Ann Responds - very reasonably.

I appreciate your point. Kevin did have a lot of links at his site, and
it was hard to single only one or two out, leaving out so many. I did
notice I was doing that. But I do prefer to single out individuals I
consider good writers, rather than to just say here's a big list of
women writers, especially of one political side.

Ann

and I replied:

Hi, Ann-

I certainly see your point. There was some debate when I assembled WSS! as to whether we should restrict it or not. I decided that since it was formed in direct response to the Liberal men's cyclical question, that I'd do it this way. I'm disabled and I honestly didn't think I could maintain one that was all inclusive by myself. I did offer at the time to provide space on my server for two more blogrolls, one conservative and one for women diarists, if someone else would take responsibility for them. I'd love to have a comprehensive resource for all women writers, and the offer still stands. If anyone wants to take up the task. I'll set up the page and the blogroll for them to fill.

Peace,

Morgaine

And the offer is still open. I'll provide the space and the means to do it if somebody else will take the job.

Rappers and Bloggers - Separated at birth! By Josh Levin

TO: Josh Levin

Hi, Josh-

Interesting piece about rappers and bloggers, though we might be separated more by choice than by birth. I don’t think many gangstas would want to hang with my crowd. My site is called The-Goddess, so I guess you might say I’m the blogging equivalent of a Cherokee Queen Latifah.

Anyway, your timing is interesting. The word “circle jerk” has been used a lot in the liberal blogosphere this week. (There are actually 3 interconnected blogospheres – Eason Jordan was targeted by the Neocons, a lot of whom are paid by the Republicans, the liberals usually like to be called Progressives, and they brought you JimJeff GannonGuckert. The rest are primarily female diarists and they don’t bother anyone. ) The dust up this week had to do with one of your observations:

Women can't win an audience in either profession without raunching it up like Lil' Kim or Wonkette.

One blogger, Lauren at Feministe summed it up this way:

**NOTE - go to http://www.feministe.us/blog/ to see the graphic. Scroll down - you can't miss it.

It would be funny if it weren’t true.

I just wanted to mention that unlike Rap, there are lots of women bloggers. In fact, there’s a blogroll of over 450 women who blog about politics at What She Said! if we could only get the “circle-jerkers” to let people know we’re out here.

Hint, hint *wink

Peace

Morgaine Swann

Thanks to Mad Kane, who is mentioned in the article, for the heads up.

SO, anybody else got a windmill for me to tilt at before I put my white horse in the barn for the night - ha ha!? I'm just gettin' warmed up...

MSNBC - Is blogging a male game?

Ann Althouse is filling in for Glenn Reynolds on MSNBC this week, and today's post is about Kevin Drum's posts about US. She makes a good point in that blogging is just writing, and there are many ways to approach it.

I hate be critical, but in the article she links twice to Kevin
Drum's blog. She never mentions any site for finding women who blog. I don't know Ms. Althouse, but I thought she might want to know we are here. Here's the note I sent:

Hello, Ann-

Nice post regarding Kevin Drum's most recent dismissal of women writers on the 'net. I was disappointed, though, that you gave him two links in the article, yet none for those who might wish to find us.

There are currently two resources for women writers. One is Feminist Blogs which includes men and women, and one is my site What She Said! which features a blogroll of over 450 women who blog progressive politics. Mentioning these sites would be of great help in spotlighting women bloggers.

Thanks

Morgaine Swann

If anyone else wants to add a gentle reminder on behalf of our Sister Bloggers, the link is: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3395977/

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.

Links where the Women Bloggers Strike Back

One Good Thing has one awesome post.

Susan at Suburban Guerrila has today's ACTION ITEM

MAD KANE takes a lyrical approach

Leenaword's Xanga Site ( http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=leenawords&tab=weblogs&uid=200565736 )
Media Girl
Trish Wilson
Yourish.com
Plum Crazy
Random Thoughts
Sheelzebub
Brutal Women
Avedon Carol
Feministe
Watermelon Punch
Illyka Damen
Elayne Riggs
American Street
Outside the Beltway
Sisu
Althouse
Long Story, Short Pier
Echidne
Bitch Phd
Unfogged
Majikthise
Norbizness proves chivalry ain't dead, it's hiding.

The definitive list on the subject is at
Culture Cat

The fight continued with Drum’s lame-assed
response .

Buck Hill give's Kevin's "logic" a workout.

WSS featured blogger: Riggsveda of It's My Country, too!

Name: Riggsveda

Blog: It's My Country, Too http://www.country2.blogspot.com/

Tag Line: It's been a dark and stormy night

Location: Philadelphia


1. How did you start blogging? Why do you keep at it?

Started in November 2004 right after the election, after I promised myself I would do it if Bush won. I do it because it's a needed safety valve to blow off the steam of frustration.

