The Carnival of Feminists

In 19 October 2005 Natalie Bennett wrote on her blog, Philobiblon, “Welcome! to the first Carnival of Feminists. In this show there are no captive animals or ‘freak’ displays, but plenty of passion, lots of fun, and more than the odd bit of juggling of life.” Since then, there have been close to fifty editions of the Carnival of Feminists, usually running on the first and third Wednesday of each month and hosted at a different blog each time.

Although Bennett initiated the first Carnival of Feminists, blog carnivals had been popping up in various communities in the blogosphere since 2002, when the Silflay Hraka blog announced its first Carnival of the Vanities (Bigwig, 20 Sept 2002). Indeed, when I asked Bennett in an e-mail interview on 19 August 2007 what inspired her to start the Carnival of Feminists, she said: “I saw male bloggers promoting themselves with vigour all over the blogosphere and saw very few women doing likewise – this was my attempt to get women promoting themselves and each other, and to hopefully bring together women who could help and support each other, share ideas and experiences, learn from each other.”

While the blogosphere has provided an invaluable space for feminist voices, online events such as carnivals also contribute to the creation of important dialogues. Indeed, when Bennett founded the Carnival of Feminists, one of her aims was to create and support dialogue among the different strands of feminist thought, to expose feminists to approaches that were perhaps unfamiliar to them. In my own study of feminist blogging, I have thought a great deal about how blogging technology allows bloggers to connect with one another, to engage in conversations as well as monologues, and to do so in a way that does not demand extensive outlay or technical skill.

The hyperlink,[1] a mainstay of many online texts, allows bloggers to connect their texts to other blogs, incorporating the linked text into the blog in a more tangible way than a citation, for instance, and comments[2] allow readers to add their voices to the text of the blog entry, often making blogs collaborative texts, even when they are maintained by a single blogger. Additional functions, such as trackback, traffic trackers, or site meters, allow bloggers to connect to other sites that have referenced a particular post and (in the case of a traffic tracker like Google Analytics) provide a snapshot of the visitor’s location and time spent on the site.

Also, open-access and user-friendly blogging platforms, such as Blogger, offer anyone with an Internet connection and a basic knowledge of word-processing and Internet navigation a low-cost and (theoretically at least) low-hassle publishing option. Although blogging has the potential to eliminate (or at least challenge) many barriers when it comes to publishing and connecting with an audience, barriers that continue to exclude many women from the relatively privileged circle of the blogosphere must not be ignored. Writer and blogger Audacia Ray describes the inequality of global Internet access: “Seventy-five percent of Americans have Internet access, while in many developing countries, less than 5 percent of the population has access” (Ray 211).

The effect of this imbalance is something Bennett has felt in her own attempts to extend the reach of the Carnival of Feminists: “I started out hoping to get a real dialogue going between bloggers in the developed and developing world, and that really hasn't worked out.” To date, the Carnival covers four continents, and Bennett is keen to involve bloggers in Africa and South America.

Difficulties do not end, however, with access to the Internet, blogging skills, and the luxury of free time. Many feminist bloggers face yet more challenges that can be frustrating and even frightening. Earlier this year, Jessica Valenti, editor of the widely read feminist blog Feministing.com, described in The Guardian (UK) how many women bloggers have been the targets of sustained and frightening hate attacks. She wrote, “While no one could deny that men experience abuse online, the sheer vitriol directed at women has become impossible to ignore” (Valenti 2).

Valenti referred specifically to the experience of Kathy Sierra, a blogger who was afraid to leave her property and cancelled events because threats of physical violence had been made against her online. In our correspondence, Bennett also commented on the attacks many feminist bloggers experience, “From what I've seen it tends to be women bloggers from ethnic minority communities who have the toughest time online, suffering from a high level of abuse and troll attacks. Not everyone can face this, however, and not everyone is ready for it.”

Male Bloggers? Female Bloggers?

Due to our observation from the blog owned by female & male, basically, male like to put up information on their blog compare with female. One fascinating blog that v browse through give us a surprise! The blogger put up all those famous music in his blog, providing information regarding the music such as wat is the main idea of the music, the tone and etc. Where as most of the female blogger intend to write about their feelings or their daily personal experience.

Well, to have a valuable opinion from the view of the famous bloggers is failed as v r unable to get a reply from them even though v had sent email to them…what a frustrated incident!

However, v have browse through some of their blogs and we found that there are some difference between male and female bloggers. Usually , they will post up a new posts almost everyday, using their most familiar language. Most of the male bloggers like to share informative information on their blogs such as music. They like to share information more than sharing their feeling. For female bloggers, they prefer share their daily stories and what happen around them. Their post are more sentimental than the male bloggers.

These are some blogs that as example for you guys to read:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/


http://hedwigelaine.blogspot.com/

well, hope you guys can provide some opinion on the difference on female and male bloggers and why do you say that.

Hope to see your reply soon ^^

What is blog?

Well, we often heard that about blogs, blogging, blogger.And now we even have our assignment on a blog!However, did you ever really have the knowledge about what is blogs? Do you really know what is blog? Is ok , we will let you know today *n_n*

The origins of blogging go further back than the Internet to the days of personal diaries, chronicles and other written forms of personal musings. Today, a blog is considered to be a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual or company. Online media, such as discussion forums and e-mail lists are also considered to be predecessors to the blog.

Most blogs will be displayed in a journal or log entry format, where most are updated daily or more frequently than most Web sites would be. Blogs often reflect the personality of the author or the company employees they represent.

I believe now that most of you know what is blog and most of you guys even have your own blog. Now we are going to introduce you guys some famous bloggers (well, they are from foreign country :p)

Duncan Bowen Black, better known by his pseudonym Atrios is an American liberal blogger living. His weblog Eschaton is one of the most popular political weblogs, receiving an average of over 100,000 hits every day. Before starting Eschaton, Black wrote (as Atrios) for the webzine Media Whores Online (now defunct). During the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, he revealed that he had accepted a job at Media Matters for America and allowed his name and photograph to be published. He later said that as an academic he blogged pseudonymously to avoid attacks like those later unleashed on Timothy Shortell.

Glenn Harlan Reynolds is best known for his weblog, Instapundit, one of the most widely read American political weblogs.Reynolds is often described as conservative, but in fact holds liberal views on social issues. He once illustrated his combination of views by stating: "I'd be delighted to live in a country where happily married gay couples had closets full of assault weapons. He is a strong supporter of Porkbusters and the Iraq War. In his remarks, he said:

Changes in technology are producing major changes in media and journalism. Journalism is becoming an activity, not simply a profession. In my InstaPundit.com weblog I have tried to foster the growth of amateurism in that field, by encouraging people to get involved and to make use of the new tools—from Web publishing to inexpensive digital still and video cameras—to bring news and perspectives to the world stage that were previously lacking.