Philobiblon

You know the score – ten new female bloggers, ten top posts, on my way to 400. It answers the question: where are all the female bloggers?

Starting with a bit of navel-gazing, Dr Virago (love the title) on Quod She introduces the Electronic Frontier Foundation and discusses the issue of freedom in the blogosphere. Let’s Get Digital, meanwhile, looks at how children are navigating a digital world. Medieval manuscripts get a look in too.

Turning topical, Redneck Mother is aiming for a $150 Christmas. And she’s found that one of the best presents children could possibly get is simple, basic dirt (or perhaps mud). Soap as a stocking filler might also be a good idea.

On Commeo, the impressively named Ms Bella Sultane ponders the responsibilities of military spouses in speaking about the war in Iraq

Now, a warning: this pairing on fertility could be distressing to some. Dead Bug is blogging her seatbeltless rollercoaster to (she hopes) motherhood – this time the news is good. Barefoot and …, however, is posting from the heart, after another miscarriage. They appear to be part of a supportive network of bloggers dealing with issues of fertility – well worth checking out their blogrolls if the issue is close to your heart.

Turning social, Emma Jane on Barely Tenured discusses the problem of the argument that gets out of hand, while Cate on My Mom Dated Spike offers a short but sweet review of the Pride and Prejudice movie.

Staying literary, I’ve been musing, after appearing on a radio show (see below) on how you always think of brilliant things you could have said when it is too late. Well Liz Henry’s a poet, so she’s got the problem of lines she’d like to airbrush.

To finish on the light side, Jessica on Go Fug Yourself desconstructs celebrity life. I don’t understand half the references, but it sounds fun.

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You can find the last edition of Femmes Fatales here.

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Nominations (including self-nominations) for Femmes Fatales are also hugely welcome – I’ll probably get to you eventually anyway, but why not hurry along the process?

Welcome to the start of my next century of women bloggers. You might notice this is being delivered on a Saturday. Sorry about that, but last night was my farewell party from work, so I was tied up elsewhere. (And this morning comments are as usual welcome, but _quietly_ please!)

In other news, don’t forget the Feminist Carnival No 3 will be on Sour Duck next Wednesday. The call for nominations is here.

So to begin …

I have to start this week with a post by a Jordanian blogger, Natasha, who has a simple message arising from the Amman bombings Burn in hell Zarqawi! (As I wrote earlier in the week, I have fond memories of Jordan, so was particularly struck by the atrocity.)

Redneck Woman, who’s “raising children, lettuce and hell in Texas”, has an important post about the need to be honest about the realities of pregnancy. This is active service folks, she warns.

Still on the family side, on Pause, Jory des Jardins talks with heartfelt honesty about her father.

Then in business, Antonelle Pavese is writing about Alice’s Corporate Wonderland. You just can’t pretend the “woman question” isn’t there.

Pants that Fit wants to know what readers think about wearing an inherited fur. Even if you’re opposed to fur in principle, if the animal died before you were born, what is wrong with it?

Renaissance Woman has a wonderful post musing on the death of her hamster, including haikus for him to read in his next life. (Not perhaps for the overly sensitive.) But there’s nothing to upset anyone (although it is quite bandwidth heavy) in Music and Cat’s Friday catnap.

Cooking with Amy has a recipe for pozole that holds emotional memories. She also muses on the odd idea of hoarding recipes rather than sharing.

The Singaporean Clapbangkiss defends herself against newspaper accusations of being a ‘poor little rich girl’ (and sets out how her mother has provided for her family. (There’s an explanation of the furore in which she has become entangled here.)

Average Jane, meanwhile, has two songs, and a novel to write. For a weekend, one out of two isn’t bad.

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You can find the last edition of Femmes Fatales here.

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Nominations (including self-nominations) for Femmes Fatales are also hugely welcome – I’ll probably get to you eventually anyway, but why not hurry along the process?

Women, Blogging.

Yee – ha … a collection of 300 female bloggers. I’ve hit the next milestone. And I promise (as I promised 100 bloggers ago) to soon have a neat table in the sidebar by which you can access each decade – in the meantime you can follow them back week by week.

And if you haven’t checked it out yet, don’t forget the second Carnival of Feminists is up on Personal Political Now. (And the next will be on Sour Duck on November 16 – email nominations to duck.sour (at) gmail (dot) com. )

So to begin …

On the US politics front, DC Media Girl researches the Democrat behind the closed session of the US Senate that had Republicans hopping mad, while Natalie Davis on All Facts and Opinion reports on a plan for a Stand Down Day aimed against the war in Iraq.

