Is the blogosphere one big frat house? If so, where does that leave us gals?

Yesterday my Michael Arrington-encounter post was featured on Gawker Media’s Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag. Pretty awesome—I was (and still am) psyched about it.

The post was picked up because of this latest Arrington debacle. I don’t want to get into the whole story, but basically in the midst of a conversation about copyright infringement on Mathew Ingram’s blog Arrington posted a rather sexist comment. Here’s the spat:

Arrington:  “Shelley, Lane’s attorney is abusing the DMCA for his/her own goals. And copyright has nothing to do with ‘giving credit.’ It has to do with being forced to license work unless it falls under fair use, which this clearly does. Mathew is right, you are wrong. But since Lane is a woman, it really doesn’t matter what she did as far as you are concerned. She’s a woman, so she’s right.”

(two comments from Shelley and Ingram, and then….)

Ingram back to Arrington: “Thanks for the support, Mike — but let’s not bring Lane being a woman into the discussion because a) I don’t think it’s relevant, and b) Shelley hasn’t brought it up. I’d like to keep this focused on the copyright issue.”

Arrington:  “actually, Mathew, I’ll do whatever the fuck I feel like, and you can decide to censor comments or not. Shelley is and always has been a fascist around these issues. If you’re on her team (poliically) (sic) she’ll support you to the death. Not on her team and she’ll find a way to take you out at the knees. People ignore her rather than call her on it.”

Ingram:  “So if you have a beef with Shelley, why use my comments — on a completely unrelated topic — to take it up with her? I don’t see why my blog and anyone reading it has to be dragged into whatever past issues you and Shelley have. I’m not going to censor your comment, but I fail to see why you felt it necessary to bring sexism into it when Shelley never even mentioned anything about that aspect of it.”

Arrington: “oh please. sucking up to Shelley will get you nowhere.”

My run-in with Arrington simply corroborated the notion that Arrington is a pretty sexist little sh*t. And then yesterday, after the Valleywag post, I got a ton of comments, emails, and facebook messages from men and women alike further supporting the claim. One woman described several horrendous encounters that she’s had with a few big-time male bloggers (including Michael Arrington, naturally).

And then a dude posted this especially interesting comment on my post:

"In order to understand [Arrington], you need to understand a little more about the nature of the boy's club that exists out here in the valley. He's a grown up frat boy hanging out with his brothers."

So where does that leave female bloggers?

Oh man, now all that my dirty mind can think about is sex in the blogosphere. When it comes to the A-List blogs, can women compete? Or, to get substantial readership, do we have to stick to traditionally "female" issues? You know, the joys of motherhood, our cute golden retrievers, accessorizing, Jamie Lynn Spears' pregnancy...

I don’t have the answers to these questions - yet, that is. So tell me what you think. 

Comments

[jpastor]

I think you've got the chops to compete. And better yet, I think you can blaze a trail yourself and blindside the "blog establishment" of the boys' club. I'm sure loads of people find your blog, and other women's, for that matter, more relevant than Arrigton's. It all depends on how you look at things. TechCruch really means absolutely nothing to me. My head is somewhere else--my blog aspirations point in a completely different direction.

I love reading about Jamie Lynn Spears, btw.

[adamg]

Why give the A-listers who also happen to be douchebags the satisfaction of complaining about them? There are plenty of other blogging opportunities and avenues that don't involve self-referential circle jerks of male technoweenies.

[Shelley]

What are you, yourself promoting?

You skipped over the comments of the one and only woman involved in this.

Think about it.

[RyanB]

@Adam -
I'm past the complaint... onto query. The question is, where does a woman's voice fit within this "boy's club" blogosphere? Must women typecast themselves in order to maintain a successful blog?

@Shelley -
The quote is just a paraphrase of the argument. Originally, I was only going to post Arrington's comment, but I had to put it into context. No "myself" promoting here.

[Lori Magno]

Ryan: You ask the tough questions before the holiday! Women have the same place in the "boys club of the blogosphere" as we do in the corporate workplace. We work hard, we show ourselves worthy to clients and co-workers and we make our way up the foodchain. A few "lucky" bastards will jump several rungs for being in the right place at the right time - but time (and the Internets) will find them out. Stay true to yourself, that is your place (each of our places) in the blogosphere.

[Rebecca Thorman]

There were 4 women on the Forbes top 25 bloggers.

Women on the web are consistent to where women are in the real world.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post.