Philobiblon

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

I’ll start with a first for this series: an elected representative, indeed a member of the UK parliament, Lynne Featherstone. I learnt about her on last week’s Radio Four’s Any Questions?, during which the presenter, Jonathan Dimbleby, said “if you don’t know what a blogger is, you should”. We’ve arrived, you might say. (I wonder if she’s the first guest introduced on the show – which has a central place in British political debate – as a blogger?)

Then to a short post on a group blog, Cafe Liberty, by Jeanne Marie. It describes a political theory book she is working on with a co-author. I had to draw a diagram to make sense of it, but it sounds fascinating.

Back in the world of flesh and blood, Kathy on Liberty Street offers a reminder that while much fuss might have been made about the London bombs, Iraqis are living with the real threat of death every day.

Still, in a way, on politics and war, Giskin posting on Medical Humanities, a group blog that is “a conversation about the intersection between medicine and the arts”, describes what she sees as an “attack of the metaphors”, in which language usually applied to terrorism is creeping into medical dialogue.

The notably named Arse poetica – it occurs to me at this point there must be a PhD thesis in blog names, with a good bit of postmodern analysis – is finding enjoyment in America’s much-discussed heatwave, while Everyday Goddess just missed a golden opportunity in the form of a second iced tea.

Also on the personal side, Unveilings is saying “no” to twisted and jealous lovers of all kinds, while Rebecca on Adventures with Applied Maths is exploring her complex relationship with time.

Jenny on State of Mind is collecting interesting images from the web: I was taken by this one’s message: “From strange little girls, strange women grow.”.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, on the day before BlogHerCon starts, I’ll link to Surfette’s post on the questions women bloggers need to ask themselves. I guess I’m answering a few of them in this series of posts: I think we all need to work to promote and support each other, not for glory or money or clicks (although they might be the by-product for a few), but because that way we can form networks to get more out of the web, whatever that more consists of.

****

Here’s No 15 if you missed it.

****

Please, if you’re impressed by something by a female blogger in the next week – particularly by someone who doesn’t yet get a lot of traffic – tell me about it, in the comments here, or by email. Remember, I’m going for a list of 200 different female bloggers.