Kanika Gahlaut coins a new derisive term—the chick blog. Her original article along with the rebuttal of a so-called chick blogger are given here. In summary the point she makes is that there is a new breed of blogosphere denizens—- “actively attention-seeking”, sexually liberated female Indian bloggers who chronicle their colorful “Sex And the City” Carrie Bradshaw-ish life of booze, men and parties in colorful prose. And get a huge audience of both admiring men and “way-to-go-sister” women. A blogger in US has got a book deal out of her experiences—-the Indian women bloggers may well follow suit.
Kanika Gahlaut savages this breed — focusing her vitriol on a few of the most popular Indian female bloggers. Whatever be the merits of her bitchiness, what’s quite distasteful is the subterfuge she engaged in to interview her subjects without informing them of the hash job she was about to do to them. Journalistic ethics at their worst.
What could have been a sharply observed critique of the Indian blogosphere degenerates into the ranting of an obviously disgruntled person who, it can be argued, simply feels jealous of the popularity these female bloggers have acquired—-in her opinion unjustifiably.
This is evident by the way she attacks specific persons—–rather than the genre they belong to.
As an example, it maybe fine to fulminate about the dangers of obesity but quite another thing to say: “God that guy Arnab is fat”.
Which let me also say is a big lie. I am merely big-boned.
If any proof of her total lack of balance is needed, the piece d’resistance is when in order to buttress her point, she stoops to quoting a blog that is a borderline hate site—-where the posts are interspersed with unparliamentary, distasteful language that personally attack female bloggers who in the blog-admin’s opinion are a disgrace to “Indian culture” with their “Westernized, sexualized ways”.
Now here’s my politically incorrect view of the whole chick blogger syndrome. I don’t personally buy the “personal catharsis thing” as a motivation for these blogs.”I write to get the demons out of me” is kind of like Christina Aguilera justifying her raunchy, butt-shaking music video “Dirty” by saying “It’s a creative way to express my angst …you know…that I am no more a girl and people should start treating me as a woman…you know?”.
Yeah right.
It *is* all about popularity. And there is nothing wrong about that. I personally have never denied that I have sought acceptance and readership as a blogger. I value my readers and their comments—–and I gather a lot of blogizens, (who publicly may claim otherwise) also do so.
I know that as a member of the male species if I start detailing my daily life— it would read something like
1) paper got rejected
2) wife is not talking to me
3) the jeans I bought 6 months ago is riding up with much effort
Now who in their right mind would want to hear that?
And face it—the same thing coming from a guy and a girl have different effects. If a committed girl blogger says that she saw a cute looking guy that made her pine for her single life again, guys are going to love reading that—appreciative comments follow for her honesty and “forwardness”. A guy says the same thing and he is dubbed a lech, by both men and women.
A woman says she is bi-curious and everyone is interested….I most certainly am. I say I am bi-curious (I am NOT let me add) and people will be like………the PhD sure blew out a few of his fuses.
That’s just the way things are. Most guys want to hear about the edgy lives of professionally liberated Indian women who are upfront about a lot of things Indians are generally not comfortable about—–their “compulsive confessions” (TM) so as to say—-the prurient, reality-TV appeal of this packaged candour is undeniable. Which is why you will find guys the first in line to defend these bloggers.
Which I as a blogger appreciate—-everyone likes loyal readers.
And paradoxically, the guys who post nasty comments or create an entire blog devoted to blasting chick bloggers are fans of these blogs too—somewhat like Ravana was actually one of Rama’s biggest disciples (according to some interpretations).
Cause if they really hated chick blogs, they would just stop visiting them. But no they come back again and again and follow every post with an obsession that can be motivated only by “Oooh these lucky girls are having so much fun somebody should make it illegal”.
Which makes me repeat one of my favorite lines from “As Good As It Gets”:
What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you’re that pissed that so many others had it good.
In summary, Kanika Gahlaut does not come off any better than a mere hater—-a smug ethically-challenged journalist unable to disguise the bare fangs of her brazen bitchiness.
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
boring. this is the first post of your blog that ive found so boring. You own on political thoughts & films. You are selling yourself out , since this blog has picked up lately, you are blogging just for teh sake of it seems without any heart.
arnav fan
Dear Anon,
Firstly my name is Arnab not Arnav.
Secondly thank you for the backhanded compliment.
Thirdly, as you can see the blog is “my space”—and though I am happy to note that I “own on politics and films” I do of course would like to try out different topics. Specifically the ones I feel strongly about. And this was one such because it was an attack on bloggers—a community of which I am a part of.
And dear “fan”…I dont have Google Ads or anything commercial on my site—so what do I sell myself out to?
Though I do blog for my readers…I hope I am also allowed the luxury to blog for myself….at least once in a while.
And in conclusion…my heart remains in my blog.
