Blogging is NOT a Male Dominanted Space

I came across an interesting opinion column in the Globe and Mail last week, but because of the overload of assignments I’ve had with end of semester assignments, I’m finally bringing it up now. The opinion piece by Margaret Wente, makes an argument that the blogosphere is a male dominated space, a space in which women feel they do not need to participate. She is saying that although women have opinions, they do not feel the need to express them in the blogosphere like men do. She argues that men get a ‘rush’ out of posting their opinions like then do when they do extreme snowmobiling and women don’t find the need to partake.

Wow. I think this column is just ridiculous. The whole purpose of a blog is to not get a rush off of how risqué your opinions and beliefs are, but rather to voice your opinion in a democratic space for others to read. It can be for anything, activism, on the latest technology, Hollywood gossip, even food recipes. So who is to say that the world of blogging should only be done by men? One way she strongly contradicts herself in this piece is that she says:

“Opinionizing in public is a form of mental jousting, where the aim is to out-reason, out-argue or out-yell your opponent. Women are just as good at this as men and, in some ways, better. Women are simply not as interested in doing it.”

But she just wrote a piece for an Opinion Column, is she not doing the same thing except getting paid for it? And don’t the really good bloggers get paid as well? I’m not really sure I see a difference here. By Wente voicing her opinion in a newspaper it is in the public, just the same as a blogger from the Huffington Post commenting on particular events.

I don’t think there is really a gender divide when it comes to blogs. For the most part, blogging has nothing to do about which sex can get more people out there blogging. It’s about creating a voice for yourself that wouldn’t be heard otherwise. Let’s not restrict that right.