Margaret Wente argues that bloggers are mostly male and demonstrates in the process that her argument [as to why that is so] is wrong.
[Sarah and I believe the urge to blog is closely related to the sex-linked compulsion known as male answer syndrome. MAS is the reason why guys shoot up their hands first in math class. MAS also explains why men are so quick to have opinions on subjects they know little or nothing about.]
Clearly, basing your column on an inherently fragile, sexist stereotype demonstrates that blogs aren’t the only place for instant, ill-founded opinions. Moreover, the time it takes to produce a column versus a blog post doesn’t - in and of itself - improve the quality of the thought behind the column.
Not many women are interested enough in spitting out an opinion on current events every 20 minutes.
Maybe not, Peg, but apparently at least one is interested in taking longer to get to the same place.
But don’t worry, plenty of bloggers wind up generating exactly this kind of writing: an argument that defeats itself.
At least Peg doesn’t have to write her own sock puppet comments.
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[] denotes additions to clarify the point for people who don’t go off and read Wente’s column.
Wente Sorted Updated: Apparently the considerable number of women who write blogs decided Peg was full of shit, too and decided to tell her in so many far more elegant words [original links from the Globe version are live]:
"When influential women are ignorant to the numerous women's voices on the Internet, when the voices of many women are dismissed as endearing, cute and girly, and when the voices of those women who are most oppressed are ignored altogether, that gender gap is perpetuated. Thank you, Margaret, for proving your own point about how hard it is to change the conversation."
Changing the conversation is very hard to do.
So the Globe has decided to have an online chat between Peg and women bloggers. Get the popcorn. This should be funny.
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