As always.
was completely unaware of this fascinating article till i saw the link here. i ADORE you’re last coupla lines. *clap clap!*
and boring? did someone say boring? yawn! must’ve been a figment of my imagination…
great work!!to have brought our attention to the article.
This was probably the worst article on blogging that I have ever read.The worst part is she features the writings of some perverted loser (http://killthewomen.blogspot.com/).such utterly stupid crass uneducated stuff deserves contempt,not anything else.No wonder,K aunty has found sympathisers only in such stone age chauvinists who write things as “Westernized women have always been the cause of all problems. They make for bad daughters, subsequently bad wives, and daughter’s-in-law and bad mothers.”
or ” Rhodes Scholar – Madam Buchu
… Wannabe intellectual spiel continues, they are the worst kind of Women – Wannabe and Western Educated.”
that looks like some RSS mouthpiece to me.
applause from the ranks.
for the post, that is.
i really wish there was ANY chance that blogging about my life could get me dedicated readers.
Thanks for almost calling Ms.Gahlaut what deserves to be called – a bitch (I’d go all the way)!
– Nanda Kishore
It *isn’t* all about popularity.
I am not defending Kanika as her piece is rather catty. But I’ve come across some chick blogs and they usually suck.
That doesn’t mean that they should not exist. A blog is one’s personal space and one can use it as one pleases. But why should somebody not criticise stupid blogs.
Applying the same law here, you can also use your blog as you please, but I thought this post was along the same lines as Kanika’s. It was better written, of course, but unnecessary.
@Rimi…thank you
@Anon…again whatever merits this lady’s arguments have, her sources and her methods are definitely devious.
@Samit….dont be as modest as “Binoy Bose”…I can bet that a lot of people would want to know how India’s most prominent science fiction writer spends his days.
@Gameboys….:-)
@Anirudh: In case the point did not come out in my post, I am not opposing Ms Gahlaut’s point of view. I am merely opposing her journalistic ethics and the fact that her piece did not appear in her “personal space” but in a national newspaper.
As to my opinion of chick bloggers, here is what I once said. albeit in a different context.
I personally am not extremely fond of these kind of “Kya Cool Hain Hum” blogs ….however I am even less fond of people like Ms Gehlaut who use their position in the media to carry out their own angst-driven agenda.
@ anon: boring??? hello !! writing about something that matters to u is more important than making some idiot laugh
@arnab: thanx for bringing the article to the notice of ur readers..what i find astonishing is newspapers actually publish such crappy venomous articles…if these “chicks” (very pertinent question by the way …who is a chick?) are writing about their much maligned westernized life how can that bother anyone else??
1> its not written in a newspaper which u pay money to buy
2> no1 is holding u at gun point forcing u to read them ..if u dont like them stop reading!!! sounds simple doesnt it?? try doin it
3> the k woman has very bad grammar
btw in case my meaning is not absolutely clear u!=arnab
I don’t know what anonymous no.1 found boring in this post. It was quite articulate and made some good points. For a change, I agree with everything you said.
Excellent point.
To be honest, I dont quite like the crappy chickblogs written by teenagers.
But the blogs which have been savaged were actually the good ones – the ones which were chickblogs without being crapblogs.
And I think the writer chose the wrong blogs, while making a critique.
I hate this bullshit about people being “responsible” for their actions. I think it is unfair to filmstars even. And we are just bloody bloggers.
But in the end, everyone is free to write about whatever they want – chickbloggers (the really bad angst-ridden types) have a write about sex and pimples, the criticisers have a right to lash out unfairly (or fairly, as the case may be – to our perception) against them.
And we too have a right to take sides 🙂
Vulturo….posted a comment on your post and let me repeat it here…amazingly well-observed critique….could not agree with you more. Brilliant post !
🙂
Great post, totally agree etc. But one point here — it is not very often that journalists have their own angst driven agenda, to fulfill which they write nasty stories. That happens, in my opinion, very, very rarely. Actual journalism, especially feature journalism, where you have to find social trends kind of stories every week, is sadly much much more mundane. And much less deliberate. Heck, it is just a job after all, and most of us, believe me, are quite dispassionate about it.
@Mmap: Thanks..it is true what you say….but this is not the first time I have seen journalist’s personal disliking of (a) person(s) evolve into a jihaad against him(them). TOI once had an extremely biased, totally juveline attack on Akshay Kumar (not that I am his fan) where it was obvious that the reporter had been refused an interview or not given “proper answers”. Also much of the negative press Ganguly gets is because journalists who are not in his coterie want to strike back.
great now this turns into some soap opera marred by ‘tits for tats’.
What are you.. a diplomat?
i m sarching a girlfiend in delhi woh want to spend some time with me and sr emotional thing
“And dear “fan”…I dont have Google Ads or anything commercial on my site—so what do I sell myself out to?”
What is that stuff on the top left side of the blog buddy. Looks like Google ads to me . 🙂
Dear Ramu,
Google Ads came to this site many years after this blog-post was written