|
This paper was presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and
Mass Communication in San Antonio, Texas August 2005.
If you have questions about this paper, please contact the author
directly. If you have questions about the archives, email
rakyat [ at ] eparker.org. For an explanation of the subject line,
send email to
[log in to unmask] with just the four words, "get help info aejmc," in the
body (drop the "").
(Jan 2006)
Thank you.
Elliott Parker
====================================================================
The Gendered Blogosphere: Where Promise Meets Reality
The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently documented a 58% rise in
readership of blogs during 2004 (Rainie, 2005). Among internet users,
27% reported
reading blogs. Blogs are web-based commentaries in diary form. They
come in many
varieties, from the highly personal to those focusing primarily on
political and social
issues. These politically and socially oriented blogs offer an
alternative means for
entering into a public discourse, essentially becoming another way to
participate in the
political sphere. While the number of blogs is difficult to track,
estimated in the
thousands, as would be expected some of the most read center their
commentary around
political issues. A cursory look, however, at these popular voices
within the political
blogosphere indicates a bastion of male opinions. This dominance
within this virtual
political space mimics that of the material and legitimized political
spaces in U.S. politics
– from editorial pages of American newspapers to state and federal
legislative halls, men
dominate. The structural and social barriers permitting access to the
material political
world, however, are nearly absent on the Internet, and in turn for
blog authorship. After
all, with relatively little social, political, and economic capital,
anyone can enter the
political blogosphere. The question then becomes, why are there so
few top political
blogs by women?
With Internet use now nearly equal for men and women, this discrepancy cannot
be explained away by the idea that women are not online. In a 2004
survey Pew Internet
and American Life Project, which produces reports that explore the
impact of the Internet
on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education,
health care, and civic
and political life, found that 66% of men and 61% of women use the
Internet (Pew,
Gendered Blogosphere
2004). Even for blog authorship the disparity is not great, with 57%
of blogs written by
men and 43% authored by women (Rianie, 2005). But when one looks at
the top political
blogs there are few women to be found. This research examines the
blogosphere to
understand why so few women political bloggers exist within the
highest ranked and
most popular political blogs. Further, the study examines ways in
which political blogs
authored by women can gain readership and popularity. One blogger has
suggested an
attempt to subvert the hyperlink hierarchy: that possibility and
others are examined as
well. Access to readers is important as women fight to not only have
equal access to the
public political discourse but for their voices to be heard and their
opinions to be
acknowledged – an essential part of contribution to the public sphere.
The Internet, democracy and the public sphere
In just over a decade the Internet has grown into a major means of
communication. With this new communication technology, activism,
political campaigns,
and the ability to participate in a public discourse has changed.
Vogt and Chen (2001)
describe how "the Internet has become a central tool for feminist
groups, for developing
resources, organizing collective identities, coordinating networks,
producing knowledge,
disseminating information, and mobilizing actors" (371). The dramatic
rise of democratic
hopeful Howard Dean's grassroots Internet campaign offers an indication of the
Internet's influence on politics (See Kiker, 2003; Wolf 2004).
Further, evidence can be
deemed from the Pew Internet and American Life Project's "The
Internet and Campaign
2004" report, which proclaims that the Internet became a crucial
player in American
politics during the last presidential elections. The report states
"Fully 75 million
2
Gendered Blogosphere
Americans – 37% of the adult population and 61% of online Americans – used the
Internet to get political news and information, discuss candidates
and debate issues in
emails, or participate directly in the political process by
volunteering or giving
contributions to candidates" (Rainie et al., 2005). Personal Web
sites, along with Blogs,
chat rooms and message boards – many on reputable news Web sites –
allow computer
users to contribute commentary in a public manner, essentially
creating an electronic
marketplace of ideas.
But like many new technologies, users and nonusers alike have approached with
optimism and pessimism the Internet and its various offerings; it has
been both feared and
embraced. On the one hand, it's a way for pedophiles to pray on innocent young
computer users and thieves to steal the identities of online banking
customers. But on the
other hand, it has brought cancer survivors together and given the
voiceless a means for
participating in the public sphere. In this last sense, the Internet
offers people the
opportunity to enter into a public discourse in an entirely new way.
In fact, the Internet
has been heralded as a means to a greater democratic reality through
the proliferation of
free speech and political involvement. A New Yorker article 10 years
ago said the
country "has never been freer, thanks to the epidemic of cheap speech
spreading
raucously across the globe" (Rosen, 1995). Among the Internet's democratizing
attributes: it's low cost, freedom from gatekeepers, unlimited
capacity, and high speed
(Frantzich, 1999). These features will ultimately result in more
people becoming
involved in the democratic process (Rheingold, 1993). Sachs (1995)
writes "Politically
alienated individuals in the 1990s and beyond have an unprecedented
ability to utilize
communication technology to talk to each other and those within and
outside their
3
Gendered Blogosphere
movement" (97). As a result, the Internet will allow new parties and
ideas to emerge
(Rash, 1997).
