In Defense of HIStory and BlogHERcon

Back to my Monday blog topic before I was so rudely interrupted by my PC.

I'm amused by all of the brouhaha between the guys and the girls. This issue has heated up in both the print and online realms, with discussion over the alleged blogger gender divide and lack of female political commentary in major metropolitan newspapers.

I'm split over this debate, the woman in me fearing the evolution of one of women's only free playgrounds into a Boys Club, the realist in me knowing that, ultimately, people gravitate toward GOOD CONTENT, regardless of who wrote it.

As I said in response to Jeff Jarvis' blog on the topic, men and women read my blog. Both have generously linked to it and commented on it. For me to turn to roughly half of my readers and call them misogynists ain't polite, nor would it be correct.

The Alpha bloggers are the ones being singled out primarily as stingy with links. I certainly hope they read and link to my blog, but I acknowledge that my subject matter--the occasional rant on, say, urinary tract infections--doesn't hold the same appeal to them as Scoble.

Chris Nolan (a female) expands on the idea that by "ghettoizing" women's points of view we run the risk of futher roping ourselves into a structure that keeps us "lesser than." We'll continue to bemoan how the girls that were picked to be on the team were picked begrudgingly, because the gym teacher said someone had to take the girl.

In other words, if Susan Estrich ever gets her column in the LA Times, will the stigma of her crying misogyny cause readers to read out of condescending obligation? As a writer the thought makes me cringe.

But I also don't believe that means women bloggers shouldn't promote each other, or that the men who love us shouldn't show it. I prefer to take this stance, rather than than gripe about not being in a top 100 or some dude's blog roll.

Maureen Dowd also wrote about her struggle with being only one of nine NYT columnists.

In 1996, after six months on the job, I went to Howell Raines, the editorial page editor, to try to get out of the column. I was a bundle of frayed nerves. I felt as though I were in a "Godfather" movie, shooting and getting shot at. Men enjoy verbal dueling. As a woman, I told Howell, I wanted to be liked - not attacked. He said I could go back to The Metro Section; I decided to give it another try. Bill Safire told me I needed Punzac, Prozac for pundits ...

...While a man writing a column taking on the powerful may be seen as authoritative, a woman doing the same thing may be seen as castrating. If a man writes a scathing piece about men in power, it's seen as his job; a woman can be cast as an emasculating man-hater. I'm often asked how I can be so "mean" - a question that Tom Friedman, who writes plenty of tough columns, doesn't get.

To not acknowledge our subjugation is tantamount to accepting it. Women are constantly forced to do this in the workplace, where we may not work with overt chauvanists, but feel a subtle and growing pressure to conform, to be aggressive, to play Halo with the guys. It's almost impossible for those in the dominant group to feel our pain without effort.

I went to college at a large state school in the Midwest. Being a state school, there was plenty of ethnic representation, but not in the Greek System, which was the largest in the country.

The Los Angeles riots had caused a stir, even in Champaign, Illinois. When the Rodney King verdict was read, several students of color set fire to the quad and to the parking lot of my sorority house. Seeing as we lived in a big white manse I often called Tara that had a seven-foot-tall anchor in the front yard and domestic "staff", I could understand why we were considered a bastion of white authority.

One of my sorority sisters, Chablis, witnessed the arson attempt and had to pick out African American students in a line up. I understood she was afraid, but disguising herself in a scarf and sunglasses like she was Kim Novak was overkill.

Soon afterward a workshop was planned by the high elders in our sorority to develop a better understanding among us farm princesses of people of color. To some of the girls, "People of Color" were those with phenomenal tans. Most of us had other things--studying and drunk men--to do, but this was, like, a REQUIREMENT. You might not get to go to Barn Dance if you blew it off. Someone was really serious about this.

We all piled into our pink and sky-blue living room waiting for our guests to arrive, representatives from a local students of color group. When they did, it occurred to me that, before them, the only minorities who had been in our sorority house had been brunettes.

The lead speaker handed out a pamphlet with a definition of discrimination: When whites judge a less-dominant group as less deserving or worthy.

One of my sorority sisters, who was pre-law, immediately protested: "How can you say that discrimination is only exhibited by WHITE people?"

The speaker, a Latino woman, responded, "Because it is only the group in power that can discriminate. And the group in power is white."

