I made a flippant remark in my comments box yesterday about this story reported by the BBC. A blogging air hostess known as Queen of the Sky has been fired by the airline who employed her after publishing saucy pictures of herself posing in the cabin wearing her uniform on her blog. And letting her skirt ride up a bit. Given the media attention this has generated, she’ll probably end up in the pages of Playboy, so I’m not too worried about her future employment prospects, but it has got me thinking about the issues involved. And feeling just a little bit paranoid.
The reason I decided to blog as petite anglaise has a lot to do with wanting to prevent people I work with from discovering I am the author of this blog. Even though at the moment most of them wouldn’t have a clue who Belle de Jour is or what the word ‘blog’ means. My family and close friends are in the know, and some even read regularly, but I’d rather my co-workers remained blissfully unaware of the fact that the Frog won’t marry me or that he owns a baaing sheep thong, unless I choose to tell them myself. Similarly, I believe I have a duty to protect the identity of the Frog and Tadpole. It’s only fair. They don’t have any control over what I write and the Frog’s co-workers might conceivably read it one day.
As for my own boss reading this blog? It is my worst fear. He’s an expat in the land of the Frogs, as is his wife, so you never know whether one day their internet surfing might wash them up on these shores. I imagine the main issue my employer would have with my blogging would be to establish whether I post on company time. Mostly I blog at lunctime or in the evening (the time of posting being irrelevant and events not necessarily occurring on the day I say they do), but of course I do surf other people’s blogs and write my own during slack periods at work. Pre petite anglaise I used to openly read the Guardian when my in tray was empty, and the response this elicited from my boss was usually along the lines of ‘oh yes, I read that story too this morning on my palm pilot, what do you think about it?’, but you never know for sure how people will react, do you? So, as a precaution, you won’t find me moaning about my boss here.
Anyway, *coughs*, he is the best boss I’ve ever had, and it would be difficult to fault him.
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I think most people who blog anonymously have a fear of being discovered, but it kind of adds a frisson, don’t you think? I for one would be red-cheeked if some of my colleagues here knew what I’d written about them. Because even though the names have been changed, it wouldn’t be that hard to figure it out. It must be nice to have one of those blogs where you are just ‘Johnny Smith from Kent’ and it’s all more or less true and you don’t care who reads it. I like to make shit up though ha ha ha
Comment by Claypot — October 28, 2004 @ 1:42 pm
I suppose it does add a little thrill, if I’m honest. And I find that petite anglaise has developed a personality all of her own. She is me. But she’s the me I want people to see.
Comment by petite — October 28, 2004 @ 1:51 pm
A baaing sheep thong???
Lui aussi!
Why do all British girls feel obliged to buy this for their foreign boyfriend???
Comment by Chninkel — October 28, 2004 @ 1:58 pm
he he
even worse – an (english) friend of mine bought it for his birthday and had it mailed directly to his office
Comment by petite — October 28, 2004 @ 2:28 pm
Anyway the horse thong is so much better!
Comment by Chninkel — October 28, 2004 @ 3:11 pm
you would be amazed to learn how easy it is to ‘out’ someone. i was talking about this with another blogger last week and he was saying just how easy it is to find another person’s ‘anonymous’ blog.
admittedly, this friend does know a lot about computers :)
Comment by zed — October 28, 2004 @ 3:18 pm
I tend to censor what I write at times, for the very reason that I do not want to get into trouble at work if someone finds my stuff. I try not to bitch about people, and all my family and friends know about my blog. I have pretty strong moral values though, that if I cannot say something to someones face, I definitely shouldn’t say it behind their back.
There are some blogs that shock me, in the way that they talk about their place of employ, their friends, and even their family. I think it’s just a recipe for disaster.
Comment by Katia — October 28, 2004 @ 3:41 pm
zed – Oh my god it has just taken me approximately two minutes to unmask myself. And someone else on my favourite blogs list. And I’m not exactly geek of the year.
That is seriously scary.
Comment by petite — October 28, 2004 @ 4:06 pm
who did you out on your fave blog list????
If you speak portuguese it would take about four seconds to out me, maybe someone has already, but I’m pretty much as anonymous with my real name anyway.
If you speak english you can just ask my mother who tells EVERYONE wherever she goes about my not-so-anonymous-anymore blog… if you want my mother’s email address it’s vitsma…… ;)
I’m now going on a mission to find you! hahahahahah (wicked laugh)
Comment by vitriolica — October 28, 2004 @ 4:32 pm
holy shit! I’d tried that before but never got anywhere, thought I was safe…but, no, there I am in all my glory! that’s a bit worrying!
Comment by vitriolica — October 28, 2004 @ 5:05 pm
If you’d have stayed at blogger you’d never have had this trouble, tempting as it is to have your own domain. Come back p a, we love you.
Comment by backroads — October 28, 2004 @ 11:18 pm
backroads – do you have shares in google by any chance?
What’s the weather like in Huddersfield today?
*evil laugh*
no one is safe
Comment by petite — October 29, 2004 @ 10:24 am
Careful now.
Comment by Simon Bolivar — October 29, 2004 @ 11:01 am
oi stalker
that has now been deleted from whois, but you obviously made a note of it yesterday. I look forward to receiving cadbury’s flakes and curly wurlys in the post.
Comment by petite — October 29, 2004 @ 11:13 am
I swear I haven’t kept the details. But I’ll bring the Cadburry Flakes next time I come to Paris.
Comment by Chninkel — November 1, 2004 @ 10:40 am