Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

Estrogen Month - Day Two

And time to start a new comment section, as the one for yesterday's post is starting to get a bit long. You can still comment there, I have a Bloglines subscription to my Haloscan comments so I'll see them no matter where you post 'em, but hey, might as well start fresh. Here's the lowdown:

* First, please peruse the fine blogs listed on my left-hand sidebar to get an idea of the kind of stuff I like to read, and to make sure you aren't voting for someone to go on my blogroll if they're, you know, already there. Women-run blogs can be found in the following sections: under News+Views, both the Liberal Coalition (there are about a dozen of us there) and Da Gals; Dynamic Duos (I think each of those has one woman involved); Da Groups (lots o' wimmens there); and the first (20-name) section in Kultcha. Between all of them there are about 100 female-run blogs listed. If you don't have them on your reading list, you may wish to check out some of them.

* "Heavens! Why don't I see such-and-such's blog there?" Well, it might be on my Bloglines subscriptions; I read all blogs through Bloglines (which is why they need to have RSS feeds for me to look at 'em), and have set up a few "blogs in waiting" sections there as bookmarks to check out whenever I get through with my regular hundreds-of-blogs reading. The "Gals in Waiting" section is up to around 200 blogs now, in large measure thanks to you folks up there and the Kevin Drum brouhaha last week, and "Groups in Waiting" also features a number of women. My immediate Estrogen Month goal is to move a few women from those sections onto my sidebar and regular reading list; that's what you're voting on.

* "Gah! Too many! Bloglines scares me! Make it simpler!" Sure. In yesterday's inaugural post I listed the first ten Gals in Waiting in alphabetical order by first name; here are the next ten, barring the gals who already have votes (more on that anon):

Jessica Wilson (For the Record)

Jill (Brilliant at Breakfast)

Jillian (The Daily Cookie)

Julie Saltman

Kameron Hurley (Brutal Women)

Kathy (Citizen's Rent) [formerly Random Thoughts on Politics]

Laura McKenna (11D)

Leila Abu-Saba (Dove's Eye View)

Lizard Queen (The Blue Bus is calling us)

Lorika (Secret Farm)

More names to come tomorrow and throughout the month!

* Cast your vote for the blogs you think should move onto my sidebar, and why you like them. My secondary Estrogen Month goal is to point out to other Pen-Elayne readers who might be worthy of their consideration as they update their own blogrolls, so it's important to articulate what draws you to their blogs, what makes them stand out for you, why everyone should sit up and take notice of them and increase their traffic and visibility and popularity rankings. As Shakespeare's Sister points out, "Part of the reason women get angry about the periodic navel-gazing about aforementioned disparity is because it gets old hearing [male bloggers] talk about it without actually ever seeming to do anything about it (with some exceptions). When the issue raises its head every so often, all of us girls say, 'Here we are! Here we are!' and then it settles down, back to status quo. If you are legitimately concerned about the lack of women among the most highly trafficked political sites, stop talking and just take action. Add a few chicks that you like, whose content you think is right on." We can't make folks add worthy women to their blogrolls, but we can certainly mount persuasive arguments.

[As an aside, I don't want to sound like I'm praising one faction by denigrating another, but one of the things that draws me to women's writing in the lefty-liberal blogosphere is that it seems to have less of the "echo chamber" effect of lots of blogs saying more or less the same thing about the same news item (the "where are the women bloggers" 90-day-cycle meta-question aside). I've found more unique voices on a wider range of topics in the female end of the 'sphere, and that tends to energize rather than drain me. When you read as many blogs as I do, energy is a good thing!]

* Sometime on Sunday (since Saturday is the NYC Blogger Dinner) I'll announce my first "movin' on up" additions, talking about why I like their blogs and challenging y'all in the process to add these fine women to your blogroll as well. You can see the current standings on my Bloglines Gals in Waiting section, but in brief I count 3 votes each for Shakespeare's Sister, Ilyka Damen and Christie Keith of Dogged, 2 votes each for Abigail's Magic Garden and Lindsey Beyerstein of Majikthise, and lots of folks with 1 vote each so far.

Voting now continues in the comments section below. It looks like it'll be another busy day at the office so I probably won't get a chance to check back until tonight, but be assured your comments will be read and votes tabulated!

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