Uhm, yeah. So I just found out one of my favorite bloggers--Hilzoy over at Obsidian Wings--is a woman. Not that there's anything wrong with it...Of course as someone's who's often referred to as a "she," I should have known.
It's OK; everyone seems to assume that at first, which is, I guess, interesting in itself. Once, someone called me "he" and then went on in the next sentence to ask: Where are all the women bloggers? *That* was funny.
Fwiw: 'hilzoy' comes from a reply I got from Ted Kennedy, back when he was my Senator and handwriting recognition was really primitive. I got a letter addressed to "Mr. Hilzoy Bole", which is inaccurate in every respect. My sister and brother and I thought this was very funny, and had fun making up a whole backstory for Mr. Hilzoy Bole, and then they started calling me Hilzoy. Hahahaha. Mercifully, they stopped after a while.
But when I first started commenting on blogs, and I wasn't at all sure I wanted to comment under my real name, I thought: hmm, what's a name that no one else will have used, and that all and only people who know me well will recognize?
Correct me if I'm not correctly employing the vernacular, but wouldn't a stronger sense of contrition been conveyed if you had entitled your post "Teh sexism that is Teh-Nehisi"?
Trinity: My name's Trinity.
Neo: *The* Trinity? Who cracked the IRS d-base?
Trinity: That was a long time ago.
Neo: Jesus...
Trinity: What?
Neo: I just thought... you were a guy.
Trinity: Most guys do.
Here's a piece no one cared about. Meh, whatever, probably the most enjoyable article I did during my stint at TIME. Premiered a month before I got laid-off. The nail in the coffin? Ya think?
Here's me going after Al. I didn't so much have a problem with him, as I had a problem with media acting like this dude was the go-to guy for everything black.
This was my first real story at time. I was writing for the Business section, a real change of direction for me. At any rate, it's about Wal-Mart's attempts to colonize the inner-city. As much as I enjoyed this piece, I mostly enjoyed going out to Chicago, which is a beautiful, beautiful city.
This a piece I did about the cops just outside our nation capitol, in Prince George's County, a few years back. I wanted to offer a counter to the dumb, conventional wisdom that if you paint your police force black, you could eradicate police brutality. In fact, Prince George's--one of the richest, blackest counties in the country--also had one of the most brutal police force's in the country.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
this has me so blown right now.
everything i say will only dig me deeper into my androcentric hole.
but um. who knew?
It's OK; everyone seems to assume that at first, which is, I guess, interesting in itself. Once, someone called me "he" and then went on in the next sentence to ask: Where are all the women bloggers? *That* was funny.
Fwiw: 'hilzoy' comes from a reply I got from Ted Kennedy, back when he was my Senator and handwriting recognition was really primitive. I got a letter addressed to "Mr. Hilzoy Bole", which is inaccurate in every respect. My sister and brother and I thought this was very funny, and had fun making up a whole backstory for Mr. Hilzoy Bole, and then they started calling me Hilzoy. Hahahaha. Mercifully, they stopped after a while.
But when I first started commenting on blogs, and I wasn't at all sure I wanted to comment under my real name, I thought: hmm, what's a name that no one else will have used, and that all and only people who know me well will recognize?
Thus, hilzoy.
Also, you're one of my favorite bloggers too. ;)
Now that you've confronted your sexism, surely it's time to make redress by backing Clinton?
/snark
Correct me if I'm not correctly employing the vernacular, but wouldn't a stronger sense of contrition been conveyed if you had entitled your post "Teh sexism that is Teh-Nehisi"?
Yes but do you REJECT and DENOUNCE pronouns altogether, Ta-Nehisi?
/snarkity
Hilzoy is also one of my favorite bloggers.
Trinity: My name's Trinity.
Neo: *The* Trinity? Who cracked the IRS d-base?
Trinity: That was a long time ago.
Neo: Jesus...
Trinity: What?
Neo: I just thought... you were a guy.
Trinity: Most guys do.