It’s been a while since I diary-posted here but all of the interesting discussion about online hate-words about women, women bloggers, women on the Internet, etc., make me want to finally post what may be seen as a controversial idea.
I think women, basically, have been trying to use the Internet in a very ineffective way. In fact I think women who hang around the blogs, or have a blog of their own, could do worse than to adopt gender-neutral handles and to use the marvelous new “blind” medium of the Internet to their fullest advantage.
If the men who run these sites are pissing you off, then “disappear.” Make them GUESS about who the women are and what they want. Why should women (and other minorities, for that matter) openly reveal their numbers when they don’t have to, on the Internet? Screw that, I say. And in fact there may already be many many minorities online who are doing just that (and people assume they’re white guys).
I actually did not set out to deliberately choose a gender-neutral handle, but it has been interesting to consider the advantages of one. I have realized that my gender-neutral handle probably has helped me circumvent an unconscious bias that male (perhaps even female) readers have about what a woman has to say.
So that’s the perhaps controversial kernel of my proposition: That women and minorities should stop trying to be “accepted” by the big bloggers, and instead should use the peculiar advantages of the Internet — it’s a “blind” medium — to their especial and subversive advantage in order to drive discussion of real-world issues to where they should be in this day and age.
Keep them guessing, ladies.
