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I am Woman, Hear Me Blog?

There has been quite a dust-up in the MSM and blogosphere about, depending on your perspective, the lack of, or plentitude of, women political columnists and bloggers. I can't remember who started it, but the first post I read about it was this one by Kevin Drum. Kevin, who certainly is no chauvinist, later somewhat sheepishly noted his post didn't go over very well with women. (See the comments to his post. Mine, which basically sums up my views on the topic, is here)

Jude Nagurney Camwell of Iddybud has compiled a lengthy list of women political bloggers. Michelle Malkin provides her list of women bloggers today (I'm flattered that TalkLeft is listed in the liberal category.)

If you missed the entire discussion, Culture Kat has catalogued it, from 2002 through the present, as part of her dissertation which she describes as "a feminist rhetorical analysis of gender and blogging practices."

New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd weighed in yesterday. One line that struck me:

Male bloggers predominate, as do male TV shouters.

I don't know about that, particularly tv shouters. Nancy Grace, Wendy Murphy, Lisa Bloom, Jeanine Pirro, Gloria Allred, Jayne Weintraub and I all shout pretty good and usually louder than the males. Those that don't shout, Lis Wiehl, Rikki Klieman, Leslie Crocker Snyder, to name a few, also get themselves heard quite well. My problem is with the imbalance, the proliferation of conservative/prosecutor-type tv shouters over liberal/defender ones.

I think it's the same for blogging. There just seem to be more conservative women bloggers and columnists than liberal ones. So I'll take a few seconds to acknowledge some liberal ones. Among those I read just about every day and whom are not, to my knowledge, professional writers or professors in their day jobs, are Avedon Carol of Sideshow and Jeanne D'Arc of Body and Soul. As often as I can, I check out Susan at Suburban Guerilla, World O' Crap, Natasha at Pacific Views, Mad Kane, Libby at Last One Speaks, Julia at Sisyphus Shrugged and Teresa at Making Light. Cookie Jill recently joined Skippy and is doing a great job.

Maybe it's just me, but I am much more attuned to whether the blogger or opinionator has a voice I agree with and find readable, than whether s/he is male or female. There's only so many hours in the day, and I just don't spend many of them reading blogs and columnists who are going to make my blood pressure rise.

There's always exceptions, and that's why I keep a "Best of the Other Side" blogroll on TalkLeft. I read Jeff at Protein Wisdom and Stephen Green at Vodkapundit every day. Both Jeff and Stephen asked me to guest blog when they went on vacation and I was flattered to be asked. (I'm posting at Vodkapundit this week, and so is another female blogger, conservative La Shawn Barber .)

So, bottom line, I really don't care how many female bloggers or columnists there are. The fewer conservative/prosecutorial ones there are, the better. The more liberal/defender ones there are, the better.

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    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 05:46:58 PM EST
    I was reading TalkLeft for many months before I ran across someone who mentioned you were a female. Bit of a mind rub.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 07:15:04 PM EST
    Maybe it's just me, but I am much more attuned to whether the blogger or opinionator has a voice I agree with and find readable, than whether s/he is male or female. I think the issue wasn't so much that are you reading those blogs by women, and more that they aren't getting the recognition that the big guys are.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 07:37:10 PM EST
    Left women bloggers, unite! :) Mixter

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 10:06:54 PM EST
    There are some bloggers, male or female, who openly discuss aspects of their life that others would consider to be personal. Others hold their life secret, Atrios was the extreme, although there are others who remain anonymous. Whether the blog fits into one category or the other does not seem to make any difference in content.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Mon Mar 14, 2005 at 10:15:09 PM EST
    It would be nice if Randi Rhodes had a show or at least appeared on the tube, she can shout with the best of the winguts! Jeralyn, you make too much sense for those bigmouths

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 01:30:33 AM EST
    The occult question of gender voices (which also contains gay, children, and elderly voices) is not the issue. This isn't a garden party, it's free speech politics in dangerous times. There isn't any difference of a gender sort that is pertinent. Free speech about great outrages sounds pretty much the same, no matter what gender the speaker.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 01:40:59 AM EST
    I was attracted to the title "I am woman, hear me blog" since I am assuming that THIS person will NOT be bullied into "dropping that CHOICE issue" that centrist Dems are pushing so hotly now. What a war on women we have going out here...we really need some Articulate voices underscoring the equally prime importance of CHOICE to everything else we have to fight...I just want to see dauntless women rise again in these debates...in the media...on the internet....(it's good to read/hear men adamantly advocate for keeping Choice strong now as well...)

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 02:52:14 AM EST
    I hate that blogs are popular. Just goes to show how Americans love thier news edited, stripped, and lacking of facts and objectivity. Being informed its just so dam hard.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 04:56:33 AM EST
    over at vodkapundit, on this topic, i made a remark to pro- voke the author [not t.l. -- the author there opined that women cannot serve as correction officers, citing events in atlanta as her "proof," on national television yestrday. sheesh. . .] the truth is, i think we need the whales to more liberally link all sorts of new vioces, then let the readers decide whom to follow, long-term, and whom to dismiss as wing-nuttery of a different gender. . . just my honest $0.02. p e a c e, -- tae, out.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#10)
    by pigwiggle on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 06:50:07 AM EST
    Where is the transgender perspective?

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 06:56:46 AM EST
    Hiding in plain sight, if you ask me: Just take a look at the Bloggies winners, so many of them are women 2005 Bloggies

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#12)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 07:09:19 AM EST
    So many intelligent female bloggers and who gets the press? Wonkette and her slut gossip.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 07:59:53 AM EST
    I know a blogger who's a military officer but also female and Asian, and she refuses to "come out" because she's afraid she'll have less of a voice or that people will pre-judge her. So it's very likely that there are more female and minority bloggers out here than is apparent.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Mar 15, 2005 at 12:33:25 PM EST
    I am woman hear me roar. The next line in the song is,"In numbers too great to ignore". So we have eight syllables with the emphasis on every second one and it must end in a word that rhymes with blog. That's a tough one, what can you do with that? Here are four suggestions for the second line after,"I am woman hear me blog". I speak but find the forum hogged. I'm simply shouting in the fog. I do not wish to see your log. I fear I may have kissed a frog.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 10:42:54 AM EST
    I am not sure why anyone would think that the "blogging" industry would be any different than other industries. While I understand what is being said, I can't support women dominating an industry just for the sake of the numbers. Some women ( men too, it isn't gender specific)aren't really saying anything -whether they are blogging, shouting or whatever. To me, it is like the diversity for diversity's sake argument- you can go around & around with this.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Mar 16, 2005 at 01:41:11 PM EST
    Posted by: Che's Lounge on March 15, 2005 08:09 AM So many intelligent female bloggers and who gets the press? Wonkette and her slut gossip. oo, totally gotta agree with that.

    Re: I am Woman, Hear Me Blog? (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Mar 18, 2005 at 07:08:44 AM EST
    Just wanted to mention that there are blogrolls of women who blog politics at What She Said! If you know of a woman writer not listed there, just send a link and specify whether she should go on the Progressive, or Conservative list.