Yes, It’s All About Opinions

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Clarissa

October 16, 2011

Yet again, I have to engage in the supremely boring discussion that crops up with a daunting regularity on this blog. “Oh, these are just your subjective opinions,” people exclaim triumphantly.

Really? You don’t say. What a huge revelation. Because the header of this blog hasn’t said from day one of its existence, “An academic’s opinions. . .” Oh, wait, though. Yes, it has.

People come here to read my opinions on a variety of subjects and to express their opinions. They don’t come here to read my academic research. So questions of the “what kind of an academic you are if you are just expressing your subjective opinions?” variety make absolutely no sense. I’m the kind of academic who decided to start a blog to express her subjective opinions and made it crystal clear from the start that this was her only intention. Seriously, either just deal with this already or move on.

If anybody has any suggestions on how I can make it even clearer than I already have that this blog contains my opinions, feel free to share. Because I’ve written a variation on this very post so many times that I’m losing count.

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45 responses to “Yes, It’s All About Opinions”

Pen

October 16, 2011

It’s sad that some people don’t recognize that academics are people, and like all people they have opinions.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  It’s also sad that no matter how many times one explains this, people keep repeating the same “accusation” of subjectivity.
  
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llama

October 16, 2011

This is just another post full of your opinions 🙂 🙂

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  I know. The “it’s just your opinion” arguments are inescapable.
  
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Jennifer Frances Armstrong

October 16, 2011

If it’s any consolation, as I found out eventually, the opposite of “subjective opinion” is not actually “rigorous academic research”, as you might imagine. What does the average person care or know about that, except that it is supposed to lend you abstract authority?

It’s troll metaphysics. Nothing is more objective than troll metaphysics and if you happen to disagree with that, “you’re just being emotional!”

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  My blog is also a space where I can be as emotional as I like. I doubt anybody would even want to read it if I did nothing but post endless lists of facts delivered in a detached, cold language.
  
  For something like that, people could read Encyclopedia Britannica. Or the dictionary. I heard the phone directory is also a fount of objectivity. And there is not a single emotion in sight there.
  
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  1. n8chz
    
    October 16, 2011
    
    My blog contains only emotional material, and I’m very frank in explaining so. I’ve been emotionally inert lately, hence the writer’s block.
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 16, 2011
      
      That’s the only way to make what you write useful, in my opinion. Even in academic writing, the moment passion is gone, the readers feel it and tell you that you have become boring.
      
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Jennifer Frances Armstrong

October 16, 2011

A lot of trolls, not just on the Internet but in real life, like to use the rhetoric that whatever women say or do has only a subjective point of reference. This is a dangerous line to take with me, because I generally can and do accept it as a challenge to ignore whatever the other party is saying that isn’t wholly objective. My early conditioning, up to the age of 15, was very, very devoid of emotional expression. I came from the British stiff upper lip tradition in an extreme sense to the point of not knowing even what my own emotions were like. Learning to acknowledge and experience them has been an ongoing project. So if somebody wants to play gender by implying that my views are somehow more “subjective” than theirs, I can turn off the tap of interpersonal feeling faster than it takes to switch a light off. I’m particularly inured to the playful spirit of Brer Rabbit : “Whatever you do, don’t throw me into the briar patch!” It’s where I was born and bred.

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Paul Tiderman

October 16, 2011

That statement sounds like it is merely your opinion, Clarissa…

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  And since it’s my blog, we’ll have to accept that I’m entitled to it. 🙂 🙂
  
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llama

October 16, 2011

bloggerclarissa :
That’s the only way to make what you write useful, in my opinion. Even in academic writing, the moment passion is gone, the readers feel it and tell you that you have become boring.

I strongly believe this! Yet we have this awful school of thought that teaches our engineers and mathematicians to write in the most passive of voices. This is a style which makes it almost impossible to express any enthusiasm for an idea.

Needless to say, I don’t adopt this style myself and only very occasionally get a review that chastises what the reviewer has seen as inappropriate informal language. Most of the time I get comments like (and this is a real one) “The paper is well written – it does a good job of including both the mathematics and the intuition of the authors’ ideas.”

It is comments like these I like to rub in the faces of the communications lecturers who push this deadly boring writing style.

Hmmm looks like that was my rant for the day, sorry

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  It’s a very good rant, so feel free. The post itself was a rant on my part. 🙂
  
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llama

October 16, 2011

Jennifer Frances Armstrong :
It’s troll metaphysics. Nothing is more objective than troll metaphysics and if you happen to disagree with that, “you’re just being emotional!”

This is definitely the conclusion drawn by trolls when person being trolled is a woman. It is less clear what the conclusion is when the subject of the troll is a man. Do you have any thoughts on that Jennifer?

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1. scratchy888
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  Well in a trollish universe, everything is binary — I mean absolutely everything. There are no shades of grey, only objective or subjective, masculine or feminine, us or them. I think you will find that if a troll disagrees with you, you will probably be cast as “feminine” in some way, even if you happen to be male. In troll-land, feminine attributes are purely negative and male attributes are purely positive.
  
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  1. bloggerclarissa
    
    October 16, 2011
    
    As I said before, my two most vicious trolls and cyberstalkers were two housewives. So I find it hard to see trolling as a gender issue.
    
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    1. n8chz
      
      October 16, 2011
      
      That reminds me of something I’ve been meaning to ask you about Clarissaspeak but never got a round tuit. Does housewifery rhyme with midwifery?
      
