House of Eratosthenes

So I’m reading this sob story that included the pie charts you see to the right; as you might expect, the sob story was sobbing away wondering why the sobbingly sad sisters of bloggerdom were outnumbered by us cruel heartless blogger men.

They then go to their panel of three experts. All in all, it was more reasonable than you might have expected. The feminist of the group concedes,

I’d like to decry some barrier or hurdle that’s kept women from having a larger share of voice in the blogosphere. But, honestly, I’m just surprised.

Surely male voices dominate the A-list blogs (if we even call them that anymore). But if you had asked me to guess, I would have said women make up the vast majority of total bloggers. Women are more likely to share their lives and be emotionally rewarded by sharing recommendations.

I do wonder if they’ve simply migrated more quickly to Facebook and microblogging. I read in Harper’s a few months ago that 94% of blogs haven’t been updated in at least four months. Are men more likely to blog or simply more likely to still be blogging?

Mild denial. She thinks it’s an evolutionary process, and as usual us men have taken up the rear…still working on gettin’ rid of our gills.

Well if you think that’s delusional, the next one will curl your hair:

I’ll say something a little controversial here: Men have time to blog. Most women don’t. As a working mom of two, something becomes clear the deeper you get into mom-hood. For most of us, the majority of the parenting is mom’s job, even if both parents are working, so who has time to blog?

Never let the facts get in the way of complaining about how good men have things.

The argument spewing forth from this “Cathy” panelist, to me, is a sterling example of something that has some truth to it…and yet, in the final analysis is utterly nonsensical. Yes, there’s some stuff to back it up. My girlfriend can do four loads of laundry in the time it takes me to separate whites from colors for the first one. And she has damn little spare time. B-u-u-u-t…Cathy, did you happen to see those four pie charts? Facebook, MySpace, Twitter…chickies have time for ’em. The lady of my house is hip-deep into Mafia Wars, and that thing with the farm too. She finds the time for those. She’s got her priorities set just like lots of other females. Women, time considerations notwithstanding, do what they want and don’t do what they don’t wanna do. The choice they’ve made here is clear. Your argument. Window. Sailing. Whoosh.

Keep on selling it, though. Don’t be intimidated by the fact that it makes people like you, and to a lesser extent all women, look like complete morons who lack the ability to a pie chart and see what it says.

Nope, something is at work here. All of the panelists concede in some form or fashion, that women are more concerned with emotional connections than men. A majority amongst them further concedes that “putting yourself out there” to face ridicule is off-putting to the female consciousness. Or, as (viciously outnumbered) blogsister Cassy said when she linked to this dirge…

Women tend to start blogging and then realize that it is a tough, tough world out here. You say something someone doesn’t like, and they don’t dispute your point calmly and politely with rational, well thought-out replies. They attack you, personally. They call you fat, ugly, stupid. They’ll call you a whore or a bitch or a slut. And these are the mild insults. A lot of women have no clue what they’re getting into when they start blogging. And when they see how rough it is, they quickly get out, because to them it’s not worth it.

Every conservative female blogger I know gets this kind of abuse, and it’s often sexualized. We all get it. It’s a fact of life when it comes to blogging. Michelle Malkin had to move because her family was threatened by a blogger who published her personal information — address, phone number, everything. There is nothing that is off-limits when it comes to blogging, and anything can be held against you. Anything can be used as leverage against you to make you quit, to make you give up. And frankly, there are not many women who are as tough as Michelle is, who would be able to keep going. For many women, it wouldn’t be worth it.

Exactly. When you’re building up your social network, if the experience of interacting is what’s really important to you and you don’t care that much quite yet about who’s in the network interacting with you, the MySpace/Twitter/Facebook triumvirate offers more promise than hazard. The blogging thing offers the reverse. Much opportunity to be defrocked of your social stature, with the opportunity for making new friends something of an afterthought.

We’re being reminded yet again that men and women are different. In certain situations, it becomes unavoidable; there are no alternatives to simply facing the truth and admitting it. This is a jarring experience to some, and so they self-medicate on the spot by cooking up some new thing caustic and trite, that they can work into a cliche over time — something that can take whatever form it wants, as long as it is in some way derogatory towards men. That is the single vital ingredient. It is how they cope.

They live in a world in which, yeah, men and women are occasionally different…is long as that’s because the women are always better. Then that kind of thinking is allowed. Otherwise, no. They haven’t matured past that afternoon on the playground in fourth grade, when the boys and girls were making fun of each other.

Women are more likely to share their lives and be emotionally rewarded by sharing recommendations.

Bullshit. Women (tend to) equate complaining about their boyfriends to “being more in touch with their feelings.” And they also tend to equate “talking it out” to doing “something about it.”

Process. Results.

Pick one.
- rob | 10/31/2009 @ 10:46
Bitch needs to shut the fuck up already.

BTW. “As a working mom of two….” is code for “*single* working mom of two” because no man in his right mind could stand to be with her,
- vanderleun | 10/31/2009 @ 14:26
To confirm just click on her pic for the full face shot of the patented disapproving look.
- vanderleun | 10/31/2009 @ 14:29
I can relate to their concerns. I have more thoughts about the question at hand…and you’d think I’d be scattering to the Internet-winds every little piece of politically-incorrect flotsam that’s ever crossed my mind, since I have balls (a skull) of solid rock.

But you’d think wrong. What I’m too timid to publish, I e-mailed in an offline to Cassy. Then again, what I didn’t say out loud, we all realize it deep down so it’s not like we needed the education. We’re all scared to be on record saying this stuff.
- mkfreeberg | 10/31/2009 @ 14:43
[…] – Case in point: Why is blogging such a boy’s club? […]
- Absolutely… Brilliant « Compare / Contrast | 11/02/2009 @ 12:12
[…] We Do Whatever the F*** We Want” Scozzafava Suspends Campaign Four Ways to Spend Money Why is Blogging Such a Boys’ Club? KGBKGB Commercial Newspaper Circulations, Last Two Decades Anthony’s Snow Dismantling America […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 11/02/2009 @ 12:55
Never let the facts get in the way of complaining about how good men have things.Never let facts get in the way. Another Alinsky tactic.

I dunno… maybe women don’t like to blog. WTFC?

Hasn’t the skin fallen off of these people’s hands yet from all the wringing over the years?
- philmon | 11/02/2009 @ 15:07
[…] House of Eratosthenes, “Why is Blogging such a Boys’ Club?” – fta: So I’m reading this sob story… as you might expect, the sob story was sobbing away wondering why the sobbingly sad sisters of bloggerdom were outnumbered by us cruel heartless blogger men. […]
- “Bloggers for Sarah Palin” Links, Part Final « The Irate Nation | 11/03/2009 @ 07:48

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Why is Blogging Such a Boys’ Club?Saturday, October 31st, 2009

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Saturday, October 31st, 2009