Philobiblon

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

The raging debate of the week, at least in the US blogging world, seems to be a return to the Seventies – whether women victims are in any way to be blamed for sexual attacks upon them. (Well I suppose it is better than back to the Fifties, when the issue wasn’t discussed at all.) Chaos Theory provides a summary digest that will take you further – I’m too depressed at the fact that this still has to be argued at all to range further into the debate.

Then to something that is not a life-threatening issue, but one that consumes vast amounts of female time and effort – hair. I Blame the Patriarchy concludes: “as the Pakistani woman obscureth her identity with fabric, so doth the Western woman obscure hers with Nair”.

Pam’s House Blend, meanwhile, is getting angry about US southern senators refusing to sign an apology for inaction against lynching.

Moving on to more privately political terrirtory, Dr B’s Blog discusses the importance of domestic partner benefits beyond the obvious financial ones.

Now I decided at age five that I didn’t want to have children, and I’ve never wavered in that decision, but if you want to sentence yourself to 20 years or so imprisonment, Dru Blood has made a list of her favourite books on childbirth and parenting. Amybowlian looks a little later in the life cycle, exploring the torture of being forced to read aloud in English class.

If you want to stay footlose and fancy free, however, Game + Girl = Advance has a brilliant idea about how to prepare for foreign travel. (But she should have saved it and sold it for millions, I’d say.)

Also in the”good idea” category, Laurie Writes comes up with great suggestion for keeping in touch with all those people you are meaning to write a good newsy email to, one of these days.

But is “hypermodernism” a good idea? (Or indeed what is hypermodernism?)
Mary Karcher provides an introduction and, of course, an excellent set of links.

Finally, for some comprehensive cat blogging, 2 Board Alley provides a pictorial biography of the life of Arnie, “a nine-year-old bachelor”.

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Edition 9 is here.

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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 – please tell me about it, in the comments here, or by email.

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

A perfect first suggestion this week with the tale of a real femme fatale. Laura James’s CLEWS, “The Historic True Crime Blog”, reports on the case of Marie Nicolaiewna Tarnowska, of whom it was said in 1910: ““She is not yet thirty, but at least six men have ruined themselves for her; two of these met tragic deaths and four of them deserted wives and children.”

I particularly liked the case of one Borzlevski, who “invited Marie to shoot him through the hand to demonstrate his devotion (which she did)”. Then her husband challenged him to a duel and shot him again.

On to modern matters (and manners): What do (and should) women want in bed? Holly Combe on The F-word ponders the debate about “pro-sex feminism”.

Samhita on Feministing is at the intersection of feminism and environmentalism in considering why you should buy food from a local farmer, while Lucinda Marshall on ZNet Blogs questions whether you should buy items funding research into breast cancer.

Musings from Redwing Marsh, who’s a serious booklover, for anyone seeking recommendations, recalls learning how to write a diary as a child, while the question “Why do you blog?” is exercising Letters from Fairy-tale Land. She ponders her resolution to post regularly, and how it relates to her relationship with her father.

Teresa on Making Light meanwhile finds several lessons to be learned in a lively piece of human stupidity.

For the parent blog-readers, Christine Hurt on Blogcritics checks out the movie Madagascar with her under-sixes, finding that “unless they read the NYT book review” it misses the mark.

For some real life animal action, check out Maviesansmoi’s puppy blogging – and (if you can read the French) some lovely doggy tales. And while I’m going pictorial, there are some lovely pictures of Portugal by Sophil de l’eau. (Text also in French.)

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Edition 8 is here.

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Please, if you read a post in the next week by a woman blogger and think “that deserves a wider audience”, note it here in the comments here or contact me by email. And don’t be shy – please also nominate yourself.

The disclaimer: I’m trying to feature as wide a range of female bloggers as possible, so the views expressed may not reflect my own.

And finally, you may have noticed service has been a bit erratic lately – I’ve been entirely refurbishing a new flat, so most of my time has been spent on physical labour rather than at a screen. I hope normal conditions will be achieved by the end of the week.

Where are all the female bloggers? HERE, in my (usually) weekly top ten.

To start with some reflection on the practice of the keyboard,Miriam Jones, on The Valve, discusses why how Chinese scholars paid for their brushes and ink matters in considering their writing. Are you writing on a battered old second-hand PC or the latest Mac. Does it matter?

Staying philosophical, Green Consciousness explains how she tries to avoid “psychic slime” and in a short but sweet post, Worshipping at the Altar of Mediocrity welcomes an activist approach to atheism.

Turning political, Reclaiming Medusa rejects “the burqa excuse”, while DED Space suggests Generation X women need to reinvent the consciousness-raising group and Iconochron finds that she can make relatively good choices in buying gas (petrol).

Nathalie on Mediabistro is meanwhile deconstructing Tom Wolfe’s white suit. /Then if you fancy a refreshingly surreal online juice, check out this gift from Orangepulp.

Meanwhile Mommy blawg has worked out the grand Star Wars marketing plan, but she’s let her four-year-old watch the new episodes anyway. The Cheeky Prof is, however, putting her foot down about her student’s grades.

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Please, if you read a post in the next week by a woman blogger and think “that deserves a wider audience”, tell me about it, in the comments here or by email. Thanks!

(I try to cover as wide a range of female bloggers as possible, so the views expressed may not reflect my own.)

The most recent former edition is here.