If you haven’t yet read the original blog post here is the link.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/juliet-jeske/dating-after-divorce-in-a_b_944133.html#comments
I had been writing this blog for a while and it was slowly but surely becoming more and more popular. On the advice of a friend, I decided to take my most popular post and submit it to the divorce section of the Huffington Post. I had been published numerous times in the comedy section but always in the form of satire videos. This was my first attempt at getting anything I had written published online or elsewhere.
I had no idea of the insane amount of popularity the post would generate. I didn’t know the editor beforehand, and she took a couple of days to get back to me. She thought the article was well written and she liked my voice, so she decided to run it as the lead story for labor day weekend. I don’t think either one of us had any idea that it would cause such a fervor.
Most of the feedback that I have gotten has been positive, and my twitter account went from about 260 followers to over 650 in a matter of a couple of days and is still climbing. The article got picked up by a number of news sources on the internet and the readers kept rising. Right now the story has been favorited almost 5,000 times on Facebook and has over a thousand comments. I have received personal email, subscribers to this blog, fans added to my youtube account, and fans added to my facebook account.
The criticism has been so diverse I have to break it down in sections. I find it stunning that so many people had such different reactions to the piece.
- I hate men
- I hate women
- I hate sex
- I am misrepresenting polyamorous people – I honestly don’t know much about the lifestyle but I really don’t have a problem with people who are openly polyamorous
- I should move to another city
- Several people have told me they have the exact same problem in their city
- I am somehow Christian or pro-Christian – I am staunchly non-religious and identify as agnostic
- I am fat or unattractive – I am 5’7″ and a size 4, I am nowhere near fat, unattractive is in the eye of the beholder I guess but I am not even close to being overweight.
- I should have stayed married – Well my husband was gay so that wasn’t going to happen
- I was somehow spoiled by my ex-husband and now I am bitter – that is so far off the mark it isn’t funny.
- I am whiny and negative – Well I guess but if it was an article that just stated how happy I was I doubt anyone would have read it.
- I have had numerous people give me dating advice – some good, some crazy
- I need to lower my standards and date older men, younger men, or less attractive men
- I have also had several men ask me out, or want to start a correspondence with me online
- I should love myself more
- I am attracting the wrong kind of men because of something I am doing
- I deserve to be alone because I am a bitch
- But I have gotten a tremendous amount of people saying they are going through the exact same thing, and that they completely agree with me!!!!!!!
I obviously struck a nerve or it wouldn’t have caused so many people to respond. My general response to anyone who gets seriously worked up over this article or anything else that I write is this…
Write your own blog and try to submit it somewhere and see what happens.
I only glance through the comment section as there is no way I could or would want to read all of them, so it is honestly wasted energy on anyone making a comment. But I do find it hysterical how people literally project their own agenda on to a fairly straight forward article.
I basically say, I don’t like feeling pressured to have sex with a virtual stranger, and that if people like that behavior and it works for them then great! I also point out that both men and women and people of all sexual orientations engage in promiscuous behavior. I never say my way is better than another choice, nor do I tell people how to live. But that doesn’t stop the comments.
So thank you to all of the people who have supported the article, and to my detractors well there is no such thing as bad publicity so keep it up! HA!!! 🙂 Oh and if anyone knows of any PAID writing assignments send them my way! HA!!! I am an unpaid blogger for the Huffington Post, I am not a reporter, I am not a published author. I make very little money as a performer, but I do perform all over New York city. Since leaving my husband my income has been devastated as I used to work with him, so I am just looking for a place to land. Will write for food! HA! 🙂
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