Blog Sisters in the News

Peeking in for my morning read of the smart & insightful Lauren at Feministe,* I discovered this morning that Blog Sisters was recently featured in Time Magazine's article "10 Things We Learned About Blogs"-- part of the Person of the Year issue!

This wonderful cooperative site featuring women, run by women, written by women, has made at least someone on a "national stage" notice! The article's blurb on Blog Sisters states:

Most Bloggers Are Women
Men may have taken the lead in the early (read: geeky) days of blogging, but that's not the case now. According to a survey of more than 4 million blogs by Perseus Development, 56% were created by women. More bad news for the boys: men are more likely than women to abandon their blog once it's created. Call blogging a 21st century room of one's own.

So if you're ever wondering if the writing we do here gets noticed, or if women's contributions are ever really valued, (after yet another of those "where are all the female bloggers" articles comes out), take heart. Somebody out there has noticed. As if you needed to be told, what we do matters.

And if you're at a loss for what they meant by "a room of one's own" then here's my enlightening bit of trivia for the day (although trivia is a bad word for it because it implies unimportant, which this piece is far from.) It's a reference to Virginia Woolf's essay that argues, for one, that in order for a woman to write, she needs "500 pounds and a room of one's own, with a door, and a lock." In other words, financial independence and privacy. The essay has been pivotal for women's studies for a long time; there have even been wonderful performances of it that bring the words to life in a voice much like we imagine Woolf would have used. I highly recommend it; it is quite readable, and gives you much to think about. I even have a speech that I gave at a Professional Women Writers' meeting that muses on the idea (along with some others). Food for thought.

Blogging gives women a voice, and while many may dismiss much of what women write as "just journaling" or "not important political writing" they are wrong. It doesn't matter what you're saying-- just keep saying it!

*In a way that shows the collaborative nature of blogging-- it's usually a conversation between people, and often we find out new things from other women writers that we wouldn't have known on our own.