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# Sexism and the blogosphere
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/18873/
- Published: 2005-04-07T17:04:12.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:33:06.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:15

Colleague Nicola (or should that be comrade Nicola?) draws my attention to [this article](http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7160264/site/newsweek/?ref=opendemocracy.net) from the March edition of Newsweek, moaning that the blogosphere is full of white, middle-class males. It's not a sentiment that really speaks to me, mainly because the site that drew me into blogging back in 2002 was [the rabbit blog](http://rabbitblog.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net), which is written by freelance writer [Heather Havrilesky](http://www.laweekly.com/ink/24/01/ether-cassel.php?ref=opendemocracy.net). Since then, I've had the pleasure of meeting [Suw Charman](http://chocnvodka.blogware.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net), a Welsh language enthusiast and actual [blog consultant](http://www.corante.com/strange/?ref=opendemocracy.net).

The piece did remind me however of a shock I had last weekend when my ubergeek boyfriend was showing me [GreaseMonkey scripts](http://dunck.us/collab/GreaseMonkeyUserScripts?ref=opendemocracy.net#head-8365decd714f9162e9db9eb6e33c7e1f666cfb6b) for [Mozilla Firefox](http://www.spreadfirefox.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net) (a greasemonkey script is a script that alters what websites look like automatically - they're fab for providing greater accessibility and ad-free versions of your favourite sites, but they're not for the technologically faint-hearted).

Now, my favourite blog ever is [boingboing.net](http://www.boingboing.net/2005/04/06/creative%5Fcommons%5Fuk%5F.html?ref=opendemocracy.net), a collaborative blog that has won the [Bloggies awards](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4350041.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net) for the last two years (hell, if you got passed greasemonkey scripts, you probably know about boingboing). Get this. There's actually a script which you can run on top of boingboing that gets rid of all the material posted by their only female poster, [Xeni Jardin](http://xeni.net/?ref=opendemocracy.net). The geek that wrote it (and if it wasn't a man, I'll eat my intray) may call it proof of concept and yeah, theoretically, you could modify the script to exclude other posters instead, but it still blows. In fact, as a wise man once said, it blows so hard it sucks.

**UPDATE!** [Looks like Xeni has had her own fun with this one](http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/18/howto%5Fdexeni%5Fboingbo.html?ref=opendemocracy.net).