On Mental Meanderings, the discussion of a (possibly) polygamous judge leads to wider questions about societal good and religious practices, while I read with interest on Pam’s House Blend that Denver has, at least symbolically, legalised marijuana. Nice to know there are occasional signs of sanity in US politics.

Meanwhile, in Australia, Suki Has An Opinion reports on how there’s a heightened terrorist threat, just as the government is trying to get its repressive terror law through . Did John Howard perhaps study the Blair “tanks at Heathrow” approach, or has anyone, just maybe, thought that if by chance this were a real threat, it shows al-Qa’ida WANTS repressive legislation to go through. All it would take is a few anonymous emails with the right key words …

The Daily Headache offers solid, regular medical news on, yes you guessed it , headaches, but also muses on the importance of a good doctor. Then a real headache, Daneeta on Metroblogging London considers an agony aunt has got her advice horribly wrong.

I have to sympathise with Blue Earth Notes’s problem: when you’re cycling it seems you’ve always got a headwind – even if you are going the opposite direction to that of five minutes ago. Yes I know it is not physically possible, but it seems that way. Meanwhile Helen, the Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony, is contemplating a PPP – a post-petrol world. Just imagine all of those multi-lane roads for bicycles.

Desperate to be a Housewife, meanwhile, finds a dastardly conspiracy – jeans that shrink around the waist – even after two years – know the feeling.

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You can find the last edition of Femmes Fatales here.

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Nominations (including self-nominations) for Femmes Fatales are also hugely welcome – I’ll probably get to you eventually anyway, but why not hurry along the process?

Where are all the female bloggers? Here, in my weekly “top ten” posts. I’m now approaching a collection of 300.

Starting today with a cheering laugh, Madeleine Begun Kane, who has the adorable tagline “A Limerick A Day Keeps Republicans At Bay”, is waiting to hear from the grand jury inquiry (headed by Patrick Fitzgerald) into “Plamegate”, turned, as usual, to verse:

I keep scanning the Net
For some news from Pat Fitz.
If he don’t indict soon,
I may go on the fritz. …

Read on to find out just what is sublime …

Then, for the serious stuff, it seems right to begin with Pogblog’s tribute to Rosa Parks, a woman who really made a difference.

Jo’s Journal examines a proposal for legal prostitution in Oxford. While I think this is a complex issue, a small university city does seem a rather odd place to start (at least now universities are mixed-sex institutions).

Half Changed World looks at how unpaid internships transmit class privilege. (Something close to my heart, since, as I’ve commented before, this is certainly an important factor in the nature of British journalists.)

Can feminists talk to conservative Christians? The question is posed by The Happy Feminist. Then, still on the feminist side, Miram on Playground Revolution ponders the issues of mothers in the workplace.

Tory Convert sets out her theory of political engagement, and with it why she’s opted for the (British) Conservative Party.

Carrie on Stay Free! suggests that the New Puritans, as identified by the Guardian, should direct their criticisms at the system, rather than individuals.

Turning personal, on Dot Moms, Melita struggles with the addictiveness of television for toddlers. And I was cringing in sympathy with TC on Tiny Coconut when she made the sort of social slip that haunts your nightmares.

Girl in Greenwood has decided, however, after a short piece of practical experience, that it might be better to be an aunty than a mom.

(Another “baker’s decade” this week – there’s so much great stuff out there ….)

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You can find the last edition of Femmes Fatales here.

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Don’t forget the Carnival of Feminists No 2, coming up on Personal Political on Wednesday. Follow the link for the guidelines and nominate your best recent post now! And if you missed No 1, it is here.

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Nominations (including self-nominations) for Femmes Fatales are also hugely welcome – I’ll probably get to you eventually anyway, but why not hurry along the process?

Where are all the female bloggers? Here, in my weekly “top ten” posts. I’m now approaching a collection of 300.

FFF seems to be multicultural in the broadest sense of the term this week.

First, to what I can proudly proclaim as a Femmes Fatales first, from OC Hairball a pictorial post from a women’s skateboarding competition. A bit further down the blog there’s also some great surfing pics, from a day when broken boards seem to have been just about the norm – must have been pretty hairy out there!

Then Dangereuse Trilingue, who lives up to at least the latter half of her name, is having daytime “nightmares” about an unusual subject. This post’s in English – if you’d like French she’s also writing about a meeting of bloggers. (A good way to find new bloggers in French, if you fancy.) And her design is an interesting variation on the usual string listing.

