Time again for the "why don't women blog" debates

This time we have Matt Stoller weighing in.

The thing that I never get is the reluctance to address sexism directly when talking about how women are under-represented in whatever field. Even well-meaning people tend to be eager to blame femaleness over sexism.

There's also the fact that the male political blogosphere doesn't help at all. It's obviously a boys club (with select girls who act like in specifically stylized ways allowed). For instance, my style of blogging is very male - I feel like I have to conclude everything, which leaves less room for the more deliberative communication patterns I find among women. That's common, but usually in a more extreme version. Guys don't really feel comfortable saying 'I don't know' or just going through inconclusive cognitive exercises. Jay Rosen does it very well, but he gets flamed quite frequently just for asking questions. The flame war pissing contest that motivates so many communities is another example of boys raising their hands in class and just generally being more aggressive. So Respectful of Otters gets ignored by the 'big boys', even though it's great. There's also the fact that it deals with uteruses and other stuff that boys don't have and don't think of, like career/family conflicts.

He gets awfully close to getting it and then misses the mark. Women aren't "deliberative communicators" compared to men. What they are is hesistant. And they are hesistant because when a woman opens her mouth and states an opinion, people are likely to get upset with her, especially if she says something others disagree with. And so most women have been socialized to make sure to eradicate potentially offensive language from their own speech--a broad category which includes pretty much all straightforward sentences. It's pretty hard to write a political blog when you've been brought up to strenously avoid expressing opinions outside of puppies are cute-type generalizations. I'm pretty opinionated, but even I catch myself couching my opinions with phrases like, "Well, it's just how I feel, but...."

Of course, the other problem is that there are a lot of female bloggers, but they go under the radar because prominent male bloggers won't promote them. (Unless they pull a Wonkette and put a sexy drawing of themselves in the banner, of course.) Stoller whips out the usual excuse that women write about "women's concerns", which is to say stuff that has traditionally been shoved on women so that men don't have to deal with it, like career/family balance issues.

Via des femmes.