So there’s been an interesting discussion about men being at Blogher this year. Dave did not come because he did not think he could. I will admit with a name like “blogher” , if I were male, I would not think that this conference was for me. However, there have been some complaints overheard that a contingent (and I’m assuming small) did not like having men at the conference as it destroys a safe open and honest environment. While I object to their complaints I agree with their end goal/desire of building a safe environment for women to feel comfortable and honest. That said, I think men should be at the Blogher conference; however, I don’t believe the men should outnumber the women, nor do I believe that this conference should be ran/organized by males.
I always feel it is important for pieces of the majority to be ‘flies on the wall” and listen to the minority. Sometimes when a minority group is honest and isolated with one another it can become a kavetching session or worse we never communicate to the majority about how we feel or how they can help us. Now that you men have been able to take a peek inside the clandestine ways of Blogher, I urge you to take back what you learn and spread it to *your gender* and females too, which most of you guys have done via blogging =).
This is why I secretly enjoyed having men at Blogher, so much so that I began to try and capture the Men of Blogher. You guys were great sports! I know I didn’t get everyone, and missed some really cool folks, like Craig Williams, Marc Canter and many many more as Frank pointed out .. So Frank, please accept this as my public apology and gift to you… with the wonders of photoshop you may get into the Men of Blogher calendar. What month do you want to be? July, August, September?? =)
Technorati Tags: blogher, blogher2006, menofblogher, frankpaynter
Holly,
Why is it when men want to do something different (have a conference for them, etc) women call it sexist. But when women want to do something seperate…it’s striking out and being independant?
Shawn,
I’ve been trying to think of a good analogy to this, and I keep thinking about this idea in Anthropology where it is good for the Observer to be from the outside because when you are a part of the culture you won’t notice certain things. This is similar to being a tourist vs. resident. Being a resident you don’t notice things catered to tourists until someone comes into town and you have to show them around. This is because I am part of the *majority*. Wouldn’t it be silly if I were trying to foster a town that encouraged tourism to not put up special services catering to them and instead only had special events for residents?
This is why when men get together and overtly state *men only*, this is seen as sexist, particularly because we are a society that wants to strive to equality. Also at the normal tech conferences, women continuously live in a male dominated industry you guys don’t need an event like this! =)
Trust me the rules are so different when the numbers are flip flopped.
Making Room for Men at Blogher
Thanks for your comment and reading =)