March 14th, 2006
Just blog… regardless of your gender
I’m experiencing a touch of déjà vu as Fiona has resurrected the old Women and blogging chestnut. Many of the same questions have been raised, namely, why don’t more women blog?, Should we encourage more women to blog? Is there a perception that women ’soft’ blog? (ie blog about the domestic and personal) and if this accurate and, if so, is that necessarily a bad thing? As many of the responses and views aired by people joining the debate are recurring, I’ll just direct you to the comments section of Fiona’s post. However, Fiona raises some additional interesting questions about how blogging could be empowering for younger women in particular (especially in the light of Piaras’ recent post) and how might blogging be used to highlight ‘women’s issues’ in the upcoming election?
Perhaps Fiona is advocating the kind of community endorsed by an aggregator called BlogHer who recently started linking to me. It outlines a female-orientated Mission that also aims to include men:
BlogHer’s mission is to create opportunities for women bloggers to pursue exposure, education, and community.
Given the number of women who showed up at last weekend’s Blog Awards and all the women who were longlisted and shortlisted, I don’t think we’re too badly off. Ok, so only two women won awards but in proportion to the numbers involved, it certainly isn’t a catastrophic figure. The number of Irish women blogging has already risen since Round 1 of that debate four months ago, which proves that it facilitated some change. It also demonstrated that women who were perhaps intimidated by traditional male dominance of a techie arena like the bloggosphere were willing to stand up and say they were bloggers. The healthy ratio in attendence at the Alexander Hotel makes me inclined to believe the gender balance is changing.
I would agree with Damien and particularly Paige’s remarks in the comments on Fiona’s thread where she says:
I’ll probably invoke the wrath of all sorts of radical feminists here. But I really can’t see why we should discriminate against ourselves. The beauty of Blog O’Sphere is that it is inclusive, caters for all ideas and persepctives. Having a women’s forum suggests to me that we are unable to cut it in the male world. I tend to think of Blog O’Sphere as a community of individuals with a diverse array of ideas and an equally diverse array of qualifications to back up these ideas. Gender doesn’t really come into it.
Treasa also has a point in her I just get on with…blogging post. I don’t hate the term ‘bloggeress’ but a term that defines a blogger, any blogger, by their gender does not exude inclusivity to me. Neither does the derogatory term “bloggobimbos”, which an ENN piece reporting on the blog awards claims was “was floating around the bar after the event.” Personally no one I met on Saturday seems capable of saying something like that in the context of the night.
That Girl suggested that we should all try to build on the success of the Blog Awards by attempting to increase the numbers of people blogging - be they male or female. Now that Damien is trying to organise Wiki workshops, this should make setting up a blog much easier for the technically challenged.
Anyone who knows me will tell that I have been a blog pimp for months, acting like some wordpress pusher, attempting to force unsuspecting friends to start their own blog. I’ve badgered an equal amount of male and female friends, acquaintances and people at parties to take the plunge. One friend is setting up a blog to showcase her poetry, another wants to set up a blog to discuss visual art. Another guy is a bit of a political animal and relishes a debate.
So my advice to one and all would be to forget the gender tags, embrace the communal, unisex nature of the bloggosphere and start blogging. Anyone who doesn’t yet have one, would be well advised to take a trip to Blogger.com or preferably, Wordpress. You could have your very own soapbox, magazine, journal, speakeasy, gallery or ‘curated space’* in under five minutes.
*term coined by That Girl.
March 14th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Bloggobimbos? I didn’t hear that at all. Grrr grrrr, what an awful term. The only thing to do is stamp it out. If we all make a concious effort not to use that term or even refer to it again, it’ll die out.
March 14th, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Right on girl…I am so tired of this discussion - it seems to me that its going around in the old familiar circles. But I’d like some of SImon’s shampoo and chocolate if he’d care to share
March 15th, 2006 at 12:14 am
Ladies - let’s not assume that the bloggobimbos referred to in the article are women!
March 15th, 2006 at 1:54 am
snorts….oh the attribution possibilities are now endless when one puts it that way TG…
March 15th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Yea, I don’t see why we always have to be doing the gender-count. By constantly forcing the issue we’re only creating the very separations and exclusions we are trying to avoid. Before this debate I don’t think I paid any attention to the gender of the blogs I read. Now I do and that’s unfortunate.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
If anyone wants to call me a ‘bloggobimbo’ please feel free!
I wasn’t at any of the ‘after events’ on Saturday but I did speak to a lot of people before and during the Awards and no one expressed any sentiment that was even remotely derogatory towards women bloggers.
In fact, it didn’t seem to occur to people to classify blogs by gender at all. When they talked about Sigla Blog or Thinkingoutloud the discussion revolved around the high quality of the writing and the ideas - not the gender of the blogger.
March 15th, 2006 at 4:54 pm
Maybe it’s simply because I’m arriving late to the dance, but I still find this debate very interesting…to the extent that I’ve used it (partially) to dig myself out of blogging apathy and listlessness.
Obviously the reason this blog, and thinkingoutloud, are as popular as they are is due, exclusively, to the excellence of the writing. I’d also agree that ‘gender’ doesn’t have to be ‘foregrounded’, or made a point of, in every blog. One of the plusses of online discussion, after all, is a certain invisibility and anonymity (though recently compromised in ‘our’ cases).
Having said all that, I still find the online gender dynamic fascinating…although that, as I said, could be put down to my tardy arrival to this particular conversation.
March 15th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Sinead, I’m with you and so many others on this one. That said, I think Fiona (again) has done Blog O’Sphere a great service by ventilating this argument.
In the context of the good vibes that eminated from last weekend’s awards and the very strong community spirit, I think it was interesting (disappointing) how destructive some of the arguments were.
I wonder if there was someone out there with a particular minority view, would they feel comfortable enough speaking out. If not, it’s a shame.
Also, Gingerpixel ran with the “soft blog” discussion on her blog. A (joking) comment by a man about men not being able to write about their feelings has some mileage for further discussion.
March 15th, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Women blog. Even women geek/parent/creative types like me. It’s just that the higher profile bloggers are men. I don’t know why that is and I don’t care. For a very long time I thought blogs were self-aggrandizing vehicles used as an ego-feeding device. It wasn’t until a friend actually talked me into blogging that I learned what a wonderful experience it was to write and read the writing of others, male and female. That experience has nothing to do with my gender.
I’d love it if things didn’t have to always be gender-defined. Seems to me that a blog is worth reading if it addresses topics important to me, and that my blog will be worth reading if it is the same way.
March 30th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
I am intrigued by the discussion on this site about the gender issues involved in blogging.
Because it is such a gender-neutral medium I wonder why it has become an issue?
Seen as though I am the reporter who repeated the term “blogobimbo” I must apologise if it caused offence, but I faithfully recorded a coinage which came up in conversation amongst several individuals on the night of the Irish Blog Awards in Dublin. I fully agree with the commentator above who says it doesn’t necessarily have to refer to women. However I admit the word “bimbo” is usually used against to women (often by women), alongside the gloriously descriptive (and equally insulting) “himbo” for ditzy men.
I am new to the blogosphere and I think it’s great. Not least for all the clever new coinages I have come across.
Keep up the good work and I look forward to attending next year’s event. Tell Damo not to put it on after the Rugby though. The festivities can affect us reporters’ ability to keep our heads screwed on right…
April 25th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Interesting fact, Bimbo used to refer to a tough big man in the 20’s. Wonder how the meaning changed from the big dumb tough guy to its current usage.