But What About…?
And here’s an amusing and heart-warming little item. Tom Morris went to the Euston Manifesto launch and gave it ‘the liveblog treatment.’ Ain’t technology grand? So he tells us how it goes – what Nick says, what Norm says, what Eve says, what Shalom Lappin says, what Alan Johnson says. Then he says what someone in the audience says – making me give a snort of laughter in the process:
The first question is about women and feminism – the response was simple: get involved, and look at Ophelia Benson at Butterflies and Wheels.
Yep, that’s a simple response all right, but an elegant kind of simplicity, like a little black T shirt – look at me! Get involved, and look at me. Why not after all?
No but seriously. That was Nick. Paul at RobertIngersoll.com told me Nick had said that, and so did Nick. I must say, I find that quite pleasing. I like being someone that people can look at when they wonder why there aren’t more women doing something. I haven’t done any feminist storming of corporate bastions or any becoming a woman head of state or any being the first woman to circumnavigate the globe in an inner tube, but I like being someone women can look at when they wonder why most websites are male things, and now I also get to be someone women can look at when they fuss (as Natasha Walter did in the Guardian on May 2) that Euston seems awfully full of guys. Not that I’m actually inside Euston, but I signed it, despite being (as I told Norm, in my helpful way) perhaps more sharply critical of the present US government and of its ways of choosing its governments than the Manifesto is.
It is odd that there aren’t more women doing this kind of thing though, isn’t it? It seems odd to me. It’s not as if there are any of those barriers there are in other kinds of work. No old boys’ clubs wanting more old boys to feel comfy with, no titty pictures in the locker room, no expectations of coffee-making, no passing over for promotion. So where are they? I don’t know, but until they show up, I’ll try to be exemplary.
I thought about changing that to “look to” or “seek out”, but why change such poetry?
One of the points – though – was that it’s generally guys who get involved with political blogging.
I take some responsibility for errors and fluff-ups, but I had spent the previous three or so hours writing about Mill, Rawls and Nozick, and somewhat out of my skull.
Thanks for the link!
Why indeed? I didn’t see any errors or fluff-ups. I didn’t mean I laughed at the way you put it! Just that I laughed at my star turn. No, I was delighted to see your account (even without my cameo appearance), I’d been wanting to know what happened and who said what.
Thanks back for the link, and for the liveblogging!
No, no, forget about Euston and feminism, this is the real deal on women and it helps you understand that the complexity of the issue is such that it had to wait for the development of computer graphics to be explained properly (link sent to me yesterday, don’t know when it was recorded):
mms://s08wm.castup.net/server12/30372262-61.wmv
Sorry, I was being inattentive: May 4, 2004.
I was the person who asked the ‘women’ question at the manifesto launch. Nick’s answer wasn’t hugely helpful as I already knew about B&W! I wish I knew why more women aren’t involved in this kind of thing – as you say, there’s no obvious reason why they shouldn’t be. I did meet quite a few at the drinks after the launch, so maybe there’s hope yet…
Hey, hi, Lucy.
It is strange, isn’t it. Strange and very annoying. One answer often given (irritatingly, often by women) is that women are way too busy with grown-up stuff for geeky occupations like politics and websites. Oh great. Too busy with babies and ‘careers’ for unimportant stuff like politics and thought. I hate that line.
Another sweatshirt slogan: geekiness isn’t just for men.
Yes – as if politics were like Star Trek, or computer programming or something, and should only be of interest to groups of obsessive men. Women need to get past this attitude – there’s too much at stake.
Loved ‘Why Truth Matters’, BTW!
Exactly. As if there’s something earthy and profound and sensible about ignoring everything that’s not meat and potatoes. It makes me smite my brow.
Thanks about Why Truth!
Thanks for turning up Lucy.
I thought there was a much higher proportion of women at the launch, than might appear in a typical Harry’s Place (or any political blog’s) comment thread – which was pleasing.
(And Tom, sorry about stepping on your powerbrick!)