More recently scholars tend to offer a caveat while touting the praises of the
Internet's democratizing potential. For example, Papacharissi (2004)
acknowledges the
Internet's potential to revitalize the public sphere, but she argues
this will happen only
with greater diversity and volume of discussion. Less optimistic,
Luke (2002) suggests,
"devotees of digitalization…overate the positive aspects of telematic
life, while they
underplay how most negative social and political tendencies will
continue in cyberspace
like they are offline" (519). Youngs (2004) reiterates this point,
arguing for "the
importance of recognizing that the Internet era offers new contexts
for old problems, just
as much as it introduces fresh opportunities related to old
contexts." The reinforcement of
traditional constructions of gender and racial power relations
through online pornography
Web sites –!particularly in the Internet's early history when the
landscape seemed
dominated by sexually explicit sites and male users –!illustrates the
conflicting potentials
and realities of the Internet (Heider and Harp, 2002). Mitra (2004)
uses Web sites for
women of South Asia to argue that the increasing availability of the
Internet offers
marginalized groups a voice in the public sphere. He describes what happens in
cyberspace as
a veritable paradox of power because the traditionally powerful,
based on their
conventional sources of power (financial, political, etc.), are
competing against
those who have been conventionally powerless but have begun to gain a sense of
4
Gendered Blogosphere
discursive power because they can now find a speaking space on the Internet.
(Mitra, 2004, 496)
But he calls for urgency in developing "a lexicon of strategies of
voicing that would show
how discursive empowerment could occur on the Internet" (507). This
is needed, he
explains, since the Internet can be formed to become what "the
various Netizens want it
to become, but by not voicing, it is likely that the Internet will
become what many other
media of mass communication have become: bastions of the powerful where the
relatively powerless have remained silent and silenced" (507). Other
concerns about the
Internet's effect on democracy include " 'net-savvy' special interest
communities who
could pursue their own narrow agenda at the cost of the public
commonweal," "a possible
reduction in the objectivity of traditional media if these media were
to lose their status
and impact as a result of Internet usage," and that "the Internet
will absorb and dissipate
the energy of the citizenry away from traditional political
processes" (Rice, 2004, 110).
Along with identifying these perspectives on the Internet and civic
and political
involvement, Rice notes access to be a fundamental concern. He points
to several
questions: "who has or does not have access to the Internet; what
motivates people to use
the Internet; what barriers there are to usage; and what
characterizes those who stop using
the Internet" (2004, 105). Rice explains that while "the Internet and
other communication
and information technologies can increase human capital by providing
better access to
education and training, on the other hand those who do not have
sufficient resources or
experience will be further excluded from human and social capital"
(2004, 106). In
5
Gendered Blogosphere
December 2003 Pew Internet and American Life reported differences in
Internet use
along demographic lines. The report summarizes:
Older Americans are much less wired than younger Americans;
minorities are less
connected than whites, those with modest amounts of income and education are
less wired than those with college educations and household incomes over
$75,000, those with jobs are more likely than those without jobs to
have access,
parents of children under 18 living at home are more likely than
non-parents to by
online, and rural parents lag behind suburban and urban Americans in
the online
population. Disabilities also keep some Americans from using the Internet.
(Madden, 2003, iii)
Clearly then, while the Internet offers a means for citizens to enter a public
discourse, for a variety of reasons, some Americans use this
technology more than others.
And those most likely to enter into cyberspace are those same people
who have more
economic, political, and social power within the material world. This
illustrates what
many warn about the Internet: while it offers the opportunity for
greater democratic
participation, it does not guarantee it. Even with access, which in
itself is important to
understand within the context of various inequalities, those who
enter the virtual world
are likely to encounter the same power structures that women and
minorities struggle
with in the tangible world.
Women, the Internet and patriarchy
6
Gendered Blogosphere
Young (2004) blames the material conditions of patriarchy for the resource and
relational constraints women encounter in the Internet era. She
suggests "We can
celebrate what the Internet brings for women and feminist politics
and practice, while
holding on to a critical awareness of the range of inequalities
affecting women's
capacities and possibilities in this realm" (187). Historically,
within a patriarchal system
women (to varying degrees) have experienced limited access to
education, employment,
money, legal rights, and even mobility. The Internet then should be
described within the
context of both potentials and realities. Ultimately then, "It's
partly a case of recognizing
that discontinuities (the new) sit alongside continuities (the old),
producing hybrid
conditions of potential as well as actual empowerment and liberation
constrained by real
material and social (gendered) conditions" (Youngs, 2004, 188). This
research examines
this potential while keeping present these material and social constraints.
A particularly relevant social/gendered condition to consider within
the context of
politics, public discourse, and technology is that of the patriarchal
based notion of the
public/private dichotomy that is associated with male/female. This is
the idea that women
are responsible for, best suited for, and belong within the private
sphere of life –!the
domestic sphere of "home, family, private relations, [and] the
spheres of social
reproduction" (Youngs, 2004, 188). In opposition, men are understood
to be best suited
and responsible for the public sphere, which includes "government and
commercial
institutions, the spheres of political and economic decision-making
and influence"
(Youngs, 2004, 188). This public/private dichotomy has a long history
in western culture
and in feminist discourse. Feminists have fought the belief that
women belong in the
home and in the realm of domestic affairs (Donovan, 1994). But even
while women have
7
Gendered Blogosphere
had a growing presence in public life in the western world, "the
historical influence of the
private/public boundary on gendered identities continues to have an
impact on women's
lives and potential" (Youngs, 2004, 189). This notion of women's
lives and what is
considered political has been criticized for its simplicity. This
dichotomous construction
of men and women's lives has also been condemned for the racial and
class bias present
in this perspective (Collins, 1994; hooks, 1984). The mythology,
however, remains
powerful. Youngs, though, suggests
The transgressive potential of the internet with regard to these
boundaries, and
their significance in maintaining different forms of patriarchal
power and social
structure, has implications for women's capacities both to relate to
one another,
and to make political, economic, and cultural contributions to their
own and other
societies, and to local, national, and international issues and processes, as
individuals or collectively. (2004, 189)
Blogs as networks
Like the broader Web, the blogosphere is a network. Bloggers routinely link to
other blogs using two methods. First, most blogs have a
semi-permanent "blogroll" as
part of the mainpage navigation. This is a list of links to other
blogs that the author has
chosen to provide his or her readers. Second, bloggers' posts
typically contain links to
posts in other blogs. In many cases these posts are in response to a
topic or point raised
by a fellow blogger. This collection of links and blogs comprises the
blogosphere.
