Whenever fortune smiles upon Sass & Balderdash and a WordPress Editor decides to feature one of my posts on Freshly Pressed (at the recommendation of the lovely Emily no less!), I feel obligated to write a thank you post and acknowledge some of the feedback. Besides, it gives me an excuse to bust out the fine china.
Firstly, thank you for all the comments, reblogs, and shares. I wrote “An Open Letter To Jennifer Lawrence (from a concerned fellow 23-year-old” very early in the morning on Monday, and when I heard it was being Freshly Pressed, I had to go back and re-read it because a.) I had no idea if it made sense and was actually funny b.) I had to make sure there were no embarrassing typos that would be seen by a wider audience and ruin my (nonexistent) reputation.
Unfortunately, the attention paid to potential typos distracted me from the glaring oversight in my tongue-in-cheek open letter: it offended the clumsy, an apparently sensitive group who has some members who are oddly proud of the frequency in which they fall down.
I had no idea the klutz community was so robust and so well represented on WordPress; mea culpa for not only stepping on your toes, but for probably making you fall down in the process. I was also unaware that Jennifer Lawrence was the unofficial spokeswoman of blundering people everywhere, and when I joked about your undisputed hero not getting enough potassium, I assure you I had no idea that it could be construed as dragging her name, talent, or reputation through the mud.
The reach of my post was vast enough to even catch the attention of a dignitary from an esteemed professional organization who is regarded as a success story in the clumsy community. I’d like to give a special shout-out to this card-carrying member of the Bureau for Indignant Treatises, Comments, and Haranguings:
From another “normal” 23 year old woman? I fall down about as often as she does – that is to say, all the time – and frequently trip over nothing. I’m glad you were graced with excellent balance and a self of self-poise……some of us weren’t. It’s refreshing to see someone who, even though they may act for a living, isn’t acting off-screen.
…Instead of mentioning how I never wrote that I was a “normal” 23-year-old woman, please allow me to apologize Mean Girls style for my excellent balance. I can’t help it if you’re jealous of my uncanny ability to maintain equilibrium, and it’s clearly from a place of stability superiority that I write everything you read on my blog. Here’s a picture of me just hanging out on a BOSU ball brainstorming my next great blog post:
Gosh, it’s so hard being better than people who trip often.
I think some of you clumsy folks are exaggerating just how often you actually trip as a means to defend stumbling. Please hear me out—I was not intentionally marginalizing the act of falling down. In hindsight, I wish my blog post hadn’t outed me so obviously as someone who’s prejudiced against klutzes. To show solidarity for your collective wobbly plight, I’ve deleted an article I wrote about the benefits of standing on one leg.
A few people seemed to be offended at the mere suggestion that J-Law may have faked her fall(s), and apparently simply mentioning the possibility of that made my entire post a McCarthyian witch hunt to expose sweet Jennifer Lawrence as a fall faker. Truthfully, I don’t think she’d fake a fall, but I’m not ruling it out.
On a more serious note, I have no idea why anyone who read my post and commented or wrote their own blog post in response is mentioning anything about J-Law being a great role model, especially in terms of body image acceptance. My post was not meant to be an assessment of Jennifer Lawrence’s character, an examination of her merits as an actress, a stirring look at the pressures she faces as a superstar, or an estimation of how high her heels are. In case you missed the memo, my post was a good-natured, humorous open letter meant to entertain and express some concerns I have about her steadiness. Just because someone spreads a positive message about body acceptance and is totally one of my girl crushes doesn’t mean she’s immune from my jabs. By extension, just because I joked about her falls doesn’t mean I hate everything she’s ever said about food.
If I may, let me introduce you to something called “taking a joke.” The vast majority of you are pros, but I’m totally willing to help those of you that have lost your way.
Finally, and most importantly, welcome to all of the recent followers! I’m looking forward to getting to know you new Sassholes soon!
PS: To everyone in the comment section who reminded me that 2013 was just last year, thank you so much. When I’m not blogging and maintaining superior balance, I’m time traveling, and sometimes I get a little mixed up.
