April 27, 2004
His 'n' Her Blogs
Rosemary Esmay (aka The Queen of All Evil) now has
her own blog. She'll no longer have to content herself with posting on
hubby's website.
Stop in and check out her new digs.
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April 26, 2004
Spike!
Thanks to
Right Wing News for the sidebar link, left up over a few days' time. As if the Hawkins-alanche weren't enough,
Blogdex has had me at number 22 for the past day or so, and my traffic is through the roof: there's a sort of snowball effect in place there. I'm talking about a more than fivefold increase.
In related events, I'm now past 15,000 on unique visits (closer to 20,000 on page views). Not bad for a tiny blog. These milestones are starting to go by much more quickly. Thanks to all for stopping by.
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April 24, 2004
Is Sex Reeeaally Necessary?
There's a spirited discussion going on in the comments pertaining to
John Hawkins' last post on sexism. Most of it is fluff and bullshit (as with most comment threads), but there are a few interesting remarks, including one from a woman who maintains that female bloggers are more inclined to be prey to stalkers or harrassers than male bloggers.
This may or may not be true, but many more females than males feel they need to blog under a pseudonym (e.g., "Attila Girl") because there is the danger not so much of someone thinking we're right-wing blowhards, but of actually trying to do us harm.
Does the fact that many of us use "pen names" detach us more from our online writing? After all, nothing I write here is much of a resume builder in the outside world. That extra layer of protection can end up harming us.
Discuss.
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1
Or it may free us from from inhibitions and let us express how we really feel.
Of course, a good bottle of wine will do the same thing...
Posted by: Pixy Misa at April 25, 2004 05:32 AM (+S1Ft)
2
Well, first, electronic communications have a well-known tendency to escalate in a way that face-to-face (or even written) communications do not. I’d guess that using pseudonyms may contribute to that, although some of the worst examples I can think of had no trouble using their real names . . . often in a code-duello sort of way.
From my experience, it is simply a fact that women attract creepy stalkers in a way that men do not. We keep a “stalker file” at work filled with correspondence of just such a type. Thank goodness, we’ve never had anyone actually stalk one of our employees or models physically (as far as I know), but the potential is always there.
I think that the bigger problem with blogging as resume-building has nothing to do with pseudonyms or gender, and more to do with the opinion of mainstream publishing towards blogging: that is to say, not very good.
Posted by: Christophe at April 25, 2004 10:14 AM (xYu5N)
3
I am a professional journalist, freelance writer and political columnist. With few exceptions (only one really, and everyone knows it's me anyway in that instance), I use nothing other than my real name. The joke among people who know me is that I am too conceited with my work to attribute it to anyone other than myself. But the real reason is that I believe in accountability. If you are to put forth an opinion, then having your real name on it entails responsibility and keeps things genuine. Death threats are overrated, especially among 99 percent of the population, though work frictions can be an issue.
A female classmate of mine, an aspiring writer, told me that she plans on publishing under a male pseudonym. This is a girl with a beautiful real name, yet the name she picked is mediocre. I asked her why this was the case; she replied that a mediocre male name will get her further than a good female one. She said she knew this from experience. If this is the case, then it needs to change and now. Otherwise we will continue to face pointlessly snobbish name battles for years to come.
PS-I write for real publications, but I love blogs. They give free speech to everyone.
Posted by: Ian McGibboney at April 25, 2004 07:57 PM (VTvXR)
4
Pixy: I'm with you.
Christophe: I think the attitude toward blogging will change. In the meantime there are those isolated instances of people getting all kinds of paying gigs through their blogs--book deals, paid column (some even in print), and the like.
Ian: as you know, I think being female is pretty much a neutral value if the quality of one's writing is high. But I have a respect for the fact that there are stalkers out there. As far as I'm concerned, I'm accountable for what I write here. I'm simply, at this point, unwilling to use my real name in doing it.
Posted by: Attila Girl at April 25, 2004 11:18 PM (q85Vj)
5
I'd say that, for me, there is no correlation between anonymity and the quality of product. If someone has good content, I'll read them. I have bad content, nobody reads me.
