Philobiblon

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

Given the debate there’s been in Britain around the term this week, this is the multicultural edition. On that topic, Shanti on Dancing with Dogs finds much condescension in those who use the term.

And the term “cultures” can have many different aspects, not just ones related to regions or ethnicity: Autism Diva is worried that the guidelines issued to police on spotting potential suicide bombers might apply equally to some people with autism, and a real-life Professor McGonagall describes how she reached got students with a religious background and non-science majors interested in anatomy and evolution.

Now this might be described as indirect women’s blogging, but I found very interesting the thoughts of “Mrs A, a Saudi woman in London”, as transcribed by The Religious Policeman (a blog that has lots of interesting material about women’s issues in Saudi Arabia). She says wryly that the “immodest” dress of the locals, “in spite of what the Imams say back home … does not drive the local men into a frenzy of lust”. Back in Saudi Arabia, Jo is steaming with the frustration at the restrictions on women.

So off to India, where Uma on Indianwriting is musing on friendships made at the gym, and how they can extend across continents. I was taken by the farewell for a personal trainer – as a special favour, no cake was provided. $uparna has meanwhile started the third year of her mechanical engineering course, and found things suddenly getting serious.

Then off to Australia, where MelbourneHumanFemale is having a rough day in the call centre; remember she CAN get your number. LadyCracker has meanwhile been applying “facial analysis” to some Australian politicians. John Howard would be horrified by the results.

On Nat’s News, my namesake, who’s teaching English in Phnom Penh, is travelling through Vietnam, and has found a South-East Asian city where parkas are on sale and an embroidery festival is a cause for great excitement.

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Here’s No 17 if you missed it.

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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.