Women bloggers

Interesting read on women and the blogosphere below. Particuarly interesting since Large Marge (perma screen shot here, since she tends to get shy and closes down her sites — like her Trophy Husband one) , who also calls herself Beth Doolittle-Norby, Hilda , (Boots it’s not a date), Boots  and, on Surface Tension, Wing Gal, can’t seem to stop linking to me (Obsession, anyone?). For the final time Ms. Doolittle-Norby, I’m frankly not interested in you — sexually or otherwise. Please leave me alone and go play with your friends.

 Now, moving on, great blog below. And an excerpt about what women can do to combat sexual harassment.

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2007/08/08/greatest-hits-the-public-woman/

First, blogs can moderate comments. I’m not a fan of universal moderation pledges or censorship, but a responsible moderation policy will at least come down on users who level threats at others. Rape threats aren’t protected speech any more than yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater is, so this isn’t a First Amendment issue (and besides, bloggers aren’t the government, and we can control our sites as we see fit). Second, feminist and progressive bloggers should watch out for each other — if someone makes a threatening comment on my site about another blogger, I have no qualms about sending her that person’s IP address. Outing anonymous bloggers or commenters because you disagree with them is completely out of line and unacceptable; outing people who make threats is a pretty good way to make others think twice before posting similar comments. And if the threats come over email, all the better — post the harasser’s email address. Sort of like Holla Back, but in internet-land. Finally, name it. Point out harassment when it happens. The reaction to the Kathy Sierra story has been so strong in part because so many women had experienced similar things and had simply chosen to quietly leave, or just ignore it. Ignoring it doesn’t work — or at least, it hasn’t worked for me. The website that has allowed commenters to post sexual-assault-related comments about me has somewhere around 100 threads where my name comes up, and they’ve been commenting, posting pictures, and filing “Jill sightings” for more than a year and a half. I don’t comment on their site and I’ve avoided writing about them, but they aren’t going away. The more we talk about it, the more we emphasize the fact that this is common, that we aren’t doing anything to incite it, that it is gendered and that it is unacceptable — and the more we can share strategies for how to stop it.