Mr. Adesnik ponders the scarcity of high-profile academic women bloggers. He hypothesizes:
First and foremost, my sense is that women shy away from the kind of forceful and often scathing debate that takes place in the blogosphere.
Seems that way to me, in private, academic, and online life. Throughout high school, in Houston, London, and Germany, I was friends almost exclusively with guys, because my mind works that way. (Yes, I knit and cook and love sappy romantic films -- and enjoy the extent to which I can use my femininity to get men to do what I want (something many females do, but not too many admit to!); but I can park perfectly, I love building bookshelves, and I do long division when bored in class, so I don't fit either stereotype.) My best memories from high school in Houston involve listening to or participating in arguments with guys, several of whom have at least temporarily entered into academic/political blogging. True, my best friend in London was The Dancer, but she's got a manly mind (and a manly sexual appetite for women), so she doesn't quite count.
A case in point: I went on a road trip one winter with a group of Harvardians. After three hours in the "girls' car," I simply could not take the inanity of their conversation any longer. These young women, on track to count themselves among the best-educated women in the world, balked at my attempts to start a discussion about "issues," preferring instead to gossip and giggle and dance to Madonna. They are quite able to carry on intelligent conversation, but they see it as a chore rather than a pleasure. Making my escape to a car filled with those possessed of a Y-chromosome, I was thrilled to find a 4am argument on philosophy and the idea of a first cause.
"I am sorry to be hard on any of our sex, but, there it is."
This is not to say that all women or all men fit the stereotype. The Dancer and the Houston Roommate, along with the wife of one of those high school friends, have what I've called manly minds. That is, among other attributes, whether or not they participate in heated academic debate (or even like it), I think that they'd be able to follow it without getting panicky like my mother or longing to return to gossip about who-likes-who and how *too* cute those shoes are. In the other direction, while I am like my father in this regard, Bob is like my mother, and not possessed of an argue-capable mind. They both have the intellectual capacity to argue, but I'd be shocked to find out that they'd ever sought out an academic/political weblog for either edification or pleasure. (It's nice, in a way, when you get all het up about something you can't change, to have someone to smoothe out your forehead and tell you quite convincingly that it doesn't matter.)
Meh -- yet another ramble. So, in short form: I agree. There aren't many female academic/political bloggers, not because they're not welcome or not respected, but simply because more men than women have the type of mind that leans toward such things.
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