Diversity in the blogosphere

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People keep talking about the supposed gender gap in the blogosphere and how women bloggers don't get as much notice as men bloggers. I've been stewing the whole mess over in my mind and I've come to realise that I just don't care.

I'm not going to go through my blogroll to see how many women are there. It's just not that important to me. I am partial to the idea that as mainstream media begins to notice blogs they bring their own biases onto the scene(see Instapundit's round up on it from a few days ago). They view what goes on in the blogosphere through the lens of their own experiences. If men dominate then it must be because someone somewhere is actively trying to prevent women from doing the same.

Too many seem to think that the only legitimate blog success is the number of links you get and how often you get called to be a talking head on a news show. Blog success for me is writing something that I am proud to put my name on. If the MSM doesn't pick up on it because they're all looking for the stereotypical white male nerd blogger that's their problem. There are plenty of other people in the blogosphere who don't fit their profile who read it.

I like Jeff Jarvis' take on this whole thing, "...in the blogosphere, nobody knows you're a dog... or unmale... or unwhite. There are plenty of bloggers I read who are demographic mysteries to me. I honestly don't know the race or gender of many bloggers and commenters I read and -- listen carefully now -- I don't care." He challenges MSM to find new bloggers to write about every week (hattip Instapundit). Y'all can start with my blog.

Okay so maybe I do care about this. But only enough to say, bite me. Check out my earlier post about women in the blogosphere.

And another thing, Steven Levy asks here, "Since anyone can write a Weblog, why is the blogosphere dominated by white males?" Well, since anyone can write a blog how come you can only find blogs written by white males? (Disclaimer: I have nothing against white males. They can be quite nice, so much so that I married one.)

Update: Baldilocks on blogosphere diversity, "If you’re tired of the “white male hegemony” that is the blogosphere, sit your butt down in the chair and write. Otherwise, stop whining!"

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