LESS OF A SOAPBOX, MORE OF A CONVERSATION….Via Pandagon, Stephanie Schorow writes about women bloggers today at SadieMAG, including interviews with many of my favorites:
While a significant number of female bloggers exist, they often don’t receive the credit given to male bloggers, explains [Amanda] Marcotte. “It’s out-and-out sexism. That comes from my experience switching to Pandagon. For a certain percentage of the audience, there was nothing I could do to make them happy. There was nonstop sniping ? obviously coming from resentment that a woman was blogging.”
….Women often run up against the attitude, Marcotte remarks, that “guys make the rules and they get to decide the impact of a woman’s issue. Women, for obvious reasons, are going to write about women’s issues more.” Kathy cites the example of abortion. “Women bloggers on both sides will post long and emotional and detailed essays. Male bloggers throw a few sentences at it.”
….And yet blogging seems peculiarly suited for women. Less of a soapbox and more of a conversation, blogs comprise a “talk amongst yourselves” quality. Says [Lindsay] Beyerstein, “You get to know the people in your blog community; you get to know the bloggers. You feel like you’re having a discussion with people you know.”
I don’t know if the “talk amongst yourselves” quality of blogs is peculiarly suited for women or not, but it’s certainly one of the blogosphere’s greatest attractions. If blogs didn’t have comment sections and didn’t routinely interact with each other, I don’t think I’d bother reading them. It’s what sets them apart from op-ed pages and opinion magazines.
