Monday, May 01, 2006

Sugar and Spice

Sugar 'n' spiceHave you ever noticed how many good chick blogs there are?

When Dymphna and I were on Tammy Bruce the other week, our hostess remarked that most blogs are by men. I thought about our blogroll, and since then I’ve been paying attention to what I read.

Sure, the Big Three blogs are all by guys. But Michelle Malkin was number one in the Ecosystem for a while — she may still be, for all I know.

Now, the hard-core political junkie type of blogging may be mainly a male preserve. But women are on the scene, too; Amy Ridenour does inside-the-Beltway blogging, and Pundita can’t be beat for foreign policy.

The milblogs, of necessity, are mostly by guys. But women like Air Force Wife get the word out, too.

Picking from our blogroll, you can see a lot of females among the most outstanding blogs: All Things Beautiful, Neo-neocon, Dr. Sanity, The Anchoress, Atlas Shrugs, Fausta, Sissy Willis, and Baldilocks stand out.

We have dames blogging the Counterjihad in Always on Watch, Terrorism Unveiled, and Roncesvalles, just to name three. The Headmistress helps educate us, and The Joy of Knitting gives us the Italian viewpoint in flawless English. Not to mention The Adventuress, Annika, e-Claire, Maxed Out Mama, Neddy, Sue Bob, and Meryl Yourish.

And then there’s Donnah at Florida Cracker, who is in a category all her own. Some blogs are a chore to read (Gotta read it, gotta keep up), and others I go to for information (Gotta get the latest on George Clooney). But reading Florida Cracker is pure pleasure — Donnah both entertains and informs. She finds the most unusual news in the most out-of-the-way places, and is intelligent and witty in the bargain. She says she’s a blonde, but you can’t hardly tell. And she even lets some snips and snails and puppy dog tails creep into her blog.

So let’s hear it for the girls.

When they’ve waxed the floor and rustled us up a mess of vittles, there’s nothin’ wrong with lettin’ ’em hit the keyboard, right, guys?

After the dishes are done, that is.

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UPDATE from Dymphna: Here are some the Baron overlooked. Mainly because I keep forgetting to put them on the template--

Small Dead Animals
(This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio -
"You don't speak for me."
)

Villainous Company
(Dyspeptic Marine wife/tech wench attempts to enlighten the great unwashed of the blogosphere while dodging snarky commentary from the local knavery.)

And, of course, Debbie Schlussel.

16 comments:

Dymphna said...

boy...are you dead meat or what?

You get dish duty for a year for this one...

Amy Ridenour said...

>When they’ve waxed the floor and rustled us up a mess of vittles, there’s nothin’ wrong with lettin’ ’em hit the keyboard, right, guys?

A new phase of a very old war, indeed. :-)

Thought Criminal said...

Kate at Small Dead Animals is very widely read, not only by Canuckians, and would fit right in with your worldview.

William Zeranski said...

I did some casual research on the subject six, seven months ago, and then the research showed that more females blogged then males. Here’s an old article on the subject, from 2004, http://www.perseus.com/blogsurvey/thebloggingiceberg.html.

Historically, some of the most famous journals were by women. Mary Chesnut is a name that immediately comes to mind. So, I don’t understand what the big deal is. Seems like common sense to me.

Mason said...

Baron:

I can't believe you actually said aloud the bit about floors, dishes, food, etc. Have you no honor Sir?

What about the rest of us in the service of your Baronship? Have we now to listen to our Missus' as you obviously will listen to Dymphna for some time to come.

A pox upon you, Sir. Now go buy Dymphna some kind of goody. Mom's day is almost upon us.

Mason

Charles Martel said...

Personally, I could care less about the sex of the blogger and in many cases am totally unaware of the same. I do care about the content however. Not that I'm some sort of sensitive feminist type. It's just that when it comes to ideas, I'll take the best regardless of what quarter they come from.

Now I'd be remiss if I did not comment on the prolific nature of THIS blog and the overall quality of the ideas expressed. I am amazed at where you two find the time to do so MUCH blogging. It is one of my first stops every morning. Blogging is still very much in its infancy and the ideas expressed therein are gaining purchase on the national consciousness - albeit slowly. But the influence of bloggers can only increase as the population becomes more familiar with the medium and more distrustful of the other sources of information. The self correcting nature of the blogosphere is amazing to me. The redundancies inherent in the blogging medium provide a more reliable product than heretofore available.

I do wonder how it is that the blogs on the left seem impervious to that same self corrective mechanism that we witness on the right. If anything the blogs on the left tend to amplify the lies. But, for anyone with an open mind and seeking the truth, the blogosphere will get you there quickly.

Thanks dymphna and Barron Bodisay for your contributions!

Wally Ballou said...

The baron puts a big "kick me" sign on himself. What a glutton for punishment.

At least he didn't point out that "chicks" have more time for blogging because, except for their women's clubs and charity work, they have nothing else to do.

Dymphna said...

William, it's not about being "a big deal." It's just an interesting subject to ponder.

We get more men than women commenting, btw.

I must've read the same survey you did, but the one I saw said that men dominated (eeeyew, un-PC)the field, while women tended to do cat blogs (I *like* cat blogs myself) and recipes. Though, come to think of it, a lot of men do recipes,too. One of the most manly men I know, Mr. Ballou, is a cat-and-recipe person himself.

If you go over to NZ Bear you'll see that of the top ten (the Higher Beings), nine are men. That's not discrimination, it's selection.

I find it an interesting topic, and even more so since we got to witness the spectacle of Larry Summers having his family jewels cut off and stuffed in his mouth for daring to say that there may be some hard-wired and some cultural reasons women don't compete on an even playing field with men...that's women and soft power for you.I'll bet he found the DC halls of power a lot less like one of Dante's circles than academia is...

Dymphna said...

rws--

oh, fudge! I forgot Small Dead Animals and Villanous Company and some others I visit...however, like Tammy Bruce in the talk radio field, they are exceptions to the rule...

I'll do updates to the Baron's post during the day as more omissions occur to me. Or as they are pointed out --that's the thing about the blogosphere: people *will* let you know when you mis-step.

SC&A said...

Baron, beware of waxed floor.

I can see it coming.

Pastorius said...

Some more counter-Jihad chicks;

Cubed at Sixth Column/Infidel Bloggers Alliance.

Eyes All Around.

Christine at Research/Infidel Bloggers Alliance

D.C. at Research/Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Pim's Ghost from What Would Charles Martel Do?/Infidel Bloggers Alliance

AMDG said...

The Anti-Jihad Pundit:

http://actuajihad.blogharbor.com/blog

and Eowyn:

http://noticiasdeeurabia.wordpress.com/

Pastorius said...

Oops, sorry about forgetting Eowyn. That's inexcusable, considering she is also an IBA blogger.

Fausta said...

Thank you Baron!

Judith said...

Yo!

keshertalk.com

The_Editrix said...

Thanks for mentioning Roncesvalles!

I would like to add Nilk/Leeianne's RightWingDeathBogan from down under.

From the establised writer's faction, Melanie Phillips and Ilana Mercer are must reads.

I'm not exactly known for sucking up to people, so I hope I do so with some credibility if I say that Gates of Vienna win hands down in the sui generis bloggers' race when it comes to the quality of their posts.