All Blogs are Not Created Equal
The following is a letter written to a media outlet on the discussion of women on op-ed pages and women as bloggers--two, I believe, very distict and separate issues
As a woman blogger, who posts on a broad range of topics from the sublimly personal to the ridiculously political, I think the link between the dearth of women on op-ed pages and the number of women who are blogging is something of a red herring.
In general, alot of people are blogging (see Blogads survey here)
--and, if you note, the average age of a blogger is now over 30, even though there are still a preponderance of blogs on Livejournal written by girls of high-school and college sophmore age. Many of these people, both male and female, are not blogging to report the news, nor are they blogging in an effort to be ersatz journalists. (I consider myself an ersatz pop cultural commentator, as do loads of others who comment on music, art, local music/art, high and low fashon, etc.*and* post events from our personal lives.)
Yet the recent upsurge in blogger readership(as noted in Blogads) shows people (predominantly upper income men) searching for blogs that fuction as news outlets--which may be, in part, caused by all the media flap about blogs. Most women's blogs do not completely fit this category of "kinda-news" all the time. (Take a look at Blogsisters, which often has political commentary, but also has personal comments relative to how women live their lives.)
It seems that, among males, there are many wannabe liberal Matt Drudges, but that the women, while just as liberal, have other stuff going on other than political navel gazing and muckraking.
So, it's not necessarily that there aren't enough women bloggers and that our writing is not as good as men's-- it's more that what women are blogging about is not necessarily what the majority of male blog readers want to read on a regular basis. And that many of us *do not* unlike male bloggers, consider ourselves ersatz journalists.
Which is a *completely* different issue than women on op-ed pages, which is legit, print journalism, which is a place many bloggers don't aspire to. Men on op-ed pages are often considered intellectuals and thinkers--not bloggers cum journalists. Which is exactly what the women should be--not lawyers turned infotainment commentators like Susan Estrich.
The question then should be where are the women thinkers who might be writing op-ed pieces? Where are the new Susan Sontags (not the new Maureen Dowds)? They might be on blogs, they might not be. I would say that, with a few exceptions, they aren't on blogs any more than men, and that the problem with women on op-ed pages may be the result of the good old boy network of journalism shutting out women thinkers--and also the simple fact that, even with all the feminist thinking out there, that there just aren't all that many women intellectuals and thinkers that are on the same level as the men. Women's studies, and feminist thinking, is still considered an intellectual backwater, with more feminist intellectuals shooting themselves and their arguments in the foot than there are those that can be taken seriously. Consider Estrich again--and her attack on Michael Kinsley's health. If she wanted herself and women in general to be taken more seriously, she would not have proffered such a low blow.
Or is it just that women, in general, even when they reach the level that most men do in order to write op-ed pieces, are too busy taking care of kids and husbands and do not have the time nor the space to devote to writing in the same vein as male op-ed writers??
Cordially,
Tish G
As a woman blogger, who posts on a broad range of topics from the sublimly personal to the ridiculously political, I think the link between the dearth of women on op-ed pages and the number of women who are blogging is something of a red herring.
In general, alot of people are blogging (see Blogads survey here)
--and, if you note, the average age of a blogger is now over 30, even though there are still a preponderance of blogs on Livejournal written by girls of high-school and college sophmore age. Many of these people, both male and female, are not blogging to report the news, nor are they blogging in an effort to be ersatz journalists. (I consider myself an ersatz pop cultural commentator, as do loads of others who comment on music, art, local music/art, high and low fashon, etc.*and* post events from our personal lives.)
Yet the recent upsurge in blogger readership(as noted in Blogads) shows people (predominantly upper income men) searching for blogs that fuction as news outlets--which may be, in part, caused by all the media flap about blogs. Most women's blogs do not completely fit this category of "kinda-news" all the time. (Take a look at Blogsisters, which often has political commentary, but also has personal comments relative to how women live their lives.)
It seems that, among males, there are many wannabe liberal Matt Drudges, but that the women, while just as liberal, have other stuff going on other than political navel gazing and muckraking.
So, it's not necessarily that there aren't enough women bloggers and that our writing is not as good as men's-- it's more that what women are blogging about is not necessarily what the majority of male blog readers want to read on a regular basis. And that many of us *do not* unlike male bloggers, consider ourselves ersatz journalists.
Which is a *completely* different issue than women on op-ed pages, which is legit, print journalism, which is a place many bloggers don't aspire to. Men on op-ed pages are often considered intellectuals and thinkers--not bloggers cum journalists. Which is exactly what the women should be--not lawyers turned infotainment commentators like Susan Estrich.
The question then should be where are the women thinkers who might be writing op-ed pieces? Where are the new Susan Sontags (not the new Maureen Dowds)? They might be on blogs, they might not be. I would say that, with a few exceptions, they aren't on blogs any more than men, and that the problem with women on op-ed pages may be the result of the good old boy network of journalism shutting out women thinkers--and also the simple fact that, even with all the feminist thinking out there, that there just aren't all that many women intellectuals and thinkers that are on the same level as the men. Women's studies, and feminist thinking, is still considered an intellectual backwater, with more feminist intellectuals shooting themselves and their arguments in the foot than there are those that can be taken seriously. Consider Estrich again--and her attack on Michael Kinsley's health. If she wanted herself and women in general to be taken more seriously, she would not have proffered such a low blow.
Or is it just that women, in general, even when they reach the level that most men do in order to write op-ed pieces, are too busy taking care of kids and husbands and do not have the time nor the space to devote to writing in the same vein as male op-ed writers??
Cordially,
Tish G
posted by Tish Grier at 9:45 PM
1 Comments:
Interesting take.
I think we may yet see intellectual women rise to the top of the blogosphere. I think lots of them are the younger women who are blogging now and will develop their thinking as they go along. It will take time to get "known".
Lots of bloggers right now are like me:everyday mundane sorts, who, while putting domestic interests first, are now excited about the venue of development that blogging represents.
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