Comments on Bikers, Rejoice!

YAY! I am quite excited right now.

Enigma

I wonder where Bus Chick found that photo. Metro suggests that you always load your bike onto the OUTSIDE slot, if vacant.

Would men get equally upset by reading stories authored by: Bike Boy, Junior Wheelie, Two Wheel Timmy, TV Guy ?

No Maria, we are not that touchy... You girls need to lighten up.

Oh, and ECB: “Do you think people wouldn’t read a blog by an actual, bona fide grown woman?” – LOL! Good one!

Surely, any woman proud enough of or comfortable enough with herself to use the name "Mariner Housewife" can't be a real woman. Or grown. And definitely not a bona fide woman. Cause if a woman's posting handle isn't right by Erica, she's not a real woman. Just like Obama isn't really black.

It's sad when the left does the right's work for them.

Erica, you applied at the P-I and got turned down. Once you tire of your "edgy" $35K-a-year job, you'll apply again. And again. Small gene pool.

I have a stupid theory. Except for certain spheres online, like feminist blogs or crafting blogs or mommy blogs, everyone is assumed to be male unless proven otherwise. For example, if I cared, I would automatically assume "torrent prime" and "enigma" are men. I could be wrong, but I'm sure most other people would make the same guess.

I think a lot of women online draw attention to the fact that they're women because people (me) assume they're men otherwise, and because they gain readership by both women and men because they're women. I think this is mostly due to scarcity -- the Internet was mostly founded by nerdy white men and they have a head start on new technologies. Blogging is still dominated by men, and it was much moreso a couple of years ago. If you look at even newer technologies, like podcasting and video blogging, at their beginning just being a woman almost guaranteed success (look at LonelyGirl15, who is incredibly famous for no other reason than for being a somewhat attractive young woman who video blogged. Looking at iTunes, as far as I can tell out of the 25 top podcasts, 4 are hosted by women -- 2 of those are pioneering women in old media (Katie Couric & Terry Gross) and the other two are "Grammar Girl" and "Money Girl."

I'm very sure this will be much better in a couple of years when more women (and men) catch up to early-adopting tech nerds. The first sign this change is happening will be when women write online under names other than female first names or names like "BloggyChick."

Praise the Lord!
Three bikes per bus!
Hallelujah!

You beat me to it, jamier, but that's exactly what I was going to point out. Something like "Mariner Housewife", tho - it does have more than a whiff of jaw-dropping asinine condescension.

Do you think it's because you're male that you assume all non-gendered psudomymns are men? I tend to assume they're women. But maybe that's my feminist leanings.
For the record, I am a woman.

Enigma

Erica, this is god's punishment for your hatred of dogs.

Erica,

An FYI: The PI didn't give me that name; my husband did (back before he was my husband). It's an actual real nickname that I've had since long before I started blogging. I'm not really sure why folks feel compelled to come up with cute little names for blogs, but I hardly think it's specific to women.

Doug,

Though I generally tend to do my own (bad) photography, I actually got that pic from someone at Metro. ;)

It is conceivable, of course, that the bike in the photo was placed on the rack last but remained on after the other two had been removed.

I think the prize for worst newspaper blog name has to go to Trauma Mama, the PI's pedestrian safety blog.

Enigma, I am female and tend to assume all non-gendered 'nyms are male, but I think that's a holdover from back in the old days of BBSes and USENET where I think women really were a minority. Of course, a lot of the women then had non-gendered login names anyway so they wouldn't get hassled.

@11 - you have to admit, Erica, your karma is biting you on this one. But, good point.

pms from my atler ego

It occurs to me that I should have left my husband out a discussion about feminism, but hey. (Does it count that he's a feminist?) I may have lost my street cred on this one, but the point I was trying to make earlier is only that the PI is not responsible for the cutesy (or, as you might call them, demeaning) names people choose for their blogs. At least this is true in the case of the reader blogs—I can’t speak for the staff. It is highly possible that the trend indicates some subconscious attempt for women to make themselves (ourselves) more palatable and less threatening. (As a woman of color, I am very familiar with this phenomenon.) I’ve always just thought folks were copying me--or, as my favorite celebrity gossip blogger says: "swagger jacking." ;)

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As Bus Chick pointed out... The readers choose the name of their blog. I gave the editor a list of about five different names that I liked and he chose Comics Corner. I don't know how it was for the others, if they gave a list, or just picked one. But it's all reader.

Wow, a ECB post on feminism and non-car options. it is a double shot of success for Erica...

I find the reaction to ECB's comment pretty interesting. Clearly she's touched a nerve, which is part of what a good journalist does. Keep on truckin', ECB.

PS She's right. Those cutesy names are fucking irritating.

Yes, Erica, once you get one of those seven-figure-salary jobs at the P-I you'll finally be able to afford that small island in the South Pacific you're always talking about.

I did not apply for a job at the P-I.

They're just envious of your writing skills, Erica.

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