randomWalks

Many more women are participating in blogging than participated in, say, Usenet. In fact, in a lot of ways it seems as though women *rule* blogging.



I used to feel intimiated posting here, too until we had that discussion about sexism back in February. I think it's because rW has a certain political agenda that sometimes seems narrow, and I'm not always sure my posts fit in with it. But it has nothing to do with gender.

shoot. What I was trying to say was that aaron at uppity negro is one of the very few (only?) male bloggers who does an excellent job of including women's voices in both the blog and the comments. I'm not sure how he does this, but I feel pretty confident that I can go there without having to endure random sexist shit. He should be a-listed here.



Sorry about the html fuck-up there.

I thought I did that, but I guess I did not. Sorry. hahahaha. Perhaps this is why there aren't more female bloggers.



I should just go to sleep.



hahahahaha

I'm kind of amazed by the number of people who are saying "Gender doesn't matter unless you tell people your gender" because gender does matter. duh. But, yeah. Of course the blog world is sexist.
That said, i feel like I've built a comfy little shelter around myself because I began blogging with a number of hipmamas, and have pretty much linked exclusively to women. And I don't really separate out the blogs that are "political" versus the blogs that are "personal" because most of the women I link to have political ideologies woven into their personal, everyday goings-on. And that's what I prefer.
I have to admit (re: the conversation about rW) that I tend to feel a little intimidated posting here. I don't know if that's internalized stuff of mine, or if it's something that's being generated from rW, but it's there. Take that for what it is. And it's really weird because rW has been so very cool and supportive of Full Bleed for awhile now. I'm not sure who that comes from specifically. For some reason, though, I feel like I have to use a different voice to post at RW than what I use to post at Full Bleed. And it's not an entirely natural voice. If that makes sense.
And now, at the risk of being totally obsessive, I would like to say that Aaron seems to do an awesome job of including the voices of men and women in both his blog and his comments. I don't know how he does it...but his blog is one of the few male blogs that I feel totally comfortable commenting on and frequenting. I don't really worry that I'm going to go there and have to audibly cringe at a wayward sexist remark. (Which reminds me...Why is he not on the a-list?)

Aaron's clearly one of the greatest living webloggers, but I don't read his site regularly because I get too mad at all the warmongers and racists he's always talking about. But you're right, he clearly belongs on the a-list.

I think it's because rW has a certain political agenda that sometimes seems narrow, and I'm not always sure my posts fit in with it.



Can I ask what you mean by this? I don't mean for this to be so -- although I can see where we are narrow with respect to being -war and -racism, because I certainly feel strongly about these two issues and am not personally interested in debating them.

See. I very much agree with almost all that is posted here, so I don't think it has to do with the content so much as...what? I don't know.



And I was not here for the discussion that already occured, so...I'm not sure how that would help me. In fact, I read it over last night, and didn't really see any resolution.



I absolutely LOVE randomWalks. I think it's an awesome site. The intimidation I feel is not coming from any one individual on the site. I'm just saying it's there. I'm not even saying it's definitely sexism, but I can't say for sure that it's not.



To be more clear I guess most of what I don't feel comfortable posting here revolves around parenting, but I think children and the issues surrounding them are a big part of my feminism. Perhaps I am just silencing myself out of consideration for the non-parent contingent of rW. There are other forums for that information...but it seems like the other forums are pretty much women-only, and I wonder how men educate themselves about breastfeeding/education/discipline/childbirth/etc. Because those are all men's issues, too.

drublood i'd really welcome parenting stuff mixed in. plus some of us are parents/wanting to be parents/aunts/uncles etc. i get intimidated/turned off when boys start posturing with one another on the site. girls may do it too; but it feels like a patriarchal thing that happens sometimes, and in blogging as in life, i just leave. i'm not talking about hard political conversations or interesting debates--to me it's that posturing thing, when some boy says something provocative to get a rise out of anyone who will respond and then another boy responds and they start chest bumping. it's been a while since i felt that on rW although i feel like oliver is often itching for a chest bump with someone. hi oliver, i'm michelle.