Wampum

When the penny drops...and a defense of feminist behavior

I love Body and Soul, and it's founding editor, Jeanne D'Arc, and in my early days of blogging, viewed her as my mentor. As a rabid feminist myself, her recent post on misogynist language within the lefty blogosphere strikes a strong chord in me. I'm sad, however, in how long it has taken for that realization to take hold. For many of us women bloggers, particularly those whose blogs have been around for a while, the reality of engendered blogging hit home long ago. For all I respect what Markos has achieved, I questioned the fact that both his subject matter and guest bloggers are overwhelming male for the first time nearly two years ago. The "testosterone" factor of this election has been seized upon by a large segment of the lefty blogosphere, so much so that the basic "pocketbook" issues are often ignored by many.

That all said, I do take exception with the focus on Atrios as the embodiment of this pervasive undercurrent of misogyny on the Left. While Duncan may have exhibited of slip of the tongue (although I do accept his explanation), his actions over the past two years that I've been reading Eschaton indicate a deeper sensitivity to feminism (and racism as well) than I've enountered in most regions of our corner of the 'Net. There is definitely a dearth of feminism in much of what we read over here, but Dr. Black has actively sought to derail that tendency, at least in my experience as founder and editor of Wampum (which, for it's first year, was solely hosted by me, and saw much traffic from Eschaton.)

While words do sting, I'm personally an action kinda gal. I look for women on a blogger's sidebar, or them being given full control of content when the big cat is away. In both those instances, Atrios easily clears the bar.

Posted by MB Williams at September 12, 2004 04:15 PM | TrackBack