I Suspect I Would Be Useless As a Lefty
Ms. TalkLeft (who has been a real inspiration today) sends us to the Rittenhouse Review and his list of top female lefty bloggers.
Well, congrats to all of you, and please allow me to interrupt with just one question - who cares? I will grant that if these folks are specifically addressing "women's issues", then their gender might be relevant. But to pick an example seemingly at random, does Ms. TalkLeft really bring a special female perspective to the scientific validity of DNA evidence?
Oh, go ahead, tell me that everything is about gender in this male dominated power structure. I'm already thinking about baseball. And I am wondering, if I check by the Rittenhouse Review, will I find a list of best gay bloggers? Best black bloggers? Best Catholic bloggers? And if not, why not?
Hmm, following his links, I see that one of the nicely-endorsed women is also a bit puzzled. Maybe she is also useless as a lefty?
Well, I know Jim at RR had the best of intentions, and his post has an obvious connection to the Mac Diva debacle, and we are all just having fun on a Friday afternoon, so rather than reach any obvious conclusions, I think I will just abruptly end.
UPDATE: If I have it today, then 5 Corners had it yesterday, Thursday, June 12, 2003, and what is with her archives? One of her commenters says, roughly, this:
...unfortunately, because people THINK that girl bloggers are rare, mediocre female blogs get more attention than they ought to, a sort of psychological affirmative action in the blogosphere.
Let's be clear - I am not saying anyone on any of these lists is mediocre. I am just scratching my head. And as I scratch, I am thinking that maybe we might like to pretend that there is the least bit of objectivity to sexist behavior, or, in other words, it is not just in the eye of the beholder. Let me further imagine that lefty female bloggers are not objecting to this list as sexist because they are sympathetic to Jim C's politics, and figure he means well. Fine.
If, at some future date, I (as an Evil Righty) engage in similarly sexist behavior and they criticize me, I will have handy the very fair objection that their criticism is politically motivated, rather than motivated by any real sense of outrage over the behavior itself.
But yeah, I am sure Jim is right. They are all pretty good - for women.
And sexism in the blogosphere was kicked around a while back. This link works, and she has several posts below this. I get mentioned, too! If you look hard.
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