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When I was asked to write a couple music-related posts a month for this website, I thought I'd find others like me: other women who blog about music. Since Maria posed the question last year, "Are there any women music bloggers out there ?" I've been on a search to find some.Sadly, there still aren't many. While women bloggers have made names for themselves in technology and web design, things typically thought of men's domains (Amanda Fanzani from Blogger Buster, who's been mentioned here before, comes to mind), it doesn't seem as though there are any more women writing about music than there was a year ago.
Where are the women music bloggers?
What I see are plenty of musically and culturally-savvy women blogging about music on their personal blogs. Lynnster, who has an incredibly wide knowledge of music, recently asked her readers:
I am debating lately on whether to start a separate music blog, seeing as how based on my stats (and hearsay) I figure about half my regular/somewhat regular readers have no to little interest in the music stuff, while the other half or so come for the music stuff and don’t care much about the rest. And, I know I can get a little obsessive about the music stuff at times. So, I’m debating. Move the already done music stuff over there and then whenever I get the urge, that’s where it’ll all be.
Speaking as someone who runs multiple blogs, a music-based one, and a personal blog, I can tell you it's not easy. I find myself finally letting out a big sigh of relief when I sit down to write for my personal website. I wonder if other women feel that way, and why it's almost expected of women to write about their day-to-day. Another thing I feel is a general lack of community. I look at the other commenters' name on some of the most popular MP3 blogs, and don't see a lot of women readers, either. I have a strong feeling they're out there, and feel shut out of commenting, too.
I keep going back to this article I found on Online Fandom a few years ago: Does The Internet Make It Easier To be a Female Music Fan?
One of the great early hopes for the internet was that it would erase sexism. Once we couldn’t see gender, we’d be judged on the quality of our ideas and not our sex. And now huge sectors of the internet are porn sites and games where female avatars look like porn stars with fantasy metal bits instead of genitalia. And that’s only where it’s smack-you-over-the-head obvious how fully sexism thrives online. Sexism may well be worse online.
Back in my early online days, I'd go online with a gender-neutral user name, and I was always assumed to be a man. The minute I used my own, unmistakeably feminine name, I'd get ignored. I don't think it was my imagination.
What are your thoughts? Do you ever feel you're not taken seriously as a music fan because you're a woman?
