What have we learned this time 'round?

Well, I learned a couple of things. I learned that Kevin Drum has probably started this bullshit to keep his blog up in the ratings. Eschaton, Kos and Americablog must be kicking his ass since the GannonGate story hit the big time. Also, I must keep in mind that unlike most bloggers, he does have a corporate master to serve.

I hate the concept of "war between the sexes". My Thealogy doesn't see us as opposite sexes, but rather as primarily Female with the male being derived from Her. I don't like having to make gender differences or playing into an "us against them" mentality. I'll take Holism over Polarity any time. It's obvious, though, that we women are working against ourselves by being inclusive when men clearly are not.

I saw one guy mention that Michelle Malkin was hot, so that's why she's popular. That may be part of it, and if so, that's typical and sad, because her opinions are nothing but vile fascism. I think the reason the Conservative blogosphere tends to support its women more than the Left does is because the women on the Right are being good little girls, spouting the party line, and are willing to defer to men as superior. I'm sure conventional religion plays a part in that, but who doesn't like being validated? It's great to have a cheerleader telling you that you're brilliant. The Progressive Blogosphere is not as pleasant for guys on the Left.

Feminists are not going to play by men's rules.
Notice all of the lecturing we got for being shrill, unreasonable, spoiled, etc. How dare we be unpleasant?! I didn't hear one argument of the points I was making. I heard about my behavior, about my web design, and I heard whining that I wasn't being fair to "sympathetic men". I noticed none of those "sympathetic men" who contacted me posted on Kevin Drum's blog to tell him that he was making them look bad. A couple of guys did, but not the ones that sought me out. We aren't telling them that they are right. If we are oppositional, they whine that we hate them. They want to lecture us on civility rather than address the logic of our arguments. They'll do this as long as we continue to support them with our time and attention.

There is something concrete that I as a female blogger can do.
I'm going to prune the blogroll on my home blog, The Goddess. If the likes of Kevin Drum won't acknowledge us, why should we link to him? Why should I read his blog? I'd much rather focus on the blogs by Feminists of any gender, than on someone who so clearly opposes my own interests.

After all, ratings on the web are all about incoming links. I don't think I want to support him anymore.

I'm asking my Sisters in the blogosphere to look at your own blogrolls. If there are men listed there who are working against us, consider pruning them back. I'm not asking you to ignore men altogether, just to consider whether giving yet another link to a particular guy is in the best interest of women bloggers. Before you link to a story on a man's blog, see if a woman is writing about the same thing.

If any of you knows of a woman blogger who meets the following specifications, please forward a link:

• Blogs Progressive Politics at least part time


• Group blogs must include at least one progressive woman, no matter how many males participate. That's why Alas, A Blog is included on the right.

Notice that there is a blogroll on the left of the page called "Men of the 21st Century". If you know of a male blogger that has What She Said! in his blogroll, let me know and I'll put him on the list. Kevin Hayden must be getting lonely.

I want to keep the WSS! blogroll as comprehensive as possible, so send in those links. I'll also do whatever I can to support other efforts like RadGeek's Feministblogs.org.

• Also, if you are listed on WSS! please link back,
If you're feeling generous, link to The Goddess as well, please. That's home for me, and where I do my best work. I think of WSS! as a community project.