2. What are your most important issues?

Class and labor issues, privacy issues, human rights

3. What's the nicest recognition you've ever received from the media and/or the blogosphere?

Kevin Hayden of American Street asked me to join the team there. http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/

4. Who is your audience? What is unique about your blog?

God knows. Lefties, mostly, I assume...it's not a huge traffic blog. I'm very new and still getting an audience. What's unique about the blog would be my voice, i suppose; that is, the vernacular way I talk through the keyboard. I like to frame issues by juxtaposing sometimes seemingly unrelated bits of information, and I also like learning things and teaching as I learn. Sometimes my pieces will be full of links, while other times I'll just do a rant or deep thinkpiece.

5. Most frustrating aspect of blogging?

Being brilliant to an empty room. Then getting used to it, letting my guard down, and suddenly being stupid to a full house.

6. What's the one point you'd like a reader to take away from your blog- the one thing for them to really "get".

That's it's important to know how lucky we on the net are...how well-fed, well-clothed, comfortable, and wealthy. And that it's that level of comfort that allows us to hold forth like the students of Aristotle about things not 3/4 of the human beings on earth could afford to care about while trying to find food or shelter or a safe place to hide. And that we owe those others, we owe it to them and to the ones in our own countries, too, to speak out for them and make sure their interests are taken into consideration by the fat power brokers of this government and those in the rest of the world.

Quote:

"They put jesus on a cross, they put a hole in j.f.k.
they put hitler in the driver's seat and looked the other way
now they've got poison in the water and the whole world in a trance
but just because we're hypnotized, that don't mean we can't dance "

"Funky Western Civilization"---Tonio K.

To Kevin Drum: Oh, No He Didn't?!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=5691

Kevin -
I worked my ass off for just this occasion. As someone already mentioned, I have a list of progressive women bloggers at http://whatshesaid.the-goddess.org/ that has about 450 links on it. I'm pretty sure it only scratches the surface.

The Eco whatever you mentioned lists What She Said! but doesn't even include my main blog - in existence for over 3 years- called The Goddess ( http://the-goddess.org/blog/ ) Even though I write about politics. The problem is that men like to define politics in a way that excludes women.

Women and their children are killed in wars that have nothing to do with them. Women suffer most poverty, most violence and abuse, have fewer political or fianancial prospects, and do most of the worlds work. This whole planet rests on the backs of women.

Why don't we score as highly on Alexa, et al even though MOST BLOGGERS ARE WOMEN? Because no one links to us. Those scores are based on how many links you have from other people. All the major news outlets that list blogs list the same 12 men plus Wonkette. We just had a row with the new Alternet blog, PEEK, because they started out the same way.

I'm tired of being marginalized because I write about abortion and women's religion. I'm sick of this anti-woman bullshit starting up every 2 months. Forgive my language, but I must quote myself here:
Morgaine-ism #9 : "Politics is all about Pussy. That's why Church and State are always desperate to control women's sexuality."

It's all about keeping women down. Controlling our sexuality. Draining our energies with menial work and childcare. Keeping us poor and struggling. And let's face it, boys - not one of you reading this hasn't called me a bitch or a feminazi yet.

A woman with an opinion is a shrew. A man with an opinion, however unoriginal, gets his own column. The tokens either purr like Mo Dowd or shriek like Ann Coulter and reinforce your prejudices about women.

The saddest part of this all, Kevin, is that there are some really excellent writers out here. There are women writing extraordinary commentary, with sharp analysis and flawless arguments and you'd rather waste time in another gender-jerkoff than reading it.

HELP!

I got a request today for a geographic breakdown of where all these women bloggers live. Apparently, someone is putting together some events for women bloggers in NYC and they want to see how we're scattered. I've spent the evening trying to find profiles or whatever, and I've discovered that it's damned near impossible. Most women seem not to indicate where they live for various reasons.

So I'm asking you all to help. If you or anyone you know is on the blogroll here at WSS! please drop an email to me at morgaine@the-goddess.org and let me know where you are. All I need is your state. Thanks!

To Evan, at PEEK

Hey, Evan-

Thanks for being a good sport. I'm sorry I was so angry, but let me give you a little background on where the anger came from.

About every three months, the boy bloggers start this "where are all the female (political) bloggers?" Since we're everywhere, and since there are a couple of places, like What She Said!, that specifically address that question, it drives us nuts. It starts a round of posting wars, and the guys still don't catch on. I'll give you credit for being open to ideas, and having a great attitude about it all. That tells me Alternet made a good choice in putting you on the blog.

