Catherine Bennet goes off on one about the political blogosphere. Her gripe? Widespread and irredeemable misogyny in blogosphere. She uses the oldest trick in the controversialist’s book, selecting a small number of ‘examples’ to illustrate a largely syllogistic argument. And yet I also think she may have a point.
…the single valuable service of the political blogosphere – to afford interested women a similar glimpse of what respectable middle-aged men do when they think themselves unobserved. For although their ranks are penetrable by women, it is obvious, from the prevailing tone of the entries to political weblogs, that most members of the Grand Order of Bloggers believe themselves, no less than any freemason, or member of the Garrick Club, to be addressing male members of a male-dominated community, in which female partners are comedy figures known as “the wife” (or “Mrs Fawkes”, or “Mrs Ablution”), breasts are “mammaries”, and fellow members can be depended on for companionable chit-chat about music, fallen arches, barbecues, rambling, weights, wanking and all the other subjects that exercise Gary, Steve, John, Dave, Eddie, et al, in the watches of the night.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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