Blokes at Crikey are wondering why they don’t have more female subscribers, and “Where are Australia’s female political bloggers?”
Excerpts from the thread:
Possum Comitatus:
“Something that has surprised me for a while on the gender balance of the Australian political net is the lack of big female political bloggers. We have Kim and Anna over at LP as a group blog, while Tigtog and Lauredhel at Hoyden touch on politics occasionally and do it well – but where are the dedicated Australian political bloggers of the likes of Wonkette or Pandagon that we see in the US?
Let’s do our bit to find them. Know any female political bloggers in Australia? If so, drop a link in comments and we’ll list them here – big or small, old or new – and hopefully give them some exposure. If you’re an Australian female political blogger, don’t be shy – tell us about your blog.”
Dave Gaukroger:
“I agree that more female voices online would be a good thing, but there is still the ’shrill vs confident’ gender problem to overcome. Until online discussion as a whole becomes a bit more civil I think we’ll continue to see women ignore the rabble.”
Jason Wilson:
“Poss, I don’t want to preempt what will no doubt be a long list of female political bloggers, but is it possible that snark culture in big-p Political blogs might be off-putting for some women? Let me be clear, I don’t mind a bit of snark myself, but is it possible that it’s a macho mode of speech and interaction that a lot of women can’t be bothered with?”
daiskmeliadorn:
“i always considered most of my LJ to be ‘political’: in the ‘personal is political’ way; when i was talking about my honours thesis on sexuality; when i wrote about my own or others’ activism; and when i occasionally discussed stuff that was in the (mainstream) news of the day/related to the “circus down in canberra”. of course there is overlap between all these aspects of ‘politics’.” (and all of daiskmeliadorn’s comment @5)
BH:
“oss – I think it is partly time constraints. Working life, family life, keeping relationships in tact, etc. take a fair amount of time. [...] My daughter and daughtersinlaw just do not have any time in their busy working/home lives to indulge in the way I do. But they are very, very politically astute.”
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@Anna Winter (and Fine, to a degree, since you quoted this and agreed with it with no alteration)
Maybe I’m just doing this whole “worst possible reading” thing (and now I’m being snarky, I suppose), but this reads like a pretty major false dichotomy, right here. I don’t see where anyone’s said anything beyond the fact that perhaps it’s important to place a little more weight on the experiences of people who’s day to day lives are the subject of the discussion to hand precisely because these are their lives. Perhaps that doesn’t mesh well with some idea of valuing everyone’s voice equally, but I tend to find that presupposes a problematic version of ‘equally’ that ultimately ends up serving oppressive structures. To characterise that as asking for their ideas not to be challenged is a pretty uncharitable reading of the order you’re throwing accusations around here about, to be perfectly frank.
I also think it’s interesting (with no comment on intention) that you used the passive “hear” rather than the active “listen to” when referencing a thread where many PWD felt their experiences weren’t being listened to.
Anna@45 – it’s not about snark, but group dynamics and insider/outsider politics.
Linda, could you expand on your comment? I’m not understanding it.
Anna, both Fine and Allordinary2 have said more than I would dare to say here, on the subject. But I have expanded on it at my place. This part of Allordinary2@42 really resonates for me.
“…but I don’t get how you reconcile the desire to subvert oppressive structures of domination with the way you treat people don’t agree with you here.”
Linda, if I understand your post correctly, you don’t like HaT, you don’t think it’s a feminist site, and you don’t like a lot of the commenters here.
I’m not sure what to say to that. Certainly I’ve felt similarly about other popular feminist sites, and wild ponies couldn’t drag me back to them. I didn’t like the culture anymore, didn’t feel welcome, and certainly have had many conversations with people about it. I know there’s nothing those sites could do now to make me think better of them.
I think I should bow out of this thread now, since I can’t think I’ll contribute anything of use to it.
http://www.blognow.com.au/lookingglassalice/165794/More_ways_to_shit_on_women_Part_47_-_laugh_at_violence_against_us_trigger_warning.html
Linda, as far as I can tell our online relationship went south months ago after you accused me of holding one commentor above you in the blog’s hierarchy simply because I disagreed with your response to something written by that commentor. As far as I was concerned then and now, the following week it could easily have been me disagreeing with that commentor and agreeing with you on some other matter, but you chose to interpret it as some sort of avowal of the other commentor having a permanently higher status in the commentariat. I probably didn’t respond to that as well as I could have, because it seemed like such a blatantly incorrect evaluation of the situation that I was honestly gobsmacked.
You have made several similar accusations in the months since, and not surprisingly each time I’ve resented the accusation a little more. Sometimes a difference of opinion is just a difference of opinion, and to be told that my expression of my own opinions is misusing moderator privileges to reinforce some hierarchy seems like just another way of shutting my voice down, to be frank. It appears that only if I conform to your way of doing things will you then view me as not playing some sort of dominance game over you, which seems rather upside-down.
Because of your accusations I’ve come to deeply dislike interacting with you, especially since reading some of what you’ve written on your blog judging me as a hypocrite and bully, and there’s no doubt that this colours my responses to you, but from my side of this strife I see it as purely a clash of personalities. This is of course not to claim that I am in any way immune from reacting in unthinking ways that do reinforce patterns of dominance, just that I honestly don’t think that’s what I’m doing in my dealings with you.
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