Posted by: Gilly at April 26, 2004 07:51 PM (XRjNc)
6
What enables me to blog with my full name is not so much my sex, but the privilege of tenure.
Posted by: Hugo Schwyzer at April 28, 2004 10:46 PM (ZqUZp)
7
That's an excellent point; remember what happened to John Lemon's blog?--first he got threats of people "outing" him as a conservative, and then he went in and edited out any information he thought might identify him. I think after all that it was inevitable that he'd lose interest for a time. I still hope he revives his blog; he's a funny guy. I miss him.
Posted by: Attila Girl at April 29, 2004 12:12 AM (q85Vj)
8
I have a hard time understanding how a young fledgeling writer can know from experience that a male name will hurt or help her. I know at least one professional writer who chose a female pen name because he thought it would help him.
I believe that with many of these things, a female name, or femininity, will hold benefits and assets as well as hindrances. This is why I find much of this discussion just silly. People like John Hawkins and Meryl Yourish are both perfectly silly on this issue. There are ways in which you will get more attention and be taken more seriously if you are female, and areas where you may have a harder time. Just deal. It happens. Men face benefits and pitfalls, they're just a bit different.
Hawkins is being a right-wing ass but not everything he says is completely wrong.
As for stalkers: if you talk to the police they'll generally tell you that men are often the victims of stalkers, they're just less afraid of them and less likely to report them. I think male pseudonyms are just useful for women who wish to avoid the inevitable sexual come-ons that will be thrown their way, which has little to do with sexism (i.e. any notion that women are inferior) so much as the fact that men are simply prone to act that way and you're not going to stop it short of beating it out of them.
Posted by: Dean Esmay at April 29, 2004 03:16 AM (c83Cx)
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April 22, 2004
Stop Oppressing Me
If you really don't want to read the history of this particular blogwar, skip down to What I Think for my current "wisdom" on relations between the sexes.
The Background
Apparently two minor blogfeuds have erupted into a general free-for-all. Everyone wants to talk about whether the Blogosphere is sexist, or isn't, or whether female bloggers have an advantage, or don't, or whether sexual banter is okay, or isn't.
As I understand it, one of the skirmishes that spawned this began with Michele musing about why Wonkette is so successful. A lot of us have wondered that too, since for a number of us the sizzle-to-steak ratio at Wonkette seems rather high. But of course I had those feelings about Tina Brown as well. I think Wonkette's success can be explained by three things:
1) an awful lot of people like gossip;
2) Glenn Reynolds made it a point to link her a lot, and
3) She's got Conde Nast money behind her, which leads to a lot of the non-sphere attention she gets (such as TV interviews and articles in the NYT).
The fact is, it's hard for anyone who's slogging away in the vineyards day after day to watch others compete in what they consider an unfair way. And being broke doesn't bring out the best in any of us--especially bloggers, most of whom are still doing their thang "for fun and for free." Won't it be great when we all figure out how to make it pay? Until then, we'll be tense every now and again. Breathe.
John Hawkins wrote a post about which bloggers he'd like to be marooned with on a desert island. In what I regarded as a bit of affirmative action, he broke it down into half women, and half men. With a comment or two about the females being attractive, he earned Meryl Yourish's wrath, and she produced a counter-list of her own, couched specifically in terms of whether or not she'd sleep with the men in question.
Now all hell has broken loose, with Hawkins responding to Michelle's original post about the Mystery of Wonkette, and Ilyka writing a thoughtful piece that tries to explain why some women are a little sensitive about the prospect of being regarded as a walking pair of tits (as well as linking yours truly--thank you so much!). Then James penned an equally insightful article on why men might truly have an edge in writing about politics--and giving credit to the superstars in that arena, such as Kathy Kinsley, Megan McArdle, and Virginia Postrel. Baldilocks suggested that men and women are different, and that this is okay. Hawkins weighed in one more time. Spoons chimed in as well, leading Xrlq to comment:
Spoons gets a lot more traffic than I do, even though I outrank him in the Ecosystem. It's not fair! Either the Blogosphere is biased in favor of bloggers named after kitchen utensils, or it's biased against bloggers with unpronounceable names. Or maybe it's biased in favor of people willing to live in ... shudder ... Illinois. I don't know. All I know is that I'm being cheated somehow.