Starting at a random point in this network, a web user could follow
links to any other
8
Gendered Blogosphere
randomly selected blog. If the user followed the optimal path, the
number of links
required to make the trip would likely be quite small. For this
reason, networks are often
referred to as small worlds (Watts, 200X).
One of the keys to success on the Web and one of the indicators of
success is a
high number of links pointing toward one's site. Search engines, most
notably Google,
use this approach to rank results. The more links pointing to your
site, the more user
traffic you can expect. For most networks, the vast majority of nodes
have very few
incoming links, while a small number of nodes have hundreds or
thousands. In the
blogosphere, for reasons to be explored by this study, the sites that
attract most of the
links are run primarily by men. Thus a critical question for both
practitioners and
theorists has been this: how does a node become a hub, a center of
activity on a network?
In the last several years, researchers have begun to answer this question.
Barabasi and Albert (XXXX) used the web as a testing ground to
develop a theory
of network development. Their conclusion: the inequitable
distribution of links on the
Web results from the interaction of growth and preferential
attachment. Networks do
not come fully formed but evolve into maturity, usually at a slow
enough pace that
growth goes unnoticed. Because the Web has developed so quickly, the
effects of growth
are more readily observable. Barabasi and Albert found that the older
nodes in a network
are more likely to have collected links than ones that have just been
created. In this way,
network growth favors nodes that have been around a long time.
Further, when choosing
which other websites to attach to, site creators follow a pattern of
preferential
attachment. If a site has proven useful to other users, it is more
likely to attract the
attention of newer sites. They will often prefer to attach to the
established site more than
9
Gendered Blogosphere
to one that is obscure. In this way, the "rich get richer," the poor
stay poor, and an
unequal distribution of links and user traffic results.
For each network, the mechanism of preferential attachment is unique. Tremayne
(2004) found that editors of news websites used links to provide
context to certain types
of stories. This pattern of choices resulted in the typical
distribution of links in network:
a small number of stories were heavily linked while the great
majority of stories had very
few.
This study will explore the causes of preferential attachment in the
blogosphere
and seeks to answer a number of questions posed in the following section.
Research Questions
The primary goal of this research concerns finding an explanation for
the relative
lack of female voices in the political blogosphere. The first step in
that process is to
identify the most "successful" nodes in this network. Therefore:
RQ1: What are the top political blogs in the blogosphere?
And RQ2: What the top rated political blogs with a woman as the primary
voice?
When the main players in the political blogosphere have been
identified we can begin to
explore the mechanisms of inequitable link distribution. Women
bloggers are keenly
aware of their relative lack of voice in the blog ecosystem and have
offered, along with
some of the male bloggers, explanations for this development. An
examination of this
discourse is used to address causes of preferential attachment on
this network:
10
Gendered Blogosphere
RQ3: What can we learn from bloggers about the causes behind the
lack of female voices on the political Web?
If explanations emerge for the gender disparity in the blogosphere
then we may be able to
address:
RQ4: What can be done to change the evolution of the network and
make the political blogosphere more equitable?
Ultimately, lessons learned from the virtual world may be applicable
to addressing
political inequalities in the other contexts.
Method
We used the Blogosphere Ecosystem, a well-regarded database maintained by at
the blog "TruthLaidBear," to generate a list of the top political
blogs. This resource is
particular useful for a few reasons. One, the site provides
statistics on thousands of
blogs. The Blogosphere Ecosystem actually provides two methods of
ranking blogs. The
first is by total number of incoming links each blog receives during
a specified time
period. The second ranking is a measure of daily user traffic. We
added the ranks from
both lists and then ordered our ranking from lowest number to
highest. We drew our
sample at the end of March, 2005. This data was used to answer the
first two research
questions.
To learn the causes behind the lack of female voices in the political
blogosphere
(questions 3 and 4) this research turns to bloggers. The discourse
was found by using the
phrase "women political blog" in the Google search engine to identify
blogs that
addressed the topic of women and political blogging. The search
offered a multitude of
Blogs that through links lead to a rich conversation. Using the
identified discourse, the
11
Gendered Blogosphere
authors used a reading strategy, which aimed to deconstruct concepts,
belief-systems, or
generally held social values and assumptions and ultimately resulted
in the emergence of
themes.
Blogs offer a rich environment for a discourse analysis because of their
conversational nature –!a written conversation that spans space and
time. These same
qualities, however, present difficulties as well. Most challenging is
the sheer volume of
discussion. While a blogger may post commentary, and in essence begin
a conversation,
hundreds of "posts" can continue this dialogue, with both new voices
joining in and
original contributors continuing to add their thoughts. In analyzing
this conversation, then
we discovered hundreds of voices contributing to the discourse over a
two-and-a-half
year period.
