I understand the satirical part of this article. I know the history. I get it. I have some very strong feelings in that regard, too. It serves no purpose for me to vocalize them. Painting every female writer on Medium with the same brush you use for one person feels horrible.

I do well on Medium without following the path you outlined in your satire. As tongue and cheek as it may have been, it devalues the work I’m done to become proud of the work I do here.

Bottom line: we are human beings, not machines. C.S. Lewis said we read to know we’re not alone. Our society is starved for human connection. Personal essay gives that. Memoir has exists as a genre for an exceptionally long time. It’s not new. Medium didn’t invent it.

There is some fantastically shitty stuff on Medium, no doubt. But it make it a derivative of a female slant is myopic. My concern in you article is information you state as fact without any support. Just because a Facebook group is 65% female doesn’t mean all of Medium follows suit with that percentage.

Lastly, this demeans the work of all women who write narrative personal essay. I hold to a hard, fast rule that no one will ever read an article about my vagina because my vagina ain’t anyone’s god damn business. That said, I understand some people feel compelled to write about theirs and others feel compelled to read about it. To each their own. Eve Ensler pioneered it, others ran with it. It doesn’t mean that my article about my existential mid-life crisis is any less poignant.

Lastly, writing has been a male dominated endeavor for centuries. I’m okay with women gets the spotlight right now.