"I know that a lot of women feel that men are clamoring to get ahead of them," ventures the ever gallant Glenn Reynolds, stepping into the hornet's nest of angry women of the left as exemplified most recently by Susan Estrich's shrill attacks on Michael Kinsley over the fact that there are more men's voices than women's on the nation's top op ed pages:
But on the other hand, I know that a lot of men are afraid that women will pile all over them -- and play the double-standard "you're hitting a girl" gender card -- if they say the wrong thing. (And there's evidence for this -- ask Larry Summers.) That's gender dynamics.
Cringe. That's not gender dynamics, dear professor. That's Marxist Feminist dynamics, and those old gals don't speak for us nor a lot of women across this land or this blogosphere, no way. Christine Hurt of Conglomerate, whom you link, gives reason to hope this too shall pass:
I have noticed that although there are few female law professor blawgs, there are plenty of female law student blawgs. I think the tide is turning.
As a youngster in the fifties, we were outraged at the double standard -- our brother/playmate was only a year older yet was allowed to do things we weren't "because you're a girl." Then came the portrayal of women as weakminded also-rans in the classical literature schoolchildren were reading in those days. We tended to "identify" with the heroes, whether female or male. When some man back then thought to compliment us by saying "You think like a man," we were fighting mad. We're a girl, and we think like ourselves. But then sometime in the sixties, when we were launching our own career as an independent-thinking woman, the women of the left co-opted feminism and spoiled it for the rest of us. As with all fundamentalists, you either agreed with the party line, or you didn't count. We were a voice in the wilderness forever until the blogosphere gave us a soap box from which we could make our voice heard over the din of the MSM Susan Estriches of this world.
When people like top lefty blogger -- and former catblogger -- Kevin Drum say "men are more comfortable [than women] with the food-fight nature of opinion," we breathe deeply and repeat "Margaret Thatcher, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Condi Rice." As we said in a recent post:
Maybe we're in a Pauline Kael bubble of our own, but most of the women we know -- fellow bloggers, readers, friends and relatives -- adore fiery political discourse and keep coming back for more.
What does a woman want? Like a man, it depends upon the individual. With a nod to Helen Reddy, I am blogger, hear me roar In numbers too big to ignore.
woof!woof!
in with the big dogs!
Posted by: Chris Muir | March 13, 2005 at 08:54 PM
Prrr.
Posted by: Sissy Willis | March 14, 2005 at 05:25 AM
Yesterday even on Fox they were musing that maybe there should be some qualifications for one to have a blog site. Women and men who question the media scare the media personnel. Irreverant media is their nightmare, and independent thinkers of either gender frighten them.
Posted by: goomp | March 14, 2005 at 07:45 AM
"I know that a lot of women feel that men are clamoring to get ahead of them," ventures the ever gallant Glenn Reynolds...
Oh honestly...
Maybe. I don't know. Can't say I give it a lot of thought, personally. I'm too busy writing to worry about whether men are "trying to get ahead of me". If they can manage it, more power to them, if that's what matters to them.
I think men and women often have different priorities, and that comes out at the finishing line.
Posted by: Cassandra | March 14, 2005 at 08:48 AM
"the women of the left co-opted feminism and spoiled it for the rest of us"
Ummm, I think feminism was a left-induced and -led movement from the start.
Posted by: Andras | March 14, 2006 at 08:43 AM