It started with this post - a survey of what blogs are read by the media by Daniel Drezner.
The survey is flawed, but they have to start somewhere.
In both cases looking at the date from elite (A list) and non-elite response one this is patently clear.
They are all male.
Understandably female bloggers responded.
Feministe pointed out the obvious.
Guess what, again?
That’s right. Top ten - no women. “Elite” responses - no women. One woman (Amanda Butler) was thanked for “collecting and collating the data while displaying the utmost discretion.” Women are valued for … their secretarial skills.
This discussion comes up approximately every three months. Rivka at Respectful of Otters just wrote about it. I last wrote about it in March. Nothing changes. A male blogger (this time Matt Yglesias) asks where are the women interested in politics, or asks where are the women bloggers? We see more media articles that completely ignore the contributions of the large number of female bloggers out there. The guys inevitably say “mea culpa,” but go back to business as usual. Rinse and repeat.
We are half the population, and we are nearly half of the blogosphere. We do not deserve to be ignored.
Drezner responded to the critique and although ackowledging flaws in the survey couldn’t resist a few shots. The comments under his post are interesting.
There is a flaw in point 5. If the female bloggers are interested in politics, why wouldn’t they be reading the blogs mentioned?
It is one of those blog debates where everyone is busy laying blame.
One of the things that strikes me reading the comments is the scorn and lack of respect, not for the discussion per say, but for women. The female bloggers responding to the survey results did bring up the obvious flaws.
Looking at the comments are they any kind of an indicator of how American males treat women or did this discussion just bring out a few purile types?
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Thanks for responding respectfully - considering the amount of venom we’ve received over the last few days. I agree that the study was flawed and that was what my guest-poster was pointing out. Dresner’s study was more of a side comment than the subject of the post. I’m sorry that the comment about Butler hurt her feelings - I read her at Crescat Sententia and quite like her.
I, Lauren aka Feministe, did not write the post. A guestblogger did. I stand by her observations of the good ol’ gender tizzy that comes up on a quarterly basis, and how it’s the A-list that wonders where we are then is shocked when we answer, “Hey, buddy. Right here.”
It’s not about wider readership - if large readership gets comments like the ones that run via Glenn Reynolds’ blog, I’m certainly not interested. But I’m here, I’m blogging about politics, and I was here last time someone brought up the question and innocently wondered why women are supposedly uninterested in politics.
While some have claimed that this was a stunt set up on my part to get more hits, I must say the kinds of commentary I got were unwanted. Threats of sexual violence really aren’t my bag.
Did you hit the nail on the head in your comment!
This discussion does pop up with a dreary regularity, doesn’t it?
The most common complaint I receive from the sub-division of god-blogs is lack of respect.
In a survey I did in November, female bloggers were not well linked by males. And this sub-division actually has an older majority than mainstream blogs.
I think the lack of acknowledgement partly goes to ingrained ideology in religion, but it certainly goes beyond that as your blog has pointed out.
The net is a commons, and a free for all, that’s fine. But I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone does not grasp they are talking to people with feelings and lives.
I was not impressed that your guest blogger, others, or you were accused of link-whoring or other things that were said. That is the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?
And, it doesn’t take being female to see when someone is being condescended to.
I am genuinely sorry people were hurt.
The threats are inexcuseable, and it may well be small consolation to say bloggers need to strongly condemn that behaviour and get techs to help take steps against that kind of abuser.
This issue will keep coming up and will need to be addressed by both genders.
I thought your blogger et al were terrific. Blog on!
Thanks for the great post. I should not have been surprised at the comments at Dan Drezner’s blog, but … whoah, talk about vicious. Most of those commenters came from the link Instapundit gave Drezner’s post. All they ended up doing was reinforcing my points and Lauren’s points.
This same old firestorm does come up approximately every three months like clockwork, and it was going on before I entered the blogosphere a year and a half ago. When I first started my blog, I found posts about a firestorm that had ended. This is the ultimate meme.
Lauren’s right that Drezner’s poll was only a side comment to my main point. I didn’t know that Amanda Butler’s feelings were hurt. If she as hurt she definitely misunderstood my point. I never doubted for a second that she was qualified for the job. What caught my attention was the language used to describe what she did because “collected and collated” are words traditionally associated with secretarial work. Language is a powerful tool. If language traditionally associated with research assistant work were used I would not have found it necessary to say anything. It was the description given of the work she did, not her job, herself, or her credentials, that was the issue for me.
Yes, the survey is flawed. Drezner admitted it has flaws. I simply thought he ended up with a clubhouse effect that only told the A-listers and the A-lister wannabes what they wanted to hear. They wanted a Sally Field moment - “The reporters like me! They really like me!” If he plans to publish his findings in an academic journal he will receive the same criticism from his peers, so it’s not like I wrote anything others wouldn’t notice. I know some of the male bloggers, especially the top tier ones, want “big media” exposure. The New York Times in particular hasn’t been very kind to bloggers in general, so I think that is part of what lies at the bottom of the debate and vitriol as well - the guys wanting more attention from big media, and they are not getting it to their satisfaction. Only 4% or 11% (depending on the source) of Internet users even read blogs, and most people who read them read for less than two minutes and read their friend’s blogs. Maybe Lauren and I just reminded them of what is really bothering them and they took it out on us.
It wasn’t a stellar blogging moment was it?
All I could think of was:
“If you can keep you head while all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”
“If the female bloggers are interested in politics, why wouldn’t they be reading the blogs mentioned?”
That is indeed the heart of the question. I, for one, don’t read many of them (and none regularly) because they are boring. Boring. Rant and rave, rave and rant, without much in the way of interesting background, thoughtful research, or human interest. I am very interested in politics, but the politicians don’t seem to be interested in speaking to my issues.