshop a drape onto the painted woman's body.

Today I was making calls to find a different printer for our spring issue. I recounted our previous experience to the folks I talked to, to make sure that we wouldn't be dealing with the same situation with our new printer. I spoke with the representative of one large printing company in Charleston, who, when he heard the story, said, "Well, was the painting tasteful?"

Hmm. "Yes," I said. "It was very tasteful."

"Well, I'd print it as long as it was something you could hang in your dining room, in front of your kids."

At this point, it was clear that this guy wasn't the printer for us. I'm not sure why, but I kept going. "Well," I said, "we're a Women's and Gender Studies magazine, so we often have articles about controversial things. For instance, we might have an article about abortion. Would you print that?"

"Well, that depends," he said. "Would you present both sides?"

I paused. I had no idea what to say. In my head, I'm thinking, "Don't be the angry feminist! Don't be the angry feminist!" How am I even supposed to respond to this?

Because I wasn't talking, he kept going: "We're a family company. So we'd print anything that you'd share with your family."

I wish I'd said, "My family is comfortable talking about everything from abortion to whether or not the word 'cunt' should be reclaimed, so I think we'll be fine." But instead, I said, "You know, I don't think this is going to be a good fit" and got off the phone.