Academic

?The internet is not going to coddle and comfort you. In fact, the internet wants you out of here.?

By Ann Bartow

That’s a quote from Ann Althouse on the subject of women and law blogging. I had to extract it from a much longer post larded with the usual Althousian misogynistic exceptionalism, but this part at least makes a lot of sense to me:

Theory #3: Women are more prone to professional or personal attack, so they avoid blogging….

There’s some truth to this, but again, I’d like to see some personal responsibility.

The internet is not going to coddle and comfort you. In fact, the internet wants you out of here. If you’re going to be the sort of person who doesn’t want to insist on her place when she can see that other people want her out of here, you’re not going to get very far blogging.

Some blogosphere folk may want to make this a nice, inviting place for you, but they don’t control the environment. It’s a big, crazy world in here, and you have to stake out your place in it. There are plenty of people who are only too willing to use the techniques that work to exclude women, and you have to decide that you intend to stay. It takes some nerve, and there’s a price to pay. It is harder for women. Do it anyway.

The very next sentence starts out “Stop whining, blaming others, looking for protectors, and blog…” just so you know what you are in for if you go to the Althouse blog and read the whole post. She is right that the Internet is a nasty, hostile place, especially for women, (even more especially for feminists, thanks in part to Ann Althouse) and you kind of have to accept that if you are going to blog.

–Ann Bartow

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on October 06, 2008 (boomark / email).