Where are all the Women Bloggers? Right here, as always

[miss_s_b]

I know I'm a bit of a stuck record on this point, but here is some concrete evidence of how the blokosphere works against women, all the while pretending not to:

Mark Pack blogs that the majority of UK bloggers are female. Someone asks him how he knows that; he replies that he got it from the ONS.

Mark would never have known about that ONS data had I not told him about it, but it never enters his head to credit me with the information. It's just information, it's in the public domain, it doesn't really MATTER where he got it from... Right?

I mean, the fact that when blogosphere stories enter the mainstream, the MSM normally credit Guido or the Egregious Tory Tosser, even when the story was almost always broken by someone else and they just picked it up off their RSS feeds or Twitter... as long as the story gets out, it doesn't matter who the source was, right?

Even more obviously: all those black people whose songs Elvis ripped off... As long as the music gets out there, who cares who wrote it?

Even when female bloggers DO do something worth noticing, we never get the credit. And we're told we should be grateful, because at least the information is out when the men deign to notice. I'm sure that this was not a conscious snub by Count Packula. I'm sure he's very wounded that I am even typing this. But you know what? Women are conditioned from birth to know our place, to not speak out in case we upset someone, to keep our heads down and just be grateful... Well fuck that. Sometimes someone needs to have their cage rattled.

If you're seriously about solving the problem of women being excluded, Mark, you might want to stop perpetuating it. Just a thought.

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Comments

[andrewhickey.info]

Have to agree with pretty much everything here. But (and not to derail - delete this if you think it does) I have to defend Elvis a bit. He didn't 'rip off' anyone - he was a non-writing performer, and the writers always got full credit and royalties. And pretty much all his hits were written by professional songwriters, usually white (usually Jewish) people like Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller or Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman.

But yes, the main thrust of your post is entirely correct.

[miss_s_b]

Thank you. I shall bear that in mind for future reference.

* hug *

You sure you don't want to tell me off for attacking my own side?

[shinsetsu]

Let's use Led Zep instead then!! I've heard they completely ripped Blues people off and gave no credit--and I love them, but still...

[andrewhickey.info]

They did - Whole Lotta Love is an old blues song written by Willie Dixon called You Need Lovin' (though Led Zep actually nicked the Small Faces' version rather than the original), the Lemon Song is Killing Floor by Howlin' Wolf. It wasn't just blues people either - Dazed & Confused was written by Jake Holmes, whose other songwriting credits were for Frank Sinatra, Frankie Valli and the jingle for a US Army recruiting ad...

[andrewhickey.info]

Didn't see that last line. It's precisely those people who claim to be on the right side who need their mistakes pointing out, because they'll actually attempt to do something about it. This'll make a good bloke like Mark think and change his behaviour, whereas some truly misogynistic arsehole would just ignore it.

[shinsetsu]

Good post.

Also, how do you get those little 'share this' buttons on your entry? Is it a paid feature?

[miss_s_b]

I hard code them. It's not a feature at all afaik. I nicked the code off my wife matgb.

[shinsetsu]

I see. Thank you very much. :)

[matgb]

It will be available as either an option for people to paste into a layer (if you're comfortable doing that, I can post the code now) or possibly as a feature available to all users (if I get around to a) finishing the code and b) getting it approved).

It's taking me awhile because I'm teaching myself from first principles. Figuring out how they'd only show on public entries took a bit, but it seemed, well, obvious to me.

[shinsetsu]

All I have done is compile an LJ layout here at DW on occasion, add a header in the extra CSS, and put some explicit directions in the CSS box for things like a border around the cut text -- that kind of stuff. I don't think I have touched the layer aspect.

[linlithgow-libdems.blogspot.com]

Darn it that is the sort of passion I want from our Party President *oops*

Sorry Babes I may have been too hasty :(

(Although Tim did rip into Undergraduate Finance on Saturday at #sldconf)

[miss_s_b]

Yeah, so I heard. I still don't know who I'm going to vote for...

[(Anonymous)]

Jennie,

I'm grateful for you having pointed me at the ONS data (and in fact not just pointed me at it but also in the process corrected me on something I'd got wrong, saving me from making repeating the mistake in the future).

I've credited you when I've blogged about the numbers in the past, but didn't on the tweet because, well, it's a tweet - a short comment sent (in this case) on the move quickly to answer someone's query. Likewise the blog was something quickly dashed off before breakfast without links to any sources (e.g. for the Marr quotes either).

I do think crediting people is important, so though I don't agree with all you've said this time, it doesn't wound me. You'll have to try harder than that - though please don't take that as challenge :-))

Mark
PS In the past I've often pointed people at your comment on my blog re. the ONS stats but if there's a blog post of yours that you think suits better for future use, do say.

[miss_s_b]

* nodnod *

And I'm not perfect on crediting myself. And this is one small instance.

And I fully believe you didn't do it on purpose, as it says in the initial post.

But small, accidental instances add up. That's all I'm saying. I'm using you as an example, not saying that once this instance is fixed, everything will be ok.

[innerbrat]

By the way - and this is just a thought and probably not one Jennie would care about at all - would it seriously hurt you to include the word 'sorry' in a comment this long?