The constantly shifting nature of the Internet and blogosphere
provides certain
challenges when doing research because the content of the web changes
constantly. Our
analysis is based on material available at the time of this study,
certainly not the sum total
of all material ever created for the web on this topic (McMillan,
2000; Riffe, Lacy, &
Fico, 1998).
Analysis & Discussion
We used the method described above to address the first research
question: What
are the top political blogs in the blogosphere? Our top 30 list is
below (see Table 1).
12
Gendered Blogosphere
Table 1
The Top 20 Political Blogs
(Blogosphere Ecosystem, March 31, 2005)
Yglesias.typepad.com
imao.us
Windsofchange.net
Asmallvictory.net
1. Daily Kos Dailykos.com
2. Instapundit Instapundit.com
3. Little Green Footballs Littlegreenfootballs.com
4. Powerline Blog Powerlineblog.com
4. Eschaton Atrios.blogspot.com
6. Michelle Malkin* Michellemalkin.com
7. Kevin Drum Washingtonmonthly.com
8. Andrew Sullivan Andrewsullivan.com
9. Hugh Hewitt Hughhewitt.com
9. Captain's Quarters Captainquatersblog.com
9. Volokh Conspiracy Volokh.com
12. Wonkette* Wonkette.com
13. Wizbang Wizbangblog.com
14. Roger Simon Rogerlsimon.com
15. Scrappleface Scrappleface.com
16. Outsidethebeltway.com Outsidethebeltway.com
17. Matthew Yglesias
18. imao
19. Winds of change
20. A Small Victory*
*Run by a woman (4 in total)
The names on our list are similar to ones published by other
bloggers. We've limited our
list to those published in English and those that come with a
"primary" voice (we've
excluded group blogs).
The second research question concerns the place of women in the political
blogosphere: What are the top rated political blogs with a woman as
the primary voice?
From the list generated to answer question one there are just 3
women bloggers in our
Top 20. They are Wonkette (Ana Marie Cox), MichelleMalkin.com, and
ASmallVictory.com (Michele Catalano).
13
Gendered Blogosphere
Where are the women?
It is not difficult to find bloggers discussing our third research
question, the
causes behind the lack of female voices on the political Web. In
fact, the topic has been
discussed for years on blogs, with times of lively discussion and
other times when very
little is said about it. One blog, CultureCat, authored by Clancy
Ratliff who is conducting
a feminist rhetorical analysis of gender and blogging practices,
offers links Ratliff has
found on the discussion about gender in the blogosphere. While
acknowledging that she
has likely missed many links, she offers solid evidence of a
long-standing and lively
discussion. Her list of links, organized by months and years, begins
with August 2002
and continues into March 2005, with 123 links (Clancy, 2005).
Thirty-one people have
commented on this Ratliff's blog entry of links, many adding more
links. Further, each of
these links typically includes a number of postings from other
bloggers and Web users,
with one of these having 265 comments (Drum, 2005B). The conversation
peaked during
certain times, usually every three to four months, and had less input
at others. Together
these comments not only offer a rich discourse for analysis, but as
is the nature of
blogging, these comments provide links to a vast virtual conversation
on the topic, which
spans weeks and moves from smaller blogs to those legitimized by
their connection to
legitimized publications.
Four prominent themes emerged during an analysis of the discourse, some with
sub-themes. The first of these themes was the idea that there are
simply not as many
women as men blogging about politics. Three distinct sub-themes
appeared within the
discourse as individuals attempt to explain why this would be. These
included: Women
are not as interested in politics as men are; Women, because of their
social realities, don't
14
Gendered Blogosphere
have time for blogging; and Women do not like the nature of political
and opinion
writing. The second of these prominent themes had to do with the
linking nature of
blogging as a means of popularizing them and how popular male
bloggers tend to link to
other male bloggers and ignore female-authored political blogs. A
third theme centered
around the notion that women's political blogs moved from the
political to the personal,
mixing topics in a way that proved annoying for readers wanting
political material.
Within this theme, however, merged the subcategory related to female
bloggers and
sexual content. Some bloggers noted that women political blogs with
sexual content tend
to receive more links. A final theme relies on the notion of
meritocracy and simply argues
that if quality female-authored political blogs existed, they would
be popular.
The first of these themes offers a practical explanation for why
there are so few
popular female political bloggers –!because there are fewer women
blogging about
politics. Because tracking, counting, and classifying the blogosphere
has proven very
difficult to nearly impossible, this theory exists with little way to
disprove it. However,
during the 26 months of analyzed discourse bloggers often tried to
estimate the number of
women and men writing about politics, typically coming up with fewer
women. These
numbers, or estimations of them, changed as the months progressed, as
more women
continued to get online and write blogs. But even as bloggers
acknowledged that more
women may be blogging in 2005, the idea remained that they did not
blog about politics
at as great a rate as male bloggers (DrumB, 2005). Each time this
argument is offered,
however, bloggers (mostly women) offer up numerous political blogs authored by
women. In fact a recent list offered to the blogosphere included 466
names (DrumB,
2005).
15
Gendered Blogosphere
Still the perception that female political bloggers do not exist in any great
numbers persists. A couple of reasons were posited to explain this
discrepancy between
men and women. The first asserts that women are simply not as
interested as men in
politics, an explanation more often offered by men and rejected by
the women involved
in the discourse. For example, Matthew Yglesias blogged about this,
citing as evidence
the fact that 80% of people who answered a BlogAds survey were male,
and that the
readership of political magazines is overwhelmingly male (Rivka,
2004). In fact, this
essentialist notion of men and women's divergent interests along the
public and private
spheres is found in the very first entry of this discourse analysis.