Finally, in terms of linguistic leaps, With All Due Respect is written by JCB, “an outspoken Puerto Rican, lesbian lawyer”. She blogs in Spanish and English (sorry you’ll have to explore the Spanish for yourself – some French and a bit of very rusty Thai are as far as my linguistic skills extend). She finds a mirror exposing her kaleidoscopic soul.

Meanwhile, Vicki on Just in From Cowtown, (and she’s got a lovely cowskin logo to match) wonders if some people are too smart to blog. Then, Mary Ann on Five Wells looks at the digital divide, within, not between, countries, reminding us that broadband is still nowhere in sight for many – including some trying, ever so patiently, to read our websites and blogs.

Turning political, Ancrene Wiseass offers a couple of suggestions for grassroots action. (If you need a hint about her name, she’s a medievalist, or on the way to being one.) On Blackfeminism, Tiffany writes about the Bill Bennett thing.

Noli Irritare Leones has a discussion of clerical sexual misconduct, which reminds me of a case that as a journalist I couldn’t report. It was brought to my attention several years after the magistrates’ court had thrown it out. (The magistrate played golf with the priest and race was also a factor.) The problem is court reports only have libel protection if they are “contemporaneous”, and I couldn’t work out how to make it work legally. Still one of my great regrets as a journalist.

Then, like many people, I try to buy and eat organic whenever possible, but you do have to wonder how much of it is fake, or at least not quite what you are paying for. Conflict Girl has the bad news on organic food.

If that’s left you a bit depressed, visit Candida Cruikshanks, “CEO of Wealth Bondage”, she’ll deliver a quick sharp shock to snap you out of it.

Turning personal, This Woman Writes has a heartfelt post about the issues arising from open adoption (which as I understand it means the birth mother stays in contact). Adoption is something that affects my family, and while I think open adoption is a great idea for the children, it obviously isn’t easy.

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If you were counting you’ll realise you got a “baker’s decade” of posts today (11), but since many of these bloggers linked to the first Carnival of Feminists, I wanted to give them all a run.

You might be wondering about the difference between the carnival and FFF. In the Friday collection I’m introducing new women bloggers – on any and every subject – each week, but the carnival is a twice-monthly collection of the best explicitly feminist posts from around the blogosphere. Also, each edition of the carnival will have a different host – you can find more about it here.

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You can find the last edition of Femmes Fatales here.

Nominations (including self-nominations) for Femmes Fatales (as for the carnival) are hugely welcome – I’ll probably get to you eventually anyway, but why not hurry along the process?

Where are all the female bloggers? Here, in my weekly “top ten” posts.

I’m on my way to a collection of 300 women bloggers.

Black Looks, “Musings and Rantings of an African Fem”, writes about the proud homophobes of independent Africa. On The Disenchanted Forest, meanwhile, “Ol Cranky”, who describes herself as a “tart-tongued harpy”, discusses America’s National Coming Out Day. But, she says: “We don’t define or limit straight people by how or with whom they have sex, there’s no legitimate reason do so for people who aren’t straight.”

Miss Mabrouk of Egypt reports on some dreadful statistics on violence against women.

In the US, on Pink Pumps and Politics, Chelsea Lou is asking what is the Supreme Court doing with the case of Anna Nicole Smith, while Liza on culturekitchen is promoting the impeach Cheney first campaign, for both political and non-political reasons.

On Within/Without, Neha is leaping to the defence of bloggers who have been threatened just for linking to an article critical of an Indian institute. “I want my inalienable right – to have an opinion,” she declares.

At the Reproductive Rights Blog, a post on the horrific state of abortion law in Colombia – with more information promised.

Knife-wielding Feminists is a joint site for “feminist foodies”. I’m not really into cooking myself, but am into eating, so can visit just to salivate over the pics. It seemed unfair to pick out one poster, so go and taste them all. Still on food (and more serious subjects), the writer of Utopian Hell is planning to boycott Girl Scout cookies this year, because of the organisation’s stance on video gaming laws.

Then finishing on a cultural note, Joanie on Bonamassa Blog reviews a rollercoaster evening of a concert, with the North Mississippi Allstars – “the kind of music you grew up listening to (if you’re an old geezer like me)”.

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Last week’s edition is here.

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Remember nominations are hugely welcome – I’ll probably get to you eventually anyway, but why not hurry along the process?

You might be wondering about the difference between this and the Carnival of Feminists, the inaugural edition of which will be here NEXT WEDNESDAY.

In the Friday collection I’m introducing new women bloggers each week, but the carnival is designed to be a collection of the best explicitly feminist posts from around the blogosphere. Also, I’ll only be hosting the first one; after that there’s be a new host for each edition. (And I’d be most grateful if you could post a note about it, and the request for nominations, on your blog!)

Women