On Saturday, I went to a panel about blogging. One of the questions posed was whether blogs were the 21st Century salons. The panel, mostly men, talked, etc, blah blah blah. But one guy, I forget who, said that women weren't blogging as much as men.
Say what?
I made the comment that women ARE blogging just as much as men but that, in general, maybe women's blogs didn't maintain that (artificial) divide between professional and personal. I pointed out that on many women's blogs there were discussions of writing, publishing, BIG IDEAS, but that they weren't separated from the entries about children and what I made for dinner.
So, next year I'm going to propose a panel about women and blogs and genre. Do we write differently when we blog? Is blogging a new genre, distinct from other non-fiction? Is there a gender gap in how men and women approach blogs? Is there, or should there be a public/private split that reflects the split between the professional and the personal?
I met some great women, including Terribe Mother (see A Blog of Her Own to the right). I look forward to thinking about this as I read women's blogs.
So, women bloggers, what do YOU think about the questions posed above?
3 comments:
Cs usually has a bunch of blog-focussed sessions (well it used to.) A couple of years back there was quite a study of women bloggers. I think the author (culturecat.com I think is her blog) has publishe don it somewhere.
Oh and I find it riotously funny how snotty most blog presenters were (are).
This blog presenter sounds stupid. That is my nuanced view.
I like blogs that feel immediate and off-the-cuff. If it's going to be "professional," why not write a paper or something?
And--not that I'm any expert--but I don't see any difference between men and women blogging. I see differences between blogs, but so far I haven't noticed any gender differences that correlate.
As I posted last, I would love to discuss the effects blogging has on other writing--does it help? Hinder? What are the rhetorical and structural differences? How does having the ability to comment change our POV? Are we always writing to "you"?
So put me on your panel and we can harass Atlanta with our trendiness. Or, belated trendiness, as Theorris suggests.
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