Tally man
In response to Jeneane‘s observation that I’ve been slighting women, and at the risk of being slightly obsessive, here’s a list of every mention I’ve made of a blog since May 1.
1 Wireless blog starts – all men
2 I’m going to blog a conference — Neutral
3 Democratic Convention blog — All guys so far
4 AP writes up Joi Ito, male blogger
5 Halley interviews Andre — female blogger
6 Tool for turning your blog into a book — I credit a guy for the link
7 BlogCritics mention — mixed gender blog
8 Cluetrain writeup — Passing reference to Steve Johnson with a link to his blog.
9 Sudan blog — group blog, no indication of genders
10 Response to a blog entry by a guy at Worthwhile, a mixed-gender group blog
11 Link to BuzzMachine’s list of people blogging a political conference — BuzzMachine is a male blogger
12 List of the bloggers sitting next to me at a conference – 4 male bloggers
13 Plea for money for RageBoy, male blogger
14 Joi wants to know where to go next – male blogger
15 Link to the blog of a political author — Male
16 Gay supreme court justice — link to AKMA, male blogger
17 Storage prices falling — link to a male blogger who tracks prices
18 Link to a woman who maintains a blog for her 2nd grade class
19 Link to my own blog over at Worthwhile, a mixed-gender blog
20 The Berg murder as PR event — Link to a woman blogger’s comment
21 Link to Frank Paynter’s reaction to a blog of mine
What this list tells me is that in the period covered, not only aren’t there many women bloggers, there aren’t many substantial discussions of blogs at all: I only responded substantially to a single blog, lightly disagreeing with David Batstone at Worthwhile. It seems I wasn’t very engaged in the blogosphere.
In fact, listing the blog-mentions doesn’t accurately represent what I’ve been blogging about, another sign of disengagement from the blogosphere. I wrote a whole bunch of entries celbrating gay marriage, a bigger bunch of entries about various aspects of the Abu Ghraib horrors, many entries on political issues (including assorted snipes at the current administration), scattered entries about spam remedies, a handful of semi-nerdy tech entries, and a couple of days of blogging from a political conference. By a rough count, about 27 of the 88 entries in this period were responses to items in the mainstream media. While that isn’t so many more than the 21 blog mentions, the responses to mainstream items tended to be longer and far more substantial. In short, for the past few weeks I’ve been in “conversation” with the mainstream media much more than with other bloggers.
But, why the gender imbalance? And, for that matter, why the racial imbalance? The answer has to be complex, like asking why I have so few African-American friends: Well, in part it’s because my neighborhood is too white and the conferences I hang out tend to be too white (for which there are complex reasons), and in part it’s because I’ve been complacent, and there’s undoubtedly an element of unconscious racism in it. Likewise, women have been under-represented in Joho for reasons just as complex.
What to do about it? Establish a quota? Nah, no one is suggesting that. But it seems to me that intelligent people — by which I mean everyone — constantly and continuously struggle against the limits of their experience, knowledge, interests, and sympathies. As a species, we’re curious. We want to know what we don’t know. We want to experience life as others experience it. That’s why we talk and fall in love. We do this naturally and easily when the world engages us in ways we hadn’t expected. But there is a tyrannical aspect to our interests as well. We have to remind ourselves that not just our knowledge but our interests themselves are limited. The first step is to recognize ways our interests have unwittingly ensnared us. That’s why I appreciate Jeneane’s observation and the comments that followed. I think my response can only be in terms of awareness and support.
