I’m going to put the obvious misogyny on a shelf for a minute so I can address what appears to be your main point — that authentic, personal writing is merely a “hack” with no value. This is, at best, misinformed, at worst, complete horseshit.

Historically, the personal essay was primarily the purview of men (Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Homes, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine…I could go on). But now that women are writing essays, it’s a “display of the hearth?” That’s as ridiculous as the notion that posting an article an hour about AI and Cryptocurrency is somehow valuable and universal.

It’s true that personal essays are (by their very nature), subjective. But a good essay transcends the personal to become universal by evoking something you don’t seem to grasp — human emotion. Emotion is not a hook. It’s not a hack. It’s not a characteristic purely relegated to the world of GenX women. Plenty of men write essays that are vulnerable and valuable. Not everyone is going to connect with every story, but this doesn’t mean these stories don’t have substance. (FYI — discerning male readers such as yourself have plenty of other options to consume the content they want.)

Now I’m just going to reach up and take the misogyny down from that shelf and make this a bit more personal. Why invite women such as myself — GenX women who write “content of the hearth” — into your Facebook group and pretend to support us if you fundamentally disagree with what we’re writing? Was it to study us? Was it because you wanted to teach us a lesson? How very patriarchal of you.

The publishing industry has not been kind to women. I know many women who question their validity writers — top novelists, journalists, freelance writers, essayists — all talented, hard working writers who constantly come up against the kind of vitriolic bullshit you’re spewing here. I mean, if you don’t like what Medium is becoming, then shut up and leave. Don’t let the gates of our walled garden hit you on the ass on your way out.