Ahem.
We're not.
And for the record, the female blogger contingent is rather large. Just ask all the fans of BlogHer.
Well, in what is an interesting turn (or not), Globe and Mail is allowing Femme-bloggers to have their say. On Friday, G&M is hosting an online discussion - or possibly an MMA event - entitled Women Bloggers Take on Margaret Wente.
Though some wonderful ladies I follow and enjoy reading will partake in tomorrow's G&M gab-fest, I'll be skipping it. Because now the question is: was this all a ruse? Is this some sort of BS piece to make us talk? Or is Margaret Wente so disconnected from the Interwebs that she actually thought most bloggers were boys? And now she can invite her detractors to an online discussion and with a nudge & wink convince us that, of course, she knows better and really she was giving us some girlfriend sisterhood forum to voice our opinions?
Well thank you Ms. Wente, but we already had one.
Our blogs.
5 comments:
I'm *glad* we're talking about it. That's good. But I still don't think we should let Wente get away with it.
Please don't give the column itself a direct link-it just proves it and makes the G&M happy. People will find it if they really want to see, but the more Google Juice they get (via blog links) the more people will *continue* to see it.
Btw some dummies actually believe her (I'll post this url here as he won't get google juice from a comment :): http://joshchandlerblog.com/margaret-wente-the-blogosphere-is-dominated-by-men/
Thanks for the comment! I understand your point about driving traffic their way, but I find that context is required in this case. I think it's important that people read the article and see G&M's spin on it. Nothing tires me more than seeing the blogosphere go off on something no one has actually read :)
As for Josh's post: As you mentioned on Twitter it's not the only one, unfortunately. I've seen some references being made to thin-air stats on blog gender. People love their stats. Throw some numbers on something and people are more likely to believe it.
I hope at the very least, all this chatter wakes people up to the assumptions people make of the blogosphere: we Femme-bloggers are perceived as not being present at all or only blogging about our mothering side. And while I love my mommy bloggers very much, I want my geek girls to get some recognition too.
It's interesting. I fight for food bloggers because I feel what we have to say can be just as inspiring and thought provoking as other bloggers, be they political, technological, environmental, etc.
I never thought to look at my championing the community I blog for as male or female dominated. Ours are socially conscious ideas that are gaining traction with attention finally being paid to what we eat and how it is produced.
While I am unamused with Wente's piece and the Globe and Mail purposely creating a publicity stunt, I am grateful at the sheer variety of female bloggers' blogs that were brought to the forefront. Visibility is important. Wente's piece gave female bloggers attention.
That said, I have stripped foodiePrints' piece of links to the Globe and Mail website. I will not reward them for their behaviour.
Jenn and I work hard to adhere to a code of ethics. And, we're told food bloggers are unethical...
You're totally right. When I saw the link to the debate I realized the whole thing smells of linkbait.
*sigh*
Let me just say, that while her comment that blogging is just spewing forth opinion at random and therefore a guy thing is both offensive and and self-contradicting (isn't the female stero-type that we are Always talking?), but also untrue for a lot of us bloggers. I know my posts, while rarely deep thought-provoking pieces (and by rarely, I mean never), do take hours to craft, if not days. Unlike her research for her column, I have a feeling.
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