Absolutely… Brilliant

I like to frequent a site that literally bills itself as “the blog that nobody reads”, which is completely false as it is one of the most in-depth, thought-provoking (and envy-creating) site I think that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Yes, there is a conservative slant to it, but the greatest part about it is the occasional interpretations of feminism that the triumvirate that calls itself House of Eratosthenes posts that are some of the gems of the internet.

– Case in point: Why is blogging such a boy’s club?

First, let’s start out with the chart that they used as the basis for their thoughts on this topic:

The Primary commentary was from a feminist panel that was trying to come up with a legitimate reason that, out of the four social networking groups analyzed, why were women so underrepresented in the actual meat-and-potato blog side of the house. I read the original posting as well and WOW was I blown back by how much man-bashing was going on there, as well as how many comments bespoke of a complete lack of understanding when it came to the male psyche.

Allow me to let you read one of the quoted reasonings from one of the feminists as to the reasoning behind this odd trend:

I’ll say something a little controversial here: Men have time to blog. Most women don’t. As a working mom of two, something becomes clear the deeper you get into mom-hood. For most of us, the majority of the parenting is mom’s job, even if both parents are working, so who has time to blog?

Now allow me to make a statement on this. People, does this even sound REMOTELY intelligent? Just because she, out of the brazillion other women on the planet, is a “working mom of two”, and apparently does not have time to blog (but does have time to sit on a feminist panel ABOUT blogging), immediately allows for all women, regardless of socio-economical levels, to blog less as well?

-Fuck me running! Talk about transference on an almost unprecedented scale!

All of the various groups were discussed, but leave it to Mr. Freeberg to actually come up with a logical answer:

When you’re building up your social network, if the experience of interacting is what’s really important to you and you don’t care that much quite yet about who’s in the network interacting with you, the MySpace/Twitter/Facebook triumvirate offers more promise than hazard. The blogging thing offers the reverse. Much opportunity to be defrocked of your social stature, with the opportunity for making new friends something of an afterthought.

We’re being reminded yet again that men and women are different. In certain situations, it becomes unavoidable; there are no alternatives to simply facing the truth and admitting it. This is a jarring experience to some, and so they self-medicate on the spot by cooking up some new thing caustic and trite, that they can work into a cliche over time — something that can take whatever form it wants, as long as it is in some way derogatory towards men. That is the single vital ingredient. It is how they cope.

-Now I can’t help it, but YES I am a guy, so therefor I have a bit of a genetic predisposition to agree with the guy.

I can’t WAIT to hear what my co-blogger thinks about this one. KC, please read the source material before you attempt to geld me with a buick.

Heh heh.

And now it’s KC’s turn to speak.

Sit down Old Iron.
I’m not gonna run you over with a Buick.
No.
I’ll run you over with a Hummer instead.
Because what I’m about to tell you – might feel more like a Hummer than a Buick that hit you.

Here it is: I AGREE! With you men!

Oh I know.
Pick yer jaw off the ground and breathe. BREATHE!

Perhaps at one time, pre-Facebook and Twitter (I never truly got into MySpace, although I have one… it was far too teenybopper, indiscriminating “people-collecting” for me) – women were a predominant force in blogosphere.  But the content was weak at best.  Rare was it to find a blog with substance, intellectual, political content that was written by a woman.  The majority, including several of my blogs over the years, delved into the realm of human emotions – a means of giving voice to what ever turmoil was boiling inside.  Oh I did have my share of political blogs, rants & raves about one form of injustice or another – and I was blasted for them.  In fact, MSN (Windows Live) even shut me down for that.  Apparently some idiot redneck ‘man’ didn’t appreciate my commentary on something that was going on at the time… and complained.  He verbally attacked me on several occasions – and returned under several different tags – and continued to do so.  So I wasn’t sad when MSN shut me down… but I learnt something:

Women with a strong opinion got shutdown in blogsphere.  You just aren’t popular.  You get shutdown.  Rejected.

Women don’t get the readership unless the content is about children, kittens, bad dates/boyfriends/bosses/families etc… So take a wildass guess at what happened?  In a world that provides you with that instant gratification of comments on a status or tweet – the female population migrated there – to Facebook and Tweeter.  It’s instantaneous.  AND – you get MORE.  There’s a minimal wait time for comments.  People don’t have to read pages of content before ‘poking’ you or ‘Like’ your comment or picture or status etc…  For 140 characters or less – you can tell the world exactly how you feel and your friends come rushing in to ‘support’ you.  Blogging doesn’t give you that.  It is time consuming – to put thought to screen.  And you wait.  Hoping that people will read your thoughts.  And it’s true: priorities are different for men & women.

In the time span that one spends writing a blog posting, a woman can easily visit all of her friends, leave comments on their pages/tweets/photos and got deeply engrossed in a game of Mafia Wars AND tend to her farm. We care.  We need to know that others care too.  Men, don’t seem to care about such things nearly as much.

Instant gratification.  With little or no remorse.  And even fewer ramifications for having an opinion.  No.  Bullshit that a single working mother of two doesn’t have time for it.  LOL… no.  She has just chosen the easier route to get to where she wants to be in order to feel (or believes she feels that way) appreciated and important, rather than putting thought to paper and waiting for feedback from a dying art form.

Am I sad to see those stats?
Yes.  But not surprised.

I enjoy my time spent on Facebook.  (I don’t get Tweeter.  It’s just stupid) I enjoy tending to my farm.  I love looking thru people’s pictures.  I comment on my friend’s pictures, pages and statuses.  It feeds the voyeuristic aspect that blogosphere lacks.  But it also meant I spent less time blogging… and at one point – I simply stopped.  I didn’t have time to sit and wait for the bleeding heart stories and/or get the support that I so obviously ached for.  Facebook gave that to me instantly.  You feel – HEARD – there. Blogsphere is finicky.  Unstable.  Inconsistent.  You cannot change or evolve without repercussion.  And it’s not instant unless you have an established readership.

Women are emotional beings.  So in a world of instant gratification – it’s not surprising to me to see the stats shown.  But it also saddens me that we still get shutdown for trying to have an opinion that differs from the masses.  It’s too much of that double standard that rears its ugly head for me.  And yet, here I am… still blogging.

Are men & women different? Hell yeah.  You’d be an idiot to say differently.  Either you have breast or penis envy to say otherwise.  Our fundamental needs are different.  And we gravitate to whatever means get us there quicker.  Screw feminism.  They just don’t want to admit they have feelings.  Or a vagina.