Dooce /Heather Armstrong
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Anonymous
OMG! When I read Kath's name I was JUST GOING TO SAY THIS!!! Couldn't remember the exact quote but great pull! |
Anonymous
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This thread reminded me of a person who I assume was a Dooce-inspired mommyblogger that I knew in high school. She ended up dying in 2009 of a brain tumor at the age of, I think, 36.
I just checked and that blog (http://undomestic.blogspot.com/) remains available to read. I wonder if what she wrote there is a comfort or at least of interest to her son and two daughters who weren't very old when she passed. Seems to me that those small blogs, almost journals really, would be a very different dynamic for loved ones than a big, commercial operation like dooce. |
Anonymous
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This is sad to see. I was another "blogger" way back in the day (Diaryland), and I remember the community feeling, even across platforms. The blogs of 20-25 years ago were a great place to be vulnerable, without the foresight of seeing how public everything could become.
I hadn't followed Dooce for at least 15+ years, but I remember her early days and popularity. It's wild to remember and realize that all those people I followed and connected with, went on. Most faded and their blogs disappeared or went silent. Dooce probably should have never remained public, for her own health. |
Anonymous
100% agree |
Anonymous
LOL. I never read Kath's blog but would read the GOMI thread on her. It was hilarious. (I don't currently read GOMI because I felt like the negativity was not good for me. And the site seemed to always crash my computer.) |
Anonymous
| I read Heather's book - The Valedictorian of Being Dead - it was very intense. So so sorry she lost her battle with depression. |
Anonymous
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This is Heather's ex-husband Jon's partner. She is also a writer in the parenting space.
https://lgumbinner.substack.com/p/this-is-just-to-say |
Anonymous
Love GOMI and love DCUM. Very similar places for a variety of reasons. For what it’s worth, the entire comments section of any social media account or news outlet is its own GOMI now!!! All of it! |
Anonymous
I was a long time reader and follower, and her "quarantine cocktail hours" are what finally made me unfollow her across everything. She was SO clearly unwell, and the alcohol was not helping. She was scary thin, and it just felt like the attention and eyeballs were not what she needed to get well. So I looked away. I would occasionally check in, always sort of hoping that her funny, wry, raw wit would be back. But it never did. She seemed to descend further and further into her challenges. |
Anonymous
| So on top of all the time spent here, you all really spend a lot of time reading poorly written half truths about women’s lives. I cannot believe how seriously people take bloggers like this. I can’t believe it is therapeutic or helpful in any way. |
Anonymous
Wow. Way to center herself, as the kids say. |
Anonymous
I am forever baffled how people can drink so much, and become so emaciated. |
Anonymous
What she did wasn’t really writing, it was preening. I’m so sorry she passed. However, and her lunatic fans will freak — none of her shtick would have worked but for her initial happy life, thinness, prettiness. The writing was never there, she is not Mary Carr or Leslie Jamison. It always required pictures and cool-girl blasé bullshit balanced with meltdowns. It was always stupid and squawking and without much to it, all hat and no cattle. But it gave a lot of ugly comfort to some women, as they were less divorced. Less f’ed up. Less drunk. Less scrutinized. And so forth. It was always gross, but it netted Armstrong a lot of money. I wish she’d found some medication and therapeutic plan that actually worked for her. I don’t actually think she’s more gifted than the banal, stupid Jo from Cup of Jo. But Jo was luckier. |
Anonymous
It was honestly a "you had to be there moment". The internet was SUCH a different place in 2009 than it is today. There wasn't social media! Blogs connected people. You found one you liked, you read their recommended blogs, and their recommended blogs, and it felt like this home grown community. Some of the women writing then were just journaling their lives. Some were real writers who were empowered by the freedom to self publish their thoughts. Some were a combination of all of it. It changed the way women talk about motherhood and parenting, that much is for sure. So while you can criticize and dismiss, the work of many of these women was really important in our cultural narrative. And love her or hate her, Dooce played an absolutely huge role in that. |
Anonymous
OK now who remembers when she wore the Mary Kay director suit to the White House?? |