In August of 2002 a
male blogger named Doc Searls wrote on "Doc Searls Weblog"
Oh: when you get tired of all the male kinda shit that seems to
comprise 5/4 of the
blog world (techblog or warblog... now there's a sexy selection),
wander on over
to the smartest babeblogs on the Web: Dawn and Moxie. They both remind me of
my favorite line from that great Joni Mitchell song, "You turn me on,
I'm a radio":
You don't like weak women
You get bored so quick
And you don't like strong women
'Cause they're hip to your tricks
Love them strong wimmin. (Searls, 2002)
Searls is a very connected individual within the Internet community. He was
senior editor on one of the leading Linux (a computer language)
publications, has written
16
Gendered Blogosphere
for numerous top publications in the computer technology world,
co-founded one of
Silicon Valley's top advertising and public relations agencies, and
is on the advisory
boards of Jabber, Inc., Ping Identity Corp. and Technorati. Searls
entry started a
conversation that occurred during an 8-day period on five different
blogs. The first
response to Searls came the very same day when a woman, Shelly
Powers, who authors
the Burningbird blog, calls his comments "unbelievably sexist"
(Powers, 2002). She goes
on to write:
Tech and war/politics are "male" shit; and what, sex and love and
family stuff is
"female" shit?
So what am I and every other woman who writes about "male" shit, such as on
politics and technology — unnatural manifestations of androgynous webloggers?
(Powers, 2002).
Powers entry highlights a theme that continues from this first day of
the discourse
through today – that of the dichotomous public/private spheres linked
to male/female.
One comment on the most recent round of dialogue simply said about
women political
bloggers, "Men don't like listening to women" (Chris in Drum, 2005A)
This dichotomy, which in many ways indicates to a certain degree the
reality of
women's lives, relates to a second theory about why women do not blog
as much as men.
The argument holds particular relevance within the context of women's
experiences
within the material world and is based on the notion that women often
have the added
responsibilities of childrearing and home management and lack time
for blogging. The
17
Gendered Blogosphere
following post explains the point well: "I know from trying to get a
group blawg together
of female law professors, that most of the participants were pressed
for time. Blogging is
a second (or third or fourth) job after teaching and writing, and a
lot of the women that I
know have a few extra jobs anyway with childrearing" (Conglomerate in
Drum, 2005B).
Rather than claim women are not interested, another blogger wrote,
Probably the most famous articulator of the leisure gap is Arlie
Hoschchild, who
reported in "The Second Shift" that the leisure gap between men and women in
two-wage households worked out to an entire extra month of 24-hour days. More
recently, a 1995 diary study showed that working men had, on average, 43.6
hours of free time per week – compared to 33 hours for working women. That's a
lot more time for blog reading, …So women may simply spend less time on
politics, rather than being less interested. Young women are more
likely to vote
than young men and that women are more likely to get involved in influencing
others' votes when female candidates are on the ballot. (Rivka, 2005)
In another comment, Steve Crickman writes "Maybe too many [women] are
busy raising
young children…Approximately two-thirds of tenured women don't have
children. By
the same logic, a blogging career could be just as difficult for
those with childrearing
responsibilities" (Drum, 2005A). This theme was echoed in various
posts, including, "It
may not be p.c. to say but women plain have more 'other' demands on
their time so who
has time to blog without having a 'wife'" (Phylsato in Drum, 2005A).
A third explanation for why women do not blog about politics at as
high a rate as
18
Gendered Blogosphere
men also essentializes women. This time, however, bloggers (mostly
male) posited that
women did not blog about politics because they do not feel as
comfortable asserting their
opinions and also are turned off by what can be a vicious arena. This
theory emerged late
in the discourse and has been linked to a dialogue about the
male-dominated op-ed pages
in the physical world of print journalism. In fact, it was this
connection that set off the
most recent (and possibly the most participated in) debate on the
topic. On February 20,
2005, Kevin Drum a blogger/writer for the Washington Monthly, while
searching for
clues about why op-ed pages are dominated by men, turned to the
blogosphere for
answers. He wrote:
So what's up? There aren't any institutional barriers in the
traditional sense of the
word, which means either (a) there are fewer female political
bloggers and thus
fewer in the top 30, or (b) there are plenty of women who blog about
politics but
they don't get a lot of traffic or links from high-traffic bloggers.
My guess is it's a little bit of both, and the proximate reason is
that men are more
comfortable with the food fight nature of opinion writing – both
writing it and
reading it … it might be social, cultural, genetic, or Martian mind
rays for all I
know – but I imagine that the fundamental viciousness and self aggrandizement
inherent in opinion writing turns off a lot of women. (Drum, 2005A)
To give an example of the firestorm of discussion this post inspired,
consider that as of
March 31, Drum's post had received 195 comments (with relatively few
unrelated,
inarticulate, and vulgar entries). Drum revisited the topic two days
later (in which he
19
Gendered Blogosphere
simply offers some of the responses to his original post) and that
second entry, as of
March 31, includes 274 reader comments. Primarily women bloggers took
issue with
Drum's commentary, offering plenty of examples of "viciousness" and
echoing all of the
themes present throughout the discourse. In fact, following links
offered throughout the
469 comments on Drum's two entries provide a deep and nearly up-to-the-minute
dialogue about political women bloggers popularity. The dialogue
related to the Drum
postings, like the overall conversation, varies in tone, from
serious, informative, and
polite, to angry, rude, annoyed, and teasing.
