Body and Soul: Women bloggers (and other quiet people)

Jeanne, the very gracious writer of Body and Soul, thinks we are being too hard on Kevin Drum.

My comments:

I don't think we were unfair to Kevin at all. He got what he really wanted, which was a flurry of links from other blogs. I'm hoping in the future that women bloggers will forego giving him those links. We need to start thinking of our links as currency, and only spending them where it serves our own best interests. The most frustrating part of all of this is that most of the posts on A-List blogs that have discussed the issue still haven't provided links to women bloggers.

In the final analysis, I think the blogs at the top of the chain are there because they are linked by major media outlets. They get a lot of one-time and first-time visitors who come from places like MSNBC's Altercation or Hardblogger.

I don't post at places like DKos or Eschaton because they are too big. There's no way to have a discussion with a couple of hundred comments. It has nothing to do with the civility of the discussion, and I don't think anyone would ever consider me non-confrontational.

Women in the blogosphere are too forgiving. It is not ok to be dense just because you call yourself a Liberal. We have as much right to expect gender sensitivity as we do racial, economic or political sensitivity. I'm not going to settle for lip service - I judge people by their actions, and in this case their actions are wanting.

I don't think the issue is whether a blog can drive a story. I think the issue is simply being heard. Women get pushed to the side for dealing with topics like reproductive rights or violence in addition to policy. Wonkette is continually rewarded for being cute and sexy, in a medium that is supposed to be neutral for things like gender and appearance. It's just ridiculous.

Politics affects women in ways it never touches men. We are most of the poor; most of the real work force; we die in huge numbers because of war, poverty, poor health care, violence; The tens of thousands of women and children who died in Iraq didn't have a vote, didn't join the military, didn't have the financial means to go elsewhere, but they are every bit as dead as any soldier or insurgent.

Politics isn't just personal to us, it's intimate when our reproductive systems become not just the center of our beings but the objects of legislative control. To be sneered at or looked down upon for dealing with "Women's Issues" is not only insulting but absurdly divorced from the reality these men are so proudly touting their membership in.