Going : Soft to Good

Given that it is Cheltenham week, the entire country seems to be fixated with the firmness or otherwise of the ground. I am pleased to report that Blog O’Sphere is no less concerned. The excellent Fiona de Londras over at Mental Meanderings kick started a debate entitled “Women Bloggers”. At first sight this seemed to be a ‘simple’ calling of the sisterhood to unite and face our minority status together. Fiona’s post generated some excellent comments. Some of them, I found more revealing that perhaps the author had intended. The debate which ensued broke down, not surprisingly, into several lines (a) Male v Female (b) Bloggers v Non-bloggers (c) Hard v Soft subject matters…etc.

Update : Arguments have now extended to Legalising Prostitution, Demeaning of women in chocolate ads, naked George Clooney, exploitation of migant labour, judging on merit.... ogh. look, why don't you just go and visit Fiona's site! It would be much easier!

Before posting, I thought I’d go back and re-read Fiona’s original post. Her blog was predicated on the belief that more men than women blog. This set me thinking. I’ve never consciously stopped to think about the gender of the bloggers that I read. I looked at the 30 or so blogs that I regularly check out (*). Four of the bloggers give no indication of their gender. The remaining 26 are split male – 12, female – 14. If my stats lecturer is to be believed I don’t have a sufficiently large ‘n’ number to reject the null hypothesis that more men than women blog. But I’m willing to accept that on the face of it, there isn’t a huge disparity. Of course, the self-selection of like minded bloggers could be a factor.

I’m particularly interested in the “soft” versus “hard” analysis. As I understand it, “soft” blogging addresses largely non-political stuff. Disparagingly referred to as “kids, clothes and husbands”. Firm (only a man would call it hard) blogs address political issues social justice, republicanism, economic policy, civil rights, war on terror. I always recoil at any attempt to pigeon-hole, but I have to accept that I am on the soft side of good when it comes to blogging subject matter. If I had either a child, a wardrobe that I’m proud of, or a husband that I could wear, I’d probably be in a soft to mushy classification. That said, if Blog O’Sphere were only earnest young men and women blogging about the war in Iraq, I doubt that I’d hang around too long. I love reading these ‘firm’ blogs but I never feel well enough informed to offer a definitive position. I’ve only followed current affairs for the past 18 years, unlike the opinionated transition year crew, I’m not sufficiently qualified to comment.
I love the outrageously funny blogs. I cry at the poignant self-effacing one. I indulge myself in the lyrical prose of some writers and am awestruck by the economical style of others. I admire the principled position of sincere scribblers who provoke me to think about a subject. I am enveloped by the positive encouragement of so many of the community. I don’t dismiss the importance of women’s rights. I just happen to think that as a woman I have the same rights as everyone else. I am judged on my blog output not on the presence or absence of a Y-chromosome. (Of course I recognise that this freedom to think as I do, is as a result of my emancipated mother and her generation. I also recognise that some women feel the need to support and nurture each other. We can’t help it - we are women!)

Well done to Fiona for a brilliant piece and thank you Blog O’Sphere for being soft in places, firm to hard in others. Now if you could pass me a few dead certs for the Gold cup, I’d be very, very impressed!
Paige

(*) Apologies to those that I have not yet added to my blogroll. Being only a girlie, I haven’t managed to master this technical feat.