Drum's post also alludes to another prominent theme within the
discourse – that
of the linking practices, which move readers through the blogosphere
and ultimately
serve as an indicator of a blogs popularity. In Drum's second entry,
in which he
highlights 19 responses to comments two days earlier, Trish Wilson, a
popular woman
bloggers, writes "They wonder where we are. As we have said the last
three or four times
this discussion has come up, we're out there. You just have to take
the time and energy
you take to read the primarily middle- and upper-class, white, male
bloggers and find us.
Guys, you have no excuses" (Wilson in Drum, 2005B). Drum also offers
a response
from another woman political blogger who challenges him by writing
"even though
you've said you read me every day you don't have me on your blogroll.
It's things like
this that make me tear out my hair when people wonder why women are
underrepresented in the top-rated weblogs, or journalists, or
whatever" (Avedon Carol in
Drum, 2005B). This discussion about linking, or the lack of prominent
political bloggers
(read: male) linking to women blogging about politics, takes a major
role in the
discourse. In defending it, the notion of meritocracy surfaces. This
idea is that women are
20
Gendered Blogosphere
not popular and not linked to because good political female bloggers
just do not exist.
This argument, however, is found more during the earlier discourse.
Another common theme, which also relates to the dichotomous public/male and
private/female construction, indicates that women, even if they do
blog about politics, do
not strictly stay with the topic. Instead, the assertion is, that
women also write about the
personal and this mixing of topics turns away readers interested in
politics. This argument
lacks strength when popular politic blogs are examined and one
discovers personal talk
on many. This particular aspect of the discourse is interesting, too,
in light of one topic
that arguably falls outside of politics: sex. From the first week of
the discourse to the last,
women have asserted that men tend to link to women but typically in
relation to topics of
a sexual nature. On September 7, 2002, Dawn Olsen, whose blog in 2002
discussed
everything from political issues to sex and breastfeeding, addressed
the question of
women, blogging and politics. Olsen's points about the practicing of
linking and
suggestions for changing the system set off a huge dialogue in which
her initial post was
often cited as a starting point to the discussion. As for men linking
to women, in
September 2002 Olsen explains:
In reality, Glenn [Reynolds, the "Instapundit"] is a prolific linker
and can be quite
generous about throwing his weight around, and he certainly links to female
bloggers. He has even linked to me, but I have noticed a trend in
what he links to:
it's never any of my more heady posts, but usually something sexual,
which taken
out context, comes off as condescending or even vaguely insulting.
(Olsen, 2002)
21
Gendered Blogosphere
Wonkette is another site that tends to mix political gossip and
analysis with Ana
Marie Cox, filling the editor position. The site is different than
many blogs in that it is
published by Gawker Media, the largest weblog media group. This
backing likely helps
Wonkette to reach 400,000 "political junkies each month" and
continuously rank in the
top 50 blogs. Wonkette is not strictly written by a woman. The
Wonkette team lists a
guest co-editor, new analysis, reporter, illustration, design,
production, managing editor,
and publisher all of which appear to be men. From the names, however,
it appears two
positions are held by women – the person in charge of "operations"
and "business
development." Even with this heavily stacked male team, Wonkette is
typically perceived
of as Ana Maria Cox's blog, as indicated by her presence in
mainstream news. Further,
the logo at the top of the Wonkette blog indicates a decidedly female
perspective.
Wonkette has successfully mixed politics and sex talk (though a relatively
sanitized and mainstream version). For example on March 31, 2005,
Wonkette's post
included this line "In the beginning, Air America Radio was a
conservative squirt-gun's
wet dream" (Wonkette, 2005). According to quotes from the Wonkette
homepage, the
New York Times has called her "gossipy, raunchy" and "potty-mouthed,"
and top blogger
Andrew Sullivan has described her as "The newest, funniest blogger on
the block"
(Wonkette, 2005). One should ask what it says about politics and
gender that with only a
handful of popular female political bloggers one that mixes sex with
politics thrives.
Further, this popular blog also posts plenty of non-political
entries, including, for
example, a recent trip to a music and movie festival in Austin,
Texas. Suddenly the
22
Gendered Blogosphere
argument about women bloggers not being popular because they mix
other topics with
politics becomes less credible.
Subversive revolutions in the Blogosphere
The most offered suggestion for changing the blogosphere, the topic
of the fourth
research question, is for popular male political bloggers to make an
effort to link to
women bloggers. Other calls for action have occurred throughout the
discourse, starting
early. For example in September of 2002, Dawn Olsen, while
acknowledging that there
are no rules and no one has a responsibility to link to anyone else,
suggests simply not
linking to or mentioning the popular blogs. Olsen's post set off
another spirited dialogue
focusing on the linking hierarchy. Her comments were taken up and
debated. One such
comment, posted on the popular blog The Truth Laid Bear, September 8,
2002, read:
…she's looking to change the balance of power, so to speak, which I
interpret as
wanting to see more traffic flowing to the less-established bloggers, and less
traffic flowing to the few, core "leaders" that are "in power" today.
Dawn's approach is to act within her sphere of influence: she will no
longer link
to or mention the current "leadership" on her blog, and she
encourages others to
do the same if they feel similarly.
