Laura McKenna at Pajamas Media: "Let’s Give the Mommybloggers Some Respect." I agree. When I hear about the paucity of women bloggers, I just laugh. For example, the article points out that Blogher lists 3,200 self-identified mommybloggers on its blogroll, but those numbers aren’t close to their overall numbers. Some women just like to blog about other things than technology and politics. What's wrong with that and why aren't they just as important?
posted by Helen at 10:28 AM
21 Comments:
I know I read a recent article, maybe a few months ago, that said the majority of bloggers are now female. I went looking for it but I can't find it. There is absolutely no paucity of female bloggers in 2008. However, there may be fewer women bloggers who blog about politics and technology for a good reason, women are more prone to harassment online she becomes subject to an increased risk of harassment. Mommy blogging is probably a safer arena than politics.
Cham,
Bloggers of any stripe can be harassed--men and women. I think some women, especially those on the left tend to take it more personally. Those on the right are used to it. That's really the main difference. One example, when tech blogger Kathy Sierra was threatened, she went ballistic and everyone went on and on about it like it was some new development. Michelle Malkin is threatened with death threats on a regular basis--she also has more courage than just about any blogger out there.
Some people can handle being harassed, others not so much. As the WP article points out, "A 2006 University of Maryland study on chat rooms found that female participants received 25 times as many sexually explicit and malicious messages as males." I wonder if anyone has done a similar study for bloggers.
Cham,
My guess is that what men and women perceive as "malicious" messages are different. Women tend on the whole to be more sensitive to comments. More men probably shrug it off. Women complain more readily that they are being harassed. That would make an interesting study--the difference of perception of male/female bloggers when they receive negative messages.
Yes, you are probably right. Many women are obsessed with being liked or perceived as being nice. Perhaps one would also have to tabulate the comments that are perceived as negative by the receiver. But I would still expect that women are sexually harassed on the Internet at a much greater rate than men.
cham, helen --
It would also be interesting to find out what percentage of those messages originated from females. Like the case in Missouri, women can sock-puppet too.
Yes, that's an important point. When a woman gets a sexually charged threat, she assumes it's from a man...
With all the comments I see about kicking men where it hurts, accusations that they're gay at a dime a dozen, and talk of 'bobbiting' (that IS sexual harassment isn't it?) I don't see a huge difference. Women somehow don't count these remarks as sexual harassment, but tell men to 'stop whining' and 'suck it up'. Men who blog are frequently targeted with threats of bodily harm, and death threats.
Isn't it better to think of doing something about it, rather than focus on another '(something)hits women hardest' shriekfest?
Yes, there are many things people can do about it. The first is to simply not open oneself up to harassment by not blogging. Another: Avoid supplying an email address, refuse comments or moderate one's comments. Another way is to avoid any reference to your gender and let everyone guess. Avoid placing a photo of oneself on one's blog. You can't stop people from trying to intimidate, insult or marginalize others if they have an avenue to do it. Some people get some a kick out of anonymously harassing others. Perhaps these people feel powerless in their real life. It is what it is and it is sad that people do it.
Cham,
People should be braver than that. If someone wants to blog, they should do it. If a person is that intimidated about "not being liked" they will never get past it until they try. No, people should not harass others on the internet. However, like all hobbies such as rock climbing, biking, etc, there is risk.
Oligonicella,
True, some of the worse harassers I have seen are women. They tend to be angrier than men and more passive-aggressive in their tactics so the web is a good place to get out their anger without anyone really knowing who they are, within limits.
Pockosmum,
Good points, I think the harassment against men and women is just different. Women don't seem to care if men are harassed (unless they are a male Democrat who is pulling for their particular candidate) but they are more than sensitive if they are being bothered.
You are right, it is better to try to do something about it than sit around talking about who has it worse.
I meant in the media in general, I realized later how my post might sound, I'm sorry. I didn't mean here. It seems that there are a lot of articles out there about how tough women have it, when men have it equally as tough or tougher.
I sure could have used the help of an an army of mommy bloggers years back when my children (especially my daughters) were young.
Not just in the expected physical changes category, but in dealing with school systems, choosing good pediatricians, dealing with boyfriends, etc. I did (finally)learn, to a lesser degree than a woman , how to just shut up and listen to my daughters when they wanted to talk about problems. Being a male, my natural response was to hunt and kill the problems. That's not always what they wanted (duh). Most times they just wanted me to listen, nod, and hug. It took way too long for that to compute.
We laugh about much of it now. Well, they laugh at me. But that's OK. They know my heart was in the right place, and my aim was true.
This is a subject that John Hawkins over at RightWingNews has talked with several of his female blogging friends about, and the consensus seems to be that women DO receive more hateful mail and comments than men, albeit not as much more as it would seem to be, because of the different levels of response, as has been mentioned above.
There seem to be three main thoughts on why this is. One is that people are less afraid of retaliation from a woman (even over the Internet, believe it or not). Another is that women seem to focus more of their anger at other women, especially when they come forth with ideas and opinions that differ too greatly from their own. And the third is that, because women react more strongly to negative comments, they wind up in a feedback loop where their reaction reinforces the attacker's desire to insult them.
I am familiar with this last situation, as I was terribly sensitive and emotional when I was going to school as a child, and was targeted for teasing much more than other children because I would react more and they would get more enjoyment out of tormenting me. This dropped precipitously in my senior year, as I calmed down and became more self-confident (and realized that the name-calling of a bunch of children wasn't worth getting worked up about).
I like mommy bloggers. I visit several regularly including marbel who comments here regularly. I'm surprised she hasn't commented on this thread.
I think I like the greater focus on kids rather than politics although I blog about politics quite a bit. Reading about other peoples' kids, how other parents handle them and activities they do together helps me do a double check on my own parenting.
Aw, Dadvocate, thanks for the compliment. I fly so far under the radar I don't think most people would really consider me a blogger, much less a mommy blogger. Hence, I have never had a problem with harassment.
I agree that women are often tougher on women, particularly those perceived as more successful, smarter, prettier, thinner... and I'm sure some are happy to try to undermine that if they can.
And women are more prone to see criticism where there is none. I see this a lot with the homeschooling. Disagree with someone's methods or curriculum choices, and watch out! So much insecurity.
br549 - You cracked me up. Hunt and kill the problems, indeed. It's hardwired in you, man. And thank God (or who/whatever you choose) for that.
marbel: My oldest and her hubster have a six month old son. And boy, could I tell you about my grandson!
I'm sending them to your blog.
Only 11 percent said that politics was the primary topic of their blog.
My own blog is primarily about movies, but occasionally I'll comment on any political messages in them.
I used to read a mommy-blog called Briefcase Mama. She is just a small blogger and doesn't post very frequently. I don't even have any kids, but I liked her writing style. She is also discovering that being a mother and full time career woman isn't as easy as she was told growing up.
br549: thanks for your kind words. I bet your daughter and her family are terrific. Why don't you start a granddaddy blog?
Gosh, marbel....flattery will get you everywhere.(humor!)
For reasons I won't go into, I just don't have enough time to start a blog. I'll bet a grand dad blog would be a riot, though. Hell, we'll laugh at almost anything!
I consider myself mommy blogger as I am a stay at home mom who likes blogging.I blog more about articles and stuff though!
Hurray to mommy bloggers!
My most faviorite mommy blogger is Darcy
at www.lifewithmy3boybarians.com
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