new thread
Some may be familiar with the online magazine Slate founded in 1996. Wikipedia describes it as "a United States English language online current affairs and culture magazine...which is updated daily, covers politics, arts and culture, sports, and news. The magazine is known (and sometimes criticized) for adopting contrarian positions."
I was contacted by one of their writers, Katy Waldman, who requested an interview. She conducted it for about 30 minutes over the phone. She didn't tape it but rather wrote as best she could my responses to her questions. In some cases, her paraphrasing was a bit off. But, in general, she got the spirit of my responses.
Here is a link to the interview:
Slate Interview With Jason Bartlett
nicely done, Jason... great photos of you. great article overall. I shared it on my facebook page for friends of mine to read - friends who may or may not understand what I am doing these last 15 months...
thanks!
Gary
Great job Jason. I'm sure it will help people understand us a little better....and appreciate us for who we really are.
A.D.
Well done, Jason, well done. Never thought that we would ever gain such attention. Makes me wonder what the future has to offer to us.
Well done, Jason! The article was a breath of fresh air because it was respectful, and not snarky like similar articles have tended to be. It handled well the truth that some men are just "born that way."
Bill
at once a honnest journalist and a good paper
Hi Jason,
Well I have to say I'm glad you were the one to represent us when this interview request found us.I'm not much into drawing attention to myself but you did a fine job in explaining our mission.I never heard of Slate until now as its nice getting some exposure but you can really say "we've made it" when the existence of longhaired men appears on the next edition of "60 Minutes"! LOL.Job well done Jason.Cheers
Mârk
Hi Jason,
Thanks very much for this! As always, I would expect nothing but the best from you my friend! You are to be commended for your willingness to do this! Kudos to you!
Ted
Hi Jason,
Thank you for sharing this, your interview was awesome, and cheers to you for furthering our cause!
David
Great article, Jason!
Jason,
A cool interview and article. You address the issue at hand very well!
peace,
jonalbear
This is just fantastic, Jason... What a boon for long-haired men, and those who aspire to be! Well done, and thank you.
Cheers,
Val
I was very pleased to read this paper about you.sincerely.all the best for you. From my cold/old Québec city.Yves
Thanks for the comments everyone. This journalist had emailed the moderation crew seeking an interview. At first we weren’t sure about it wondering if the request was from a legitimate source. It definitely was as Katy Waldman is quite a prolific writer. She was respectful both in her email and phone contact with me. There was no sarcastic or snarky overtones to any of it. Some of my responses got mismatched to other questions but considering she was only basing it off notes, it was a decent adaptation.
I found the small-mindedness of the people who wrote comments on the article to be discouraging. It shows there's still prejudice out there but I think it's a testament to the strides we're making as a society that the article was published. It was definitely respectful and the ignorant comment-makers only make themselves look bad.
Also she said "test the edges of traditional gender roles". This was purely an editorial comment on her part. We don't feel like long hair has anything to do with gender. While it's true women traditionally have had longer hair than men, most men with long hair view it as a part of their masculinity and in NO WAY an attempt to look or act in a feminine manner.
I agree with your assessment of the article's comments. It's interesting (in a hypocritical sort of way) that a number of the people who commented disparage the right, the appearance, and the masculinity of men who have long hair, while others attest that long-haired men in this day and age don't have to deal with discrimination or persecution. Ah, insecurity at its best! As you said, "the ignorant comment-makers only make themselves look bad."
--Val
Sometimes it's hard for a writer to get outside of their own head and into yours, which they need to do to conduct an interview with you. I've been interviewed by print writers a few times, and I've seen them quote me with words I never use, and once a British writer quoted me with saying a British expression I know damned well I didn't use. [grin]
Strange you mention seeing reader comments. The page I viewed did not have any. I just looked at it a minute ago, and it still doesn't have any. I then refreshed my cache, and it still didn't have any.
Yeah, I'd love to see her send her husband in to ask the question in a Hell's Angels bar. [wink] I see two issues here concerning "gender". One is that the magazine did not pick up that this was a clearly male issue, they assigned a woman to write the piece, and she put it in a section of their website that caters to women! That is where her mind is trapped. Some women could break out of that shell to do a male piece, but he placement of the article alone shows she could not.
The second connection to "gender" surely went way over her head, because it was not mentioned at all. A man's being longhaired has no connection to "gender" (a word mostly used by women, while men use "sex") but rather to "gender identity" (a phrase equally used by both sexes). Every person has an identity, and "gender identity" is where someone's identity is on the opposite side of the line that divides the sexes. Our feelings about our longhair identity can be just as strong as transgender people's feelings about theirs. It's really the same mechanism as "gender identity" but it's not related to one's sex at all. It's an identity that seeks a place within one's own sex. There are surely just as many women who also have an identity that includes having long hair, but it seldom comes to the forefront because few get bent out of shape over it.
Bill
Bill, you have to click on the maroon button with the quote symbol on it to get to the comments. It only works for me on Mozilla on my home computer. At work I couldn't get to the comments using Internet Explorer.
Thanks. Not intuitive at all. It did work, but few would know what that button was for. Making it worse, it was alongside a Twitter and Facebook button, which go to other sites that are social networking sites. People are leery of going to social networking sites if they don't know what they are or already belong to them. It never occurred to me that a click there would go to anything on site.
Bill
Well-done, Jason!
Thanks so much Jason for doing the interview...
... those comments are just plain ignorant.....
The Spaf Man
That was cool.
Hair Religion