The problem is, I can't see this ever changing the distribution of
traffic in any
significant way. And that would seem to be the goal. (NZBear, 2002)
23
Gendered Blogosphere
Many other bloggers throughout the more than two years of conversation urged
bloggers to link to political blogs authored by women. One blogger,
economist Brad
DeLong of the Semi-Daily Journal, offered a particularly well-thought
out strategy under
the heading "Resist the Oppressive Dominant Internet Hierarchy
Through Link Sluttage!"
(DeLong, 2003). On March 14, 2003 DeLong asks: "How can we purge the
internet of
the positive-feedback effects of pure celebrity, and return to a link
structure – and a
Google PageRank, for PageRank is derived from link structure – that
corresponds to the
fundamental goodness and informativeness of sites, rather than their
mere celebrity?"
(DeLong, 2003). The solution to this problem of "celebrity" ruling
the blogosphere, he
explains, is for
everyone reading this with a website or a weblog to find a measure of
sites that
link to you …. Rank the sites that list to you by their "authority."
Find the least
authoritative, look at it, and if you like it link to it. (If you
don't like it, don't.)
Link to it. Put it in your blogroll. Talk about it. And don't just
pick one. Pick
two–maybe one from the least authoritative category, and one at random. Link
sluttage is the tool to smash the link-chains that are the oppressive
domination of
the internet hierarchy!!! (DeLong, 2003)
DeLong's idea had resonance within the blogosphere related discourse
about women
political bloggers, but was meant as a call to action for all
marginalized voices. However,
in February 2005, DeLong specifically addresses the gender issue in
relation to the Kevin
Drum-initiated discussion. Under the heading "When Links are Chains,"
DeLong writes,
24
Gendered Blogosphere
"Kevin Drum is surprised to find himself at the core of a privileged,
smug, insular,
thoughtless elite with undeserved privileges. And Upon This Rock
reminds me that I used
to have a plan for how to Subvert the Dominant Internet Link
Hierarchy!" A number of
bloggers embraced this subversive tactic, with bloggers taking up the
cause by creating
such posts as a weekly "Friday Random 10" to diversify the Web
(Kathy, 2005). On the
woman-authored Citizen's Rent blog, a post introducing this "Random
10" starts, "All
bloggers know that there's something inbred in the left blogosphere,
an insular crosslinking
between a-list bloggers that makes it difficult for the rest of us to build a
readership." A google search for the phrase "Subvert the Dominant
Internet Link
Hierarchy" results in 29 links, but the phrase "Subvert the Dominant
Link Hierarchy"
brings up another 125 links.
Another strategy for popularizing female political bloggers also
surfaced within
the discourse – asks popular male bloggers to make an extra effort to
link to women.
Meryl Yourish, a woman who has been blogging since April 2001, wrote,
So what's to be done about it? That, too, is a tough one. I believe
that bloggers
would be better off checking a few of the female pundits on a more
regular basis.
I try to rectify that bias by sometimes deliberately emphasizing
women bloggers
in my linkage posts, but I've seen no reason to announce that fact,
either. I just
make the extra effort every so often. Do I think that Sullivan,
Reynolds, Quick, et
al owe women bloggers a special look-see? Nope. But I think they'd be
better off
remembering that there are more than a few women bloggers out there, and
they've got a lot of interesting things to say. (Yourish, 2002)
25
Gendered Blogosphere
Conclusions
The blogosphere is similar to the situation in opinion writing and
the publishing
world in general – a place where women's voices are marginalized.
Through the Internet and blogging, more people with relatively little
political and
economic capital can enter into the public sphere of political
discourse. But entering into,
or having access, is only the first step in participating in a public
dialogue. Voices need
an audience to truly be part of a larger public conversation. A
greater audience promises a
louder voice and, theoretically, more power. Examining the
blogosphere, this research
illustrates that while the Internet may allow more voices to enter
into public discourse,
current systems of power lend validity and volume to some voices
while virtually
ignoring others. So while the Internet may offer a means for more
people with less
political and economic capital to enter into a national political
discourse, an intellectual,
patriarchal hegemony persists.
Through the themes uncovered within the discourse, it is clear that many old
arguments related to women and men's places in the world exist.
The mantra of second wave feminism, "the personal is political" is worth
contemplating within the context of this discussion, as it is meant
as an attempt to break
down the gendered division between the private sphere attributed to
women and the
public sphere of men. Part of the difficulty in women (political)
bloggers becoming
popular rests in the definition of politics, which is often meant in
a narrow sense.
Arguably, women blogging about the cost of childcare and healthcare
are addressing
social/political issues. This rearticulation of "politics" falls
outside of the normative
26
Gendered Blogosphere
notion that is similar to how journalists define politics – officials
doing official business
in official places.
These are some of the reasons that women-authored blogs receive fewer
links, in
terms of network theory preferential attachment is working against
them. First, the
original players in any network have an advantage: the longer you
have been around, the
more links you are likely to acquire. In the 1990s men still
outnumbered women on the
Web by a sizable margin. While that is no longer true, the early
advantage may have
snowballed. But that doesn't explain the case of Rebecca Blood, one
of the original
bloggers. Based on her longevity in blogging, she should be in the
top 20 but is not. The
second principal of network growth may be responsible: preferential
attachment. Old
patterns of power and assumptions about the way politics should be
played may be
responsible in part for unequal hyperlink patterns.
In attempting to "subvert the hyperlink hierarchy" it may be unwise for women
bloggers to remove all links to the top male bloggers because linking
tends to be
reciprocal behavior. But positive action is needed, more links
between and amongst
women bloggers and others who understand the importance of inclusive
spheres of
discourse will be a step in the right direction.