A number of the girls in the house protested vehemently, causing the speaker to counter, "Of course whites are in power! In ways you don't even see! Look around you--go to the drug store. What color are the Band-Aids? Flesh colored. Flesh-colored for whites."

My pre-law friend, getting up to leave, replied, "Then buy the clear Band Aids, Lady."

I felt badly for our guests; they had cogent points, but an almost entitled attitude, as if by virtue of their being minorities we owed them our guilt.

This was the same feeling I had with Estrich. Does she deserve a column because she is a woman? Should LA Times Opinions Editor Michael Kinsley feel obligated to buy the feminine brand of Band Aids--temporary fixes for a much larger wound?

I read the mission statement that Elisa Camahort and Lisa Stone put together on the Bloghercon event (a work still in progress, so I won't link to it yet). They've pointed out women's lack of representation on the established lists, (Technorati 100, etc.) but they are opting for the clear Band Aids: Their focus is one of proactivity. One of celebrating and empowering women bloggers rather than bemoaning our misrepresentation

As the content and mission of Bloghercon develop, I hope to see (and will certainly recommend as I am on the advisory committee for the event) new ways of keeping score. I'll think about people like my 58-year-old mother, who started reading blogs when I started writing them. She reads what the bloggers she loves recommend and could care less about who Technorati tells her to read.

Instead on focusing on the technical aspects of getting links and getting on blogrolls I recommend we use our God-given talent of networking and recommending and encouraging more women to join the fray.

I imagine the Powers that Be will splinter off--the more tech-oriented blogs will have their way of keeping score, and more marketing-oriented, or female-oriented, or spiritually-oriented, etc. blogs will have theirs. And some of us will ooze gloriously in-between realms, where, in my opinion, the real action is.

 

Comments

[progenitor]

as you, I think, know, from time to time I have expressed my views to the local media. Some of my vituperations have graced the pages of the local (read Chicago) papers. I offer this notion to those who wish to be printed, regardless of their sex.
Be concise; long intros are death. Be on point; if you refer to a particular column, be specific; do the editing for them; they are lazy.
I am reminded of J. Kesner Khan, who, as I recall was a postal worker who was gifted with the ability to write well and succinctly; and who managed to have more letters published than anybody in history.
As long ago as when I was a newspaper delivery boy, wrapping my papers, I used to read his letters because they were so pithy and apt. Even our parish priest would include his thoughts in the weekly Newsletter because the ideas were so well presented(his views were largely libertarian, and that flies on the North Shore).
So, to make a long story short, I suggest that the most progressive (read most prone to to be exactly the right ((read left)) people who want to see underdogs excel) people will publish things they personally disagree with, if it is well written, self editing, and brief.

[Rebecca]

I find the comment by the Latino woman interesting. Obviously she's not lived somewhere where the white population was not the minority.

I used to live somewhere that is nearly 60% Hispanic. They may have perceived the white population as having the power because of tradition (and often raised cain over being suppressed by the whites in the area), but the simple fact of the matter was that they were the majority and they controlled far more "power" in the area than they realized. It created this reverse discrimination that was rather odd to watch play out.

One does not need much power to discriminate.

[Robert]

Yes, the debate on op-ed columnists is interesting and worth having and I side with Maureen Dowd on a lot of the issues ... while it's not the first page I personally gravitate to, I admire people who write in that world, believe it's important for objective media to have some subjective opinion-sharing (properly labeled as such) and absolutely, if certain people are or perceive themselves to be excluded from it, that's not good ...

Yet while I concede this is a snarky, jaded way of looking at it, what is op-ed writing at its core? ... spending your day reading what your colleagues and other people are researching and reporting about what other people are doing, then adding your two cents ... some people may not feel that is the most productive way to make a living, and perhaps that's why some smart and ambitious women journalists aren't making it their sole priority.

[Yvonne DiVita]

Good grief! Is this grade school? Boys against the girls? Come on, folks. Women can gather in groups without it meaning they 'hate' men or are discriminating against them. Since men are dominating the blogosphere (so the story goes), what's wrong with women getting together-- without men-- to help each other understand this new communications tool...and how it can impact both our personal and professional lives? THEN...we can have a Big Blog Conference and invite everybody.