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      1. bloggerclarissa
        
        October 17, 2011
        
        Midwifery is different in that midwives get only one chance to harm a child. Housewives get a lifetime of chances.
        
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        Paul Tiderman
        
        October 17, 2011
        
        I hate (but, not really) to correct you. But it is possible to be a housewife and NOT hurt children. In fact, one can be a housewife and not HAVE any children…
        
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scratchy888

October 16, 2011

bloggerclarissa :
As I said before, my two most vicious trolls and cyberstalkers were two housewives. So I find it hard to see trolling as a gender issue.

That’s strange. I’m sure trolls are good at finding our vulnerabilities. Mine was gender. And there are, in fact, a lot of gender based trolls out there.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  You are right, of course. I’m terrified of housewives, so they found me and fed off of that.
  
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scratchy888

October 16, 2011

bloggerclarissa :
You are right, of course. I’m terrified of housewives, so they found me and fed off of that.

Hahaha! Now I am laughing.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  Everybody can have their own little phobia.
  
  I’m also afraid of the dark. You know why? Because in the dark I can’t see how many housewives are lurking around.
  
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  1. scratchy888
    
    October 16, 2011
    
    Are they babushkas?
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 16, 2011
      
      No, mine are usually younger.
      
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Diego

October 16, 2011

Ok! One moment, Clarissa! ¡Tu no opinas en nada! to quote Mama Elena in Como agua para chocolate. Sorry, I couldn’t help it. 🙂

I get paid to write & speak my opinion daily. If only more people would do so, instead of cloaking it as though it were “God’s Truth”.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  That was one of the very first books I read in Spanish. I still hate it because it was so hard for me to read. 🙂
  
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  1. Diego
    
    October 16, 2011
    
    The first book I read in Spanish was “Amalia” by Mármol while I was in high school. I found it very difficult also and have not tried to read it again. So I understand you hating “Como agua para chocolate”.
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 16, 2011
      
      Oh, Amalia is so priceless. The language is very hard to read, though.
      
      Now that I remembered its existence I want to find an opportunity to assign it to students.
      
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    2. n8chz
      
      October 16, 2011
      
      After a moment’s thought I am embarrassed to admit that I have not yet attempted to read a book-length work in Spanish. The first Spanish language book I ever purchased was Mil Ochenta Recetas de Cocina, which is apparently available for free, hopefully legally.
      
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Tori

October 16, 2011

“Oh, these are just your subjective opinions,” people exclaim triumphantly.

“Oh, this is just you wanking off because you’ve finally discovered how to read!”

I suppose there should be a way to respond without calling into question trolls’ reading comprehension or masturbatory habits.

But it’s been a long day.

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1. Tori
  
  October 16, 2011
  
  To clarify — because context might not actually be there — my quoted response was intended as a mock response to trolls, not to you directly.
  
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2. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 17, 2011
  
  I think it’ a brilliant response. 🙂
  
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jodi

October 17, 2011

Some people are simply unable to walk past a differing opinion without arguing.

http://xkcd.com/386/

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 17, 2011
  
  I love this cartoon. It is so me. 🙂
  
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Jonathan

October 17, 2011

So what are your opinions? We would like to know what you actually think about things, and in great detail. Might I suggest a series of posts in which you tell us what your REALLY think? You might start with literature, feminism, politics, religion, and the FSU.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 17, 2011
  
  Oh, Jonathan, don’t unleash the monster. 🙂 I’m a teacher and an autistic, so I can repeat the same thing hundreds of times without getting bored. 🙂
  
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Adi

October 17, 2011

Allow me to offer a very simple solution to your predicament:
Make it clear that it’s your opinion from the start. Sure, YOU know what you mean but try to see it from the point of view of visitors – in particular new ones. They usually arrive through links or searches which means they end up only seeing the title of the post along with the content of that post.

For example, if you title a post “Pick-up Artists” that suggests something like a definition or description of the term. Instead say something like “What I think of Pick-up Artists” and then it’s clear.

Also writing sentences like
“The main idea behind this “art of pick-up” is that you have to be as insulting as possible to attract women’s attention.”
are likely to be misunderstood as a statement of absolute truth rather than just an opinion because that’s exactly the way it’s phrased. Here you might write something like:

“My impression of this “art of pick-up” is….”

I have a feeling that might help.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  October 17, 2011
  
  The only thing I hate more than people not reading the blog’s header is people presuming to offer me advice on how to run my very popular blog. Those who are such experts on blogging should start blogs of their own and put all of their suggestions in practice there. I only started my blog 2,5 years ago, and already it is extremely popular. So maybe I know what I’m doing, eh?
  
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  1. Adi
    
    October 17, 2011
    
    Excuse me but it was you who asked for this advice in this very post:
    “If anybody has any suggestions on how I can make it even clearer than I already have that this blog contains my opinions, feel free to share.”
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 17, 2011
      
      I was trying – and obviously failing – to be sarcastic.
      
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    2. ptiderman
      
      October 17, 2011
      
      Ooouuuch…
      
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  2. ptiderman
    
    October 17, 2011
    
    Arrogant, abrasive…but honest…
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      October 17, 2011
      
      That’s me!!! 🙂 I’m glad you get me.
      
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    2. n8chz
      
      October 17, 2011
      
      A bit of a braggart, but I haven’t yet seen anything that rises to the level of arrogance.
      
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