The Born Free (or Bi) Manifesto

I was recently asked to speak on a panel about "The Freelance Lifestyle." While I'm always very up front about being freelance, the title of the panel made me furious. The expression, freelance lifestyle perpetuates a myth promulgated by the religious right, and I'm sick of having to debunk it. But here we go again.

Freelance is not a lifestyle.

Some of us grow up to find that we are, by nature, strongly attracted to freedom. We're freelance. It's not something we choose, but something we are.

Other people--most people, I admit--are naturally wired for a strong attraction to security. They are employed. That's just how they are, and no one ever says that these people are "living the employed lifestyle."

Actually, the folks who are subjected to the most irritating "lifestyle" babble are those who go both ways. Attracted more or less equally to security and freedom, they are employed but also freelance on the side. They may get flack both from their freelance friends and from their employed friends about this "choice." But these people aren't "choosing a bi-lance lifestyle." No. They are bi-lance.

The expression "freelance lifestyle" is built upon the lie that those of us who are freelance "recruit" others to be like us. As if we needed more competition. What we do sometimes do is encourage freelancers who are passing in the employed world to come out of the closet and live their attraction to freedom in an honest and forthright way. We know they'll be happier.

We don't insist that everyone like us, but we do want to see an end to this "lifestyle" rhetoric.

In short: We're here. We're free. Get used to it.

-- Bruce Holland Rogers

Freelance Writer