Poor Little Female Bloggers, Part Two

Posted on October 28, 2009

Yet again, we have complaints about the lack of “gender diversity”, to quote the feminists, in the blogosphere. This crap gets so old, but for some reason, it continually gets brought up. I guess there’s some kind of silent conspiracy against women bloggers. This is obvious because more women use Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace then men do, so clearly there should be more women blogging, too. Or something.

If you spend any time looking at social media demographics, there’s one stat you see over and over: women dominate the space. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter — all are more popular with women than men.

So it was a bit jarring this week to see that 67% of bloggers are male, according to the newest installment of the Technorati State of the Blogosphere report.

Admittedly, this isn’t a new stat. In least year’s report, Technorati’s survey put the male blogger ratio at 66%. But compared to the other mainstream social media activities, it seems bizarrely guy-heavy.

What’s the deal? Why is blogging a boys club at a time when women are such a powerful force in creating social media content?

Well, that’s a complicated question with a simple answer.

First of all, women like social networking sites more than men for a very obvious reason: women are inherently more social than men. Yes, men bond with their friends just as much as women do, but in very different ways. Whereas women will sit with their girlfriends and just talk for hours about their jobs, boyfriends, husbands, children, and so on, men will not. Men do not typically have those kind of relationships in their lives. So it’s only natural that women would be the ones drawn more towards social networking sites. Women can go onto Facebook and catch up with the people in their lives, and men just don’t do that. They might log on and send a quick what’s up to their buddies, but that’s about it. Women want to share pictures, play games, message back and forth. Social networking is another method of bonding with the people you care about, and let’s face it: men just don’t have as high of a priority on bonding as women do.

Second, women aren’t nearly as aggressive as men, nor are they as thick-skinned. This isn’t to say that no women are aggressive or thick-skinned, but I’m just talking in generalities here. Women tend to start blogging and then realize that it is a tough, tough world out here. You say something someone doesn’t like, and they don’t dispute your point calmly and politely with rational, well thought-out replies. They attack you, personally. They call you fat, ugly, stupid. They’ll call you a whore or a bitch or a slut. And these are the mild insults. A lot of women have no clue what they’re getting into when they start blogging. And when they see how rough it is, they quickly get out, because to them it’s not worth it.

Every conservative female blogger I know gets this kind of abuse, and it’s often sexualized. We all get it. It’s a fact of life when it comes to blogging. Michelle Malkin had to move because her family was threatened by a blogger who published her personal information — address, phone number, everything. There is nothing that is off-limits when it comes to blogging, and anything can be held against you. Anything can be used as leverage against you to make you quit, to make you give up. And frankly, there are not many women who are as tough as Michelle is, who would be able to keep going. For many women, it wouldn’t be worth it.

A lot of women also don’t like the competition factor. Men tend to be more competitive by nature, and there are plenty of women out there who just don’t want to have to fight for readers and advertising. Again, in order to make it as a blogger, you’ve gotta be tough. Some women can take it. Others simply can’t.

Now, here’s the thing. I don’t want there to be more female bloggers. I like the fact that I’m a minority in the blogosphere. It’s a huge selling point for me. I’m not afraid at all to say it. With so few women bloggers, it automatically makes me stand out, and that’s a good thing. Throw in the fact that I’m… ahem… well-endowed, shall we say?, and not bad-looking and it’s even more of a plus. Men don’t get those benefits. A great looking male blogger is not going to attract much traffic, because readership online is mostly male, at least when it comes to politics. A great looking woman, however, who can write well and is not afraid to take shots and shoot back is going to be very attractive to their male readers. It makes you stand out, and if the blogosphere suddenly becomes crowded with female bloggers, then I’ve just lost my edge. I’m a conservative. That means I’m a capitalist, baby, and when it comes to my being successful in the blogosphere, there is always going to be a level of competitiveness there. Competition is part of succeeding. There are thousands of bloggers out there, just as talented as I am, ready to work just as hard as I do if not harder. I have to be able to give myself that edge somehow, to enable myself to be successful. Being a young, conservative, attractive woman certainly does give me an edge. I’m not about to complain about being one of the few female political bloggers out there. I personally hope that doesn’t change. With that said, there are some fantastic female bloggers out there that I look up to and admire. Michelle Malkin immediately comes to mind, along with other amazing women like Mary Katharine Ham, Melissa Clouthier, EM Zanotti, Katie Favazza, Ericka Andersen, Amanda Carpenter… the list could go on and on. There are a lot of great, talented female bloggers and there are certainly no men trying to hold us back. There is no invisible barrier keeping women from being successful as bloggers.

And frankly, the people who think otherwise are just trying to find another way to exploit their status as the liberal-beloved “victim”. They need to get over it and start taking some personal responsibility for their blogging careers.

But then, that goes against everything liberalism stands for, doesn’t it?

Hat Tips: Melissa Clouthier and Little Miss Attila

Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog. Stop by for more original commentary or follow her on Twitter!

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