As in life, women are the majority on the 'net. Unlike the real world, we aren't going to be shut out or marginalized because we talk about "women's issues" in addition to the new wave of fascism and abject failure of the press (the MSM) to inform the people. Every political issue of the day - War, Civil Rights, Social Security, Abortion Rights – affects us more. Innocent women and children are dying in Iraq, in Afghanistan, any where the U.S. wages war. Millions of women and their infants will die of AIDS because of Bush's "abstinence only" follies. Women will lose most if Shrub manages to destroy Social Security, which, according to one man I trust – Dennis Kucinich- is "rock solid through 2042". And believe me, no "morning after" pill will have side effects comparable to the side effects of using a coat hanger to end an unwanted pregnancy.

Women are being pushed back to the 19th Century by the Bushistas, so thank you for understanding that we're on the defensive right now. Judging from some of the emails I've gotten today, you'll get plenty of suggestions for your blog roll.

In Solidarity

Morgaine Swann

So I checked out their blog and they did add a few good feminist blogs and some for people of color. Still no Pagans, no WSS! or Feministblogs.org, and of course, no The-Goddess but it's progress, just the same. Keep writing and making suggestions.

To Alternet, RE: their new blog of blogs, PEEK

Not a very promising start for PEEK. Same blogs, different day. Your blogroll is all guys except Wonkette, which isn't really a blog. She has a staff working for her, you know. Real bloggers do their own code and graphics.

Every blogger you listed was male, which is an interesting trick since most bloggers are women. You didn't even list What She Said! http://whatshesaid.the-goddess.org/ which is a list of almost 500 progressive women bloggers, or feministblogs.org, nor is there one feminist blog, nor one Pagan political blog ( http://the-goddess.org/blog/ for example). You didn't even list John Aravosis' Americablog, the gay political which helped break the Gannon story.

You have to dig a little deeper to get the respect of the blogosphere.

Make sure you go push your own blogs, ladies - no one else is going to do it for us. I'm so sick of this bullshit I could scream. Old boy networks are bad enough, but this young boy clique on the 'net is getting old fast. Write to them at peek@alternet.org.

WSS featured blogger: Echidne of the Snakes!

Name:
Echidne of the snakes

Blog:
Echidne of the snakes,
http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com

Location:
A mountaintop in Greece, also
http://echidneofthesnakes.blogspot.com


1. How did you start blogging? Why do you keep at it?

Goddess Answer: I started blogging out of boredom with being adulated by snakes alone. I needed a bigger audience. I keep at it because it works.

Human Answer: I started blogging to keep writing something every day. Having an imaginary reader made that more likely. I keep at it because the readers are real.

2. What are your most important issues?

Goddess Answer: Changing the world into a better place. We divines assume it is possible. Also showing that I can do better than Athena.

Human Answer: Feminism and fighting the radical right.

3. What's the nicest recognition you've ever received from the media and/or the blogosphere?

Goddess Answer: All those humans who come and worship at my altar by writing sweet comments on my blog. I grow a little bigger and more real every time something nice is said about me. Soon I will be a real force to be reckoned with!

Human Answer: My readers' comments, actually. But also to be read by Katha Pollitt (my great idol) and to be nominated as a semifinalist in many Koufax award categories. And being named the most polite political blogger!

4. Who is your audience? What is unique about your blog?

Goddess Answer: I write to everybody: divines, humans and snakes. Everybody. My blog is unique because it is written by me. How many snake goddesses blog on politics?

Human Answer: I'm not sure what my audience is, except for the fact that it probably consists of people who are feminist or profeminist in their views. My blog might be unique in its bipolar character: having a resident goddess can be hard at times, especially when I get possessed over longer periods of time. She's truly quite arrogant, whereas I'm very modest and shy.

5. Most frustrating aspect of blogging?

Goddess Answer: Not enough adulators! I need more, more, more!

Human Answer: The ephemeral nature of what happens. Though in some ways this is the best aspect of blogging, too, in its freshness and immediacy; the fact is that whatever I did yesterday is totally irrelevant today and that can be hard to accept.

6. What's the one point you'd like a reader to take away from your blog- the one thing for them to really "get".

Goddess Answer: Never say no to ice-cream or human kindness.

Human Answer: A difficult question to answer, because what I want to achieve is something not purely informational. It is a certain tone of writing more than just what the writing says and has to do with the respect of humanity while also acknowledging its negative side.

Quote: "Never say no to ice-cream or human kindness." - Echidne of the snakes

MatriFocus Web Magazine for Goddess Women

MatriFocus Web Magazine for Goddess Women

Their Imbolc issue is up. Check it out!