References
Collins, Patricia Hill. (1994). Shifting the center: Race, Class, and
Feminist Theorizing
about Motherhood. In Representations of Motherhood, (Eds.) Bassin, Donna,
Margaret Honey, and Meryle Mahrer Kaplan. 56-74. Yale University Press: New
Haven.
DeLong. Brad. (2003). Resist the Oppressive Dominant Internet
Hierarchy Through Link
Sluttage! http://www.j-bradforddelong.
net/movable_type/2003_archives/001179.html
27
Gendered Blogosphere
Donovan, Josephine. (1994). Feminist Theory: The Intellectual
Traditions of American
Feminism. Continuum: New York.
Drum, Kevin. (2005A). Political Animal: Women's Opinions. Washington Monthly.
February 20
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_02/005691.php
Drum, Kevin. (2005B). Political Animal: Women and Blogging.
Washington Monthly.
February 22
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_02/005705.php#47
1881
Frantzich, S.E. (1999). Citizen democracy: political activists in a
cynical age. New York:
Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Heider, Don, & Harp, Dustin. (2002). "New Hope or Old Power: Democracy,
Pornography and the Internet. Howard Journal of Communication, 13: 285-299.
Hooks, bell. (1984). Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center. South
End Press: Boston,
Ma.
Kathy. (2005). Friday Random 10: Subvert the Dominant Link Hierarchy.
Citizen's Rent.
http://kbonline.typepad.com/random/2005/03/friday_random_1.html
Kiker, Douglas. (2003, June 4). Howard Dean's Internet Love-In. CBSNEWS.com.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/04/politics/main557004.shtml
Luke, Timothy W. (2004). Power and Political Culture. In The Handbook
of New Media,
Lievrouw, Leah, and Sonia Livingstone (eds.). 518-532. Thousand Oak, Ca: Sage.
Madden, Mary. (2003). America's Online Pursuits: The changing picture
of who's online
and what they do.
http://www.pewInternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Online_Pursuits_Final.PDF
McMillan, S. J. (2000). The microscope and the moving target: The challenge of
applying content analysis to the World Wide Web. Journalism & Mass
Communication
Quarterly, 77(1), 80-98
NZBear. (2002). Talkin' Bout a Revolution. The Truth Laid Bear.
http://www.truthlaidbear.com/archives/2002/09/08/talkin_bout_a_revolution.php#
000631
Olsen, Dawn. (2002). Coup d'etat. Up Yours– And More Helpful Tips.
http://up_yours.blogspot.com/2002_09_01_up_yours_archive.html#81278750
28
Gendered Blogosphere
Papacharissi, Z. (2004). Democracy On-line: Civility, Politeness, and
the Democratic
Potential of On-line Political Discussion Groups, New Media &
Society,6(2), 259-
284.
Pew. 2004. Pew Internet & American Life Project, May-June 2004
Tracking Survey.
http://www.pewInternet.org/trends/DemographicsofInternetUsers.htm
Powers, Shelly. (2002). "Doc Screwed the Pooch" Burningbird.
http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2002/08/22/doc-screwed-the-pooch
Rainie, Lee. (2005). Memo: The State of Blogging. Pew Internet & American Life
Project.
Rainie, Lee; John Horrigan & Michael Cornfield. (2005). The Internet
and Campaign
2004. Pew Internet and American Life Project.
http://www.pewInternet.org/PPF/r/150/report_display.asp
Rash, W. (1997). Politics on the Nets: Wiring the Political Process.
New York: Freeman.
Rheingold, H. (1993). The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the
Electronic Frontier.
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Rice, Ronald, E. (2004). Primary Issues in Internet Use: Access,
Civic and Community
Involvement, and Social Interaction and Expression. In The Handbook of New
Media, Lievrouw, Leah, and Sonia Livingstone (eds.). 103-129. Thousand Oak,
Ca: Sage.
Riffe, D., Lacy, S., & Fico, F. (1998). Analyzing media messages:
Using quantitative
content analysis in research. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Rivka. (2005). Girl Talk. Respectful of Otters.
http://respectfulofotters.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_respectfulofotters_archive.ht
ml#108577713562735265
Rosen, J. (1995, August 7). Cheap speech. The New Yorker, 75-81.
Sachs, H. (1995). Computer networks and the formation of public
opinion. Media,
Culture, and Society, 17(1), 81-99.
Searls, Doc. (2002). http://doc.weblogs.com/2002/08/22#redigression
Wilson, Trish. (2005). Oh, Not Again! And a Month Early. Trish Wilson's Blog.
http://trishwilson.typepad.com/blog/2005/02/here_we_go_agai.html
Wolf, Gary. (2004, January). How the Internet Invented Howard Dean.
Wired Magazine.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.01/dean.html
29
Gendered Blogosphere
Wonkette. (2005). http://www.wonkette.com/politics/dc/index.php
Vogt, Christina, and Peiying, Chen. (2001). Feminisms and the
Internet. Peace Review.
13:3, 371-374.
Youngs, Gillian. (2004). Cyberspace: The new feminist frontier? In
Women and Media:
International Perspectives, Karen Ross and Carolyn M. Byerly (eds).
Yourish, Meryl. (2002). Sexism in Blogging. Yourish.Com.
http://www.yourish.com/archives/2002/sep8-14_2002.html#2002090903
30
|
