Why I’m Not At the BlogHer Conference
“You should register your blogs with Blogher.”
Jory was looking at my business card at SXSWi in March when she mentioned it to me. I nodded and pretended that I would truly consider registering my weblogs with Blogher. I waited for Jory and Evelyn to sign their book when all I wanted to do was run away.
The BlogHer Conference starts tomorrow and it seems that everyone is going to it. Everyone except me. Somehow, the whole Blogher thing just bugs me.
I guess it’s because I don’t consider myself a woman blogger. I just consider myself a blogger. Sure, I’m a woman, but I’m a writer first.
I guess the whole Blogher phenomenon bothers me because it feels like segregation. It feels like it separates women from men. I don’t want to believe that women writers are any different than men writers. I want to believe that we are all writers first and gendered humans second.
Plus, the idea of being at a conference of all women just sounds incredibly uncomfortable to me.
Just so you know: men are welcome at BlogHer, and should be there, albeit in the minority. Men also participate on the BlogHer site.
Not every woman agrees with that policy, it’s true, but our mission has always been to create opportunities and support resources for women bloggers, and in the world men are part of those opportunities and support.
I hope next year you might give us a try :)
Comment by Elisa Camahort — 7/27/2006 @ 8:10 am