Right now, I should be working on a draft for a lamb pho recipe to submit to Eleanor Hoh (@wokstar) of the Be a Wok Star blog to participate in a "#Pho buddies" food blog event this Sunday. However, I came across a Globe and Mail opinion editorial (op-ed) piece by journalist Margaret Wente that seems rather poorly informed, "Why are bloggers male?"

Why are bloggers male?
Source: Globe and Mail

Shortly after the Globe and Mail twitter account (@globeandmail) tweeted it, it enraged many on Twitter. Several, thanks to Ottawa's Joe Boughner (@joeboughner), have responded by listing favourite female bloggers and their corresponding blogs under the #xxbloggers hash tag.

In her op-ed piece, Wente made the following generalizations, among others,

1. blogging is "more of a guy thing"
2. the blogoshpere is male dominant
3. women are not interested in "spitting out an opinion on current events every 20 minutes"
4. girls don't have "male answer syndrome" so in school (particularly math class), they don't "shoot up their hands first"
5. women are not interested in "mental jousting"

I am not sure what to think about her piece or its intention.

Please note I have played devil's advocate before with some more than likely intentionally inflammatory words blogged by author and chef, Michael Ruhlman. Be it his "don't write if you can help it" or "foodies don't cook", I believe he is goading people to write better and to learn how to cook, respectively. Both benefit him (his latest book is about breaking free of recipes) and the food community.

Conversely, Wente does not seem to be intentionally inflammatory. What benefit would a member of traditional media have to encourage more women into the blososphere where there are already many established and respected female bloggers; encourage bloggers to blog less frequently or with more breadth when blogging is already seen as a less "immediate" vehicle for expression; or encourage women to develop aggressive or impulsive behaviour in online communities where it is already difficult to cultivate trust? So, why highlight a gender inequality issue where there may not be one?

Let us define what a blog is. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary

a blog is a website that contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Source: Merriam-Webster Online

Accordingly, the word was added in 1999. Today, blogging has arguably expanded to include other media besides text (still the predominant form). There are video blogs (vlogs). There are photo blogs (photoblogs). There are audio blogs (podcasting). With the advent of Twitter and Facebook, there is also micro-blogging. Though, I feel it somewhat violates the definition as micro-blogging is conversational in nature, more transient, very lacking in context, and rather difficult to reference.

That said, Wente claims there are few to no women operating websites that contain commentary, reflections, or the like. I beg to differ. In Ottawa alone, we have 60 food blogs at last count. Of these, I know of only 5 male food bloggers and two couple bloggers. Need I even point to mommy bloggers, some of whom double as food bloggers? Actually, there are enough dedicated mommy bloggers Mashable even has a Top 10 list of misconceptions about them. And, as fellow Ottawa food blogger Leslie (@defnotmartha) of the Definitely Not Martha blog pointed out, there is an online community for female bloggers called BlogHer. It holds an enormous annual convention.

At this juncture, I cannot come up with a way to positively interpret Wente's piece. Then again, foodiePrints is just a food blog. I am just a guy. I must suffer from "male answer syndrome." So, I must be responding impulsively to encourage discord.

In light of these deficiencies, I may have to tell my better half the posts she writes for foodiePrints isn't blogging.

Perhaps Wente would prefer we invent a new term. If b-logging is for boys, would she prefer g-logging for girls?

Update: As per Kelly Rusk's (@krusk) recommendation, I just pulled the Globe and Mail links, including the one to their twitter account. Rusk, a great blogger in her own right, explains why I could find neither rhyme nor reason to Wente's piece. The Globe and Mail is link baiting. They are purposely trying to outrage people, inciting them to blog, tweet, and include links to their site.



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