Which pretty well sums it up.
Now Meryl feels a "feminist rant" coming on, which should be interesting. I'll read it.
What I Think
Look, boys and girls. I don't feel that I have either an edge or a disadvantage here by virtue of my two X Chromosomes. And I don't like any set of exchanges that purports to tell me what my blog is about based on whether I've ever posted a picture of myself (yes--twice) or mentioned my boobs (yes--several times over the past 13 months).
If you want to know the truth, I don't think the major divisions in the Blogosphere have to do with whether we're male or female, right or left so much as they pertain to whether we're smart, and decent writers. The fact is, most people aren't that bright. When a straight guy reads something by a woman that gets him to really think, he's likely to feel a glimmering of attraction, because it's probably a rare experience ("this person is an exceptional thinker--and it's a chick! So what if she isn't a slender brunette! Hello, hormones"). For a lot of men out there--at least when they are reading blogs--the impulse goes from his brain to his crotch. Not the other way around. (Do not try to get them to admit this.)
Besides, in some cases (I think I'm one) the reality of the picture doesn't quite match the fantasy of however the male reader imagined the woman to be. I think I got more sexy mail from males before I posted the pix than I did afterward. And this is fine, too. I'm here to write. If you think I'm cute, good for you--you have rare and discerning taste.
Most good blogs are magazines. Most of the best political blogs have at least some personal content, whether it's James talking about his cats (or his commute), Laurence discussing the baking of bread, or Stephen Green writing about which car he finally bought. It's all good.
I used to use the word "feminist," back in the days before the movement became a duck blind for shamelessly exploitive philanderers. Now I'm a Whatever Works.
Let's all do our breathing. Stretch a little. Have a martini, if you're that kind of blogger. Or some good herbal tea if you're not. Do your yoga. Have a muffin.
And let's get back into the arena of ideas.
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Posted by: Little Mr Mahatma at April 23, 2004 08:05 AM (BZ0tI)
2
Someone reads the bread posts?
Egad. I thought I was just going to have to retire to cats and my incompetent gardening.
Posted by: Laurence Simon at April 23, 2004 09:16 AM (SLZec)
3
"Most of the best political blogs have at least some personal content."
Hmmm... consider this excerpt from Saddam Hussein's very own blog:
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THE MOTHER OF ALL BLOGS
April 23, 2004
I Am Still President of Iraq
------------------------------
The interrogators came for a visit again. I showed them my plants. The man from the U.S.State Department was really impressed by how my geranium was growing. I demanded special lamps to help the cactus-plant thrive.
We chatted about this and that, and I couldn't remember anything important about WMDs, mass graves or Cayman Islands bank-accounts...
I'm thinking about a new hair color. And I should have gassed all the Kurds while I had the chance.
That explosion in North Korea was obviously an assassination attempt. I should know, with my experience! Ha ha. I'm still president. So why can't I have my own greenhouse, I ask you? My plants are going to die if I don't move the mout of this cell.
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Comments:
-Hang in there, pal.
(Posted by Kim Jong-Il)
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Posted by: A.R. Yngve at April 23, 2004 11:27 AM (mpKpZ)
4
You know, I&rsdquove always found it interesting that outsiders often assume that Blowfish is “female owned and operated” because we offer up a positive few of sex. Hmm.
Posted by: Christophe at April 23, 2004 12:50 PM (2rBIo)
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April 14, 2004
New Blog
My friend Christophe, the Bay Area sex expert and smut peddler, has his own blog now.
Check it out, now. Unless you're sensitive to these things, of course: "adult"-oriented issues will definitely be discussed now and then. Above all, be nice. He's my friend.
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