Everything is so beautiful until...

A post where I make fun of the officially unofficial award-giving and mutual heavy petting that's running rampant around the blogosphere. 

When I began Poetic & Chic a year and a half ago, I did it because I wanted to write about fashion, culture, style, and whatever else seemed to cross my path that was cool enough to mention. The whole thing has been stimulating and fun – building a network of writers and readers – like an old-world salon or Montparnasse café in the 1920s. It’s already being proven that our independent voices in the new media are changing the capital-C world of Communications.

With this of course there is always a little distaste for how things get done. Yes, even in the blogosphere, which we would like to think is a creative utopia – a Bloomsbury, if you will, of respected expression and exchange of ideas – has its share of politicking and cliquey behavior. It’s really only been in the past few months though that I’ve noticed some of the voices in this area are becoming more and more…high-school-ish.

It’s never been my thing to write about the ultra avant-garde or celebrities or “it” bags or “must haves”; I write about what I like. If you like it too, that’s great. I have no interest in making silk purses out of sow’s ears by disclosing my Barney’s sample sale scores or how I made a thrift-store find look like Prada. (Hell, we all know Prada looks like thrift-store shit half the time, so who cares?) I’ve never wanted to cater to the wider audience of fashion blog readers and pander for their opinions. I’ve just wanted to be myself and contribute what creativity I could to the bigger world. They can do their thing and I’m happy to do mine.

But back to high school. I’m not one for awards or recognition – if I were, I’d turning this site into a diary of me and my fabulous life, my fabulous closet, my fabulous shoes, my fabulous career. (News flash: No one's life is that fabulous and if you need a blog to validate yourself, well...I won't judge you. But let's tone down the chest-beating, shall we?) I'm not trying build some notoriety of self, I just feel like I have something to say that's worth saying, regardless of honors and accolades. However, I do think that when awards are being given, proper care and attention should be given to all sectors, not just the ones with the widest appeal.

I’m bringing this up because there’s a little thing going on around the blogosphere this week known as The Fabbies. I know, I know. What the fuck are The Fabbies? That’s what I said too. Apparently, a group of “lifestyle” bloggers decided to give out awards to bloggers in this sector (fashion, style, home, etc.) because they were being overlooked by the larger blog awards. Don’t get me wrong, I think this type of self-startedness is fantastic! It’s downright old-school, showing that cracker-jack American ingenuity that’s made this country what it is today. I take issue with The Fabbies because the nominee group is extremely small. Among the nominees are a few great sites, but most, in my humble humble opinion, are not the best that the “lifestyle” blogosphere has to offer.

So, I had a question: how did The Fabbies nominees get chosen? Who says they're so fabbie-worthy? I thoroughly researched the website, asked the organizers via their blogs (no one seems to offer an email address contact,) and now I’m waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Sorry darlings, no answers here. A beat reporter might say: “Calls to their offices were not immediately returned.” (Also, I happen to hate websites where you have to register to do anything. Sorry, I think my personal info is out there enough already without creating an "account" on your silly site. Just my $.02.)

What is refreshing is that The Fabbies make no bones about being “unofficial.” They come right out and say that they made up the awards, and since there’s no explanation of how sites were nominated, I’m drawing my own conclusions that they did a very Prom-Queen thing and…voted for their friends? Gasp! Shocking! No, not really. Like I said: high school.

It's like the girls' locker room:

Girl A:"You're sooooo pretty, ohmigosh I LOVE your iPod Nano."

Girl B: "No - YOU'RE soooooo pretty. Ohmigosh, and you're so skinny too. I could never be as skinny as you, especially since my Daddy just paid to have my boobs done."

Girl A: "Ohmigosh - I love your new boobs. You're so IN for Prom Queen. I'm SO voting for you."

Girl B: "Whatevs. I'm voting for you. And you'll win 'cause you have that new ice-white BMW 325 AND you're already head of the cheer squad and everyone knows what that means..." 

Mutual-stroking continues indefinitely... 

The thing is, if you only read your friends’ blogs, who else would you vote for? They claim that it's "a democracy...with the blog readers, fans and supporters" determining the votes. That's very nice. Yet again, who chose which blogs get voted upon? Let's stretch a bit, shall we?

In the end I suppose The Fabbies are a step in the right direction, even if I don't necessarily agree with their tactics. This is how the regular fashion media works so why should the online version be much different? 

***************************** 

Since The Fabbies made up their list, I’m going to make up my own too! Announcing the first-ever P&C Awards, bestowed upon the bloggers whom I think deserve them the most.
(All P&C awards given by overwhelming unanimous decision, counted and verified in secret by Price Waterhouse Coopers.)

The Daily Dose of Beauty Award goes to both Curious Bird and 3191 – for their daily contributions of beautiful moments.

The Lotos Eaters Award for literary, philosophical and stylish ideals goes to Julie Fredrickson at Almost Girl. 

The Voice of the Forest Award for best fashion commentary by a different species goes to Martin at Daddy Likey.

The You Talkin’ To Me Award for provocative topics on a regular basis goes to Meg at Faking Good Breeding.

The Product Porn Award for beauty product appreciation goes to Kristen at Sugarshock. (Sugarshock IS one of the sites up for consideration on The Fabbies, so please don’t forget to vote for her!)

The Who'da Thought Award for random creative appeal goes to my friend Alice Lam at Circle A Line.  

The Marcel Proust Award for being chic and grounded…and in Paris goes to Elisabeth at La Coquette.

The Lovely Disaster Award goes to Claire and Lola at Lola Is Beauty – they couldn’t have done it without each other.

The Crowning Glory Award celebrating the queen within all of us goes to Wendy Brandes at WB Jewelry – the one, the only.

And finally…

The Tess McGill Award, celebrating “a head for business and a bod for sin”, or in this case, luxury goods and goings-on, goes to Helene at The Luxe Chronicles.

Vote for your favorite blog, or maybe find a new favorite by visiting The Fabbies website.