Tweaking Delicate Feminist Sensibilities In The Blogosphere

Well, it looks like I’ve gotten Meryl Yourish all riled up again by mentioning that Moxie was a “hot Cali chick” and that Joyce from Transcended was “easy on the eyes” in my “If I Were Stuck On A Desert Island With Just 10 Bloggers…” post last week. Here’s the crux of what Meryl said about which bloggers she’d pick to be on a desert island with her…

“Wind Rider of Silent Running, because I’ve met him. He’s cute. I’d sleep with him.

Tom Paine of Silent Running. Met him too, he’s cute. I’d sleep with him.

Gil Shtertzer, late of his eponymous blog, because he’s really cute, and younger than the first two guys, and I’d sleep with him.

Frank J, because he’s funny and cute, and I’d sleep with him.

Daniel Drezner, because he’s intelligent and cute, and I’d sleep with him.

Bill Herbert, because I think he’s cute, and he’s intelligent and funny and yeah, I’d sleep with him sight unseen. He was my virtual fiancĂ©, after all.

Okay, I’m sure I could think of some more, but those are my choices for the moment.

Update: Whoops. How could I forget?

Omri, because he’s funny and smart and even if he’s not cute, I’d sleep with him. But I hope he’s cute.

Oh. You mean there was supposed to be some other reason for making my choices? Whoops. I couldn’t tell from reading the remarks about the women in Hawkins’ post.”

Now it’s quite ironic that Meryl is complaining about this since Kyberly Swygert and Michele Catalano both complained — with tongues firmly in cheek — that I DIDN’T say they were hot. But in truth, I can’t protest too much because I knew what Mox, Joyce, Kymberly, Michele, & Dawn looked like and to me, “easy on the eyes” describes all of them pretty well.

But even so, I have to say in my defense that — I hope Meryl is sitting down for this — men — well most men anyway — like women. Furthermore, if there’s anything men like better than women, it’s pretty women. I know that some of you — Meryl & Ilyka Damen (I’ll be getting to her in a moment) for example — may find this to be shocking, but it’s true.

That’s why you can watch just about any TV show, any movie, look at advertisements in magazines, on billboards, on TV, and see drop dead gorgeous women, many of whom are trying to give you the impression that they might drop their clothes to the ground at any moment.

And I know what the standard response to that is ,

“You sexist pig! It’s people like you who screw up the blogosphere for everybody! Don’t you know that sex and gender and boobies — I feel demeaned for having to use the word boobies in a sentence by the way — should have absolutely nothing to do with anything in the blogosphere? Nothing at all! It should be purely about merit!”

You know what I say to that? “Tough luck, being beautiful is a plus. That’s the world we live in, learn to deal with it”.

That’s also the same thing I’d say to Ilyka Damen who got all huffy because I pointed out a couple of things that are pretty obvious to anyone who follows the blogosphere,

“The average male blogger will link a piece written by a female blogger, especially one who’s attractive, over an equally well written piece on the same topic by a man, 9 times out of 10.”

&

“To be honest, I’m not even sure there are 35 readable blogs written by women on the right side of the blogosphere. By the time you get that deep — assuming you don’t count male/female group blogs — you’d practically be down to women posting flag cake recipes every two days.”

Here’s the gist of what Ilyka had to say about those quotes,

“Here’s my radical feminist proposition: How about you just read what folks write and link it based on merit? Of course, some of you claim you do exactly that. Like John Hawkins, who says he’s “not even sure there are 35 readable blogs written by women on the right side of the blogosphere.” What. The f*ck. Ever.

Never mind the teensy possibility that if readable, female-authored conservative blogs are in fact rare, then telling women to perk up and be happy about how much more likely they are to be linked “especially if they’re attractive” is maybe not the best way to encourage women to lean right. You guys really don’t have any idea how much you turn women off with that sh*t, do you? You’re really that stupid on this one. “Women resent being treated as sex objects” was a basic principle figured out by the Democrats years ago and you’re still sticking your fingers in your ears and hollering “I ain’t trying to hear that.” But no, that’s right, it’s the Democrats who are stupid.

Did I say what the f*ck ever already? Right, okay. Sorry.

…And it also remains a fact that you guys prefer your female bloggers to do more than just share your political values. You’d prefer that they be attractive, write about sex often, advertise that they have boobies, and make you feel “funny in the pants.” And you’ll link them often if they meet those criteria, sure–but very, very seldom if they don’t.”

Ok, let me interject some reason here, because you know how emotional chicks like Ilyka get about this sort of stuff (heh, heh).

First off, I totally stand by what I said about how few quality weblogs there are written by women on the right side of the net although I want to emphasize that doesn’t mean there aren’t top notch weblogs written by conservative ladies out there. For example, right off the top of my head, I can tell you that I Love Jet Noise, Betsy’s Page, Electric Venom, Being American In T.O., Sheila A-Stray’s Redheaded Ramblings, Cut On The Bias, On The Third Hand, and Absinthe & Cookies are examples of very readable, enjoyable, regularly updated, blogs written by women.

But, are there 35 blogs written by conservative women that are anywhere close to as good as the ones I just mentioned? Not by a longshot. In fact, Ilyka actually attempted to come up with a list of 35 “readable” women’s blogs from the right side of the blogosphere and it was actually so difficult to do that she ended up including a blog that has been updated once this year — in February. I will also be nice enough not to point out how many of the blogs on that list didn’t even bother to update YESTERDAY. Trust me, if you’re not even bothering to post every day M-F, you’re not a “quality blog” — well, except for Stephen Green — he can get away with it.

It’s also worth noting that the most successful female run blogs ever on the right side of the net — the no longer political A Small Victory & the now defunct blog of Rachel Lucas — both cracked 4000 daily uniques (which puts them in “rare air” for the blogosphere) WITHOUT doing sex drenched commentary or “boobie talk”. How’s that for merit based linking?

So while women can be successful in the blogosphere without ever showing a pic or mentioning sex, if you’re a female blogger and you’re attractive, you’ll get more traffic if you post your picture on your page. And if you’re so inclined to talk about sex, hey why not? It’s only going to bring in more visitors….

“But John, but John, that’s so unfair!”

The reality is that most men enjoy being around &/or being flirted with by pretty women — even in the cyber world — and you need to just accept it. Being surprised that’s the case is like being upset that your dog enjoys chasing a ball or chewing on a bone more than going to the opera. That’s how it is, was, and will probably always be and if you’re shocked or angry about it, you have the problem, not the dog.

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