Finally, the video of one of the interesting panels I was on at Netroots Nation has turned up (sorry no transcript). I did discuss the whole dustup over having to rewrite the Blend’s TOS. Lots of fun listening to the trials and tribulations of how women who blog often pay much more attention to maintaining civility on their blogs (and seem to be expected to) whereas blogs by men often are a free for all.
Women Bloggers Found: Has Feminist Blogging Gone Mainstream?
Jill Filipovic, Amanda Marcotte, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Lindsay Beyerstein, Pam Spaulding.A few years ago, male bloggers 'round the liberal bloglandia were wondering out loud, "Where are the women bloggers?" Many of the women in the feminist and progressive blogospheres responded with frustration—we were there, and had been, the whole time. Today, the blogosphere looks awfully different, as feminist bloggers are increasingly mainstreamed and able to exert stronger influence on online discourse. But "blogging while feminist" isn't always easy, and feminist bloggers have faced harassment and threats that are uniquely gendered and sexualized. Feminists who have been most successful at running bigger blogs have also been mostly young, white, heterosexual and middle-class—so their issues have been presented to the mainstream progressive movement as the whole of feminism. This panel will look at what has changed, what hasn't and who remains on the edges of progressive blogging. It will also examine how female bloggers—and feminist bloggers in particular—are treated in mainstream spaces, and what we can do about it.



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Funny womenOne thing that you will notice is that there aren’t very many humor blogs by women.
Two female bloggers who I know closed down their humor blogs due to harassment and threats. They now blog under identities that are not gender specific (no, I won’t tell you who they are).
I don’t know what it is about funny women that sets the crazy misogynists wild, but I’ve witnessed some of the worst abuse aimed at funny women. Perhaps being funny is too much of a threat.
I don’t think that women are less interested in humor. There are lots of female comics. But, even Margaret Cho doesn’t have a humor blog. Her blog is more political and self-promoting than funny.
Think about it. Where are all the funny women?
Glad I finally got to see the panelThe comments I had read about it were correct, a high caliber of women represented.
After I got married up in Bostonand got my name legally changed from Jake Goad to Jake Gellar-Goad, and went through all the hoops of changing my last name officially and with various public agencies & my credit card company & so forth, I then went about changing my name online.
On my local blog, OrangePolitics.com which is a progressive local blog for my county in NC, to have my name changed I contacted Ruby.
On my statewide blog, BlueNC.com which is a democratic leaning statewide blog in NC, to have my name changed I contacted Betsy.
On my national lgbt blog, PamsHouseBlend.com which is my source for national lgbt news & discussion & centered in neighboring Durham NC, to have my name changed I contacted Pam.
All I have to say is thank god for all these wonderful women & blogmistresses in my online life, I couldn’t live without them
Does blog.iblamethepatriarchy.com count? I think Twisty at IBTP is hilarious.
Alison Bechdel’s dykes to watch out for http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/
Carrie Fisher’s blog http://carriefisher.com/?cat=1