MO: You know, Nicole and I have been enormously lucky; we receive little to no negative attention from men or anyone else. We moderate our comments, but there’s very little moderation to actually be done there. I have no idea why but I’m enormously grateful. We have a terrific audience, and while sometimes we have some commenters who disagree with us, it’s generally in a really respectful way. But just because we’ve been fortunate doesn’t mean it isn’t a significant problem. 

 

SA: Recently, you published a serious (and I think very well done) essay about sexual assault, which was written in response to a post on Hobart about the Tao Lin and Stephen Tully Dierks sexual assault allegations that have rocked the wee world of indie publishing. Talk to me about the decision to switch up registers like that, to cut the comedy and address something serious seriously? 

 

MO: I think possibly it’s that this was packaged as a sort of “complicated but important” essay by a handful of progressives when it was, in fact, some very old, boring, dangerous ideas poorly dressed up as feminist contrarianism. But I’m not sure! There are so many things I could respond to seriously on a daily basis, and I almost never do, and I’m not sure exactly why I decided to talk about this. 

 

But I texted Nicole over that weekend, and told her that I felt compelled to, and she was very helpful as I came up with that piece, and I probably won’t write anything very serious for another year or so now. 

 

SA: Have you received any response from Elizabeth Ellen or the other Hobart editors?

 

MO: No. And that’s fine.