I just wanted to say bugger- I thought my days of reading blogs were…

Thank you very much Ali. Tacit (or not) suppression of internal dissent is just as powerful.

After reading many of the discussions around the politics of representation over the last weeks without comment, taking an example from this…

Shaping experiences and traits, in my opinion, are many. Gender is just one of them. It may, in some people, not be a very big one, but it's still there. For me, it's more about the nuance and the shading that makes a person.

That, I think, we can entirely…

Something that really pisses me off about popular reporting is the way that minor differences between groups get turned into enormous dichotomies between individuals. They always seem to say if you are a man, you…

Oh, and Deborah, my daughter was feeling pretty stink. And then this big box of Christmas presents arrived from friends up north, and she lit up like a kleig.

That owuld be, "it's NOT the John Thomas..."

Heh, that's okay, that's what I read. Good old end of year stupor.

Not necessarily an activity confined to women only, of course.

Indeed. Part of my perspective comes from the fact that for five years my partner was the main caregiver…

could I suggest that it's the John Thomas that makes the difference per se, but the different types of roles and work that men and women tend to take on.

That owuld be, "it's NOT the John Thomas..."

But I'm really honestly not sure how much my 'perspective' would be different with a schlong.

Well, without being essentialist, or indulging in the fallacious line of reason that "on average women do x and men do y, therefore this particular woman must do x and that particular man must…

You'd be thereafter somewhat cock-eyed?

Could mean nothing more than more of the higher profile lit-bloggers are women just because they do better work, were early adaptors for all kinds of reasons etc.

I honestly don't know. I did at one stage have a whole bunch of writer blogs on my list, but every now…

I have two different lists of 'blogs' in my bookmarks. One includes sites like this, NRT, Jane Espenson, Ms Naughty, Che... The other is personal, light, less political (but never non-political)

The funny thing is that since the toxic waste dump that was the last general election, my RSS feeds…

The most influential books, and the truest in their influence, are works of fiction. They do not pin the reader to a dogma, which he must afterwards discover to be inexact; they do not teach him a lesson, which he must…

Inverting 19th century notions of racial and gender supremecy is not, I submit, the new hotness.

No... but is that actually happening here?

you think that means you know what they're thinking and what they've experienced.

I think the more profound problem is thinking it's OK to dismiss and belittle people, or elevate and venerate, based on such ephemeral traits as gender and skin colour. Inverting 19th century notions of racial and gender…

And I know it's true, because I HAVE

*headdesk*

NOT true.

There can actually be a kind of callousness about discussing real people solely in terms of what you believe they politically symbolise.

There can, and it would be the fastest way to get yourself a verbal wedgie, if those people felt like calling you out. I suspect they're there not…

I'm consistently weirded out, for example, by blogs like Maia's (or basically any libertarian blog – pick your own) where absolutist simplicity rules the roost and the idea that real individuals and situations exist as an intersection of a near-infinite number of abstract political points vanishes into the ether.

Which…

I think what I'm trying to say is that I find I have more in common with people who've had the same experiences than me than those who share the same tick-boxes. I'm also wary of the way demographic trends lead to over-simplications
...
But I also have a fundamental…

Actually, some of it is just... a bit much. Are you familiar with the term 'squick'?

I believe squicking is the first internet porn concept I came across back when I first got online. alt.tasteless!

Because he was a man on the net. And they're all creeps and pervs.

Dammit Russell. You bring in a new token woman and she's onto us already. You're getting voted off the island dude.

Ahem... just to clarify my clarification: I was actually attempting to explain away the limitations of my own stupidity. Breast jokes, if any, were completely unintentional...

I'll shut up now before I inadvertently say anything worse.

Fair do's, I should stop winding you up in public.

But actually, my initial…

I use my breasts to get attention.

As at least one of those on the list can attest, I think it's usually true that if a man has dressed in a way that his breasts get attention, it will not have been intentional.

I'll shut up now before I inadvertently say anything worse.

In person, it would be completely impossible to mistake you for a man — even allowing for my failing eyesight...

Dude, way to make me blush.

The last time I was out on the turps I met this guy who was a friend of the lawyer who kept showing me…

Hey hey hey! Now it's my turn to be an offended minority. Watch your stereotypes, pal. Hillbillies with banjos aren't a purely Cantabrian phenomenon.

:-)

It's part of my strategy to make 'offensive' the PA word of the year for 2008.

Watch your stereotypes, pal. Hillbillies with banjos aren't a purely Cantabrian phenomenon.

Nope, there's also the 'Naki. And the remainder of the South Island, of course ;-)

And this is from one who spent 14 looong years in Christchurch, and some very early years in Essex, so I know a…

Class (I'm just guessing) and family/partner violence, aren't related to demographics? Not sure I get it.

Defining 'class' at the time is a tricky one. And the majority of the people copping it in my family were male.

I think what I'm trying to say is that I find I…

You sure ain't the first 'girl who sounds like a dude' to have popped up here.

It goes the other way too – David Farrar thought Che Tibby was female...

You sure ain't the first 'girl who sounds like a dude' to have popped up here. I must have reviewed three books for Steve Braunias before I figured out that he thought I was a guy because of my 'muscular prose style'.

Dude, I thought you were a dude when…

own a banjo

Hey hey hey! Now it's my turn to be an offended minority. Watch your stereotypes, pal. Hillbillies with banjos aren't a purely Cantabrian phenomenon.

If I hear someone is 7 feet tall, I'll lay money that person is a man. But I can walk down Lambton Quay and find plenty of women, with or without heels, who are taller than the average bloke.

Something that…

May I clarify one point: I only thought you were a man (with hairy knuckles, as I recall) before I met you in that smoky gay-cyclist-filled bar. I realized my mistake as soon as we were introduced. In…

The things that... sometimes make me feel jarringly…

I guess that makes some sort of sense when you read:

Similarly, what the gender-identifying…

But then I think we may be required to become members of some sort of cabal?

There's a People Who Still Know Partridge Family Songs Cabal? Awesome. Sign me up.

(I wish a lesbian cabal actually did run the country, just for the entertainment value I'd get from certain people's…

I want to hear more about the terrifying amounts of porn, or was it the amounts of terrifying porn?

A regular pornami. A pornado. Desert Porn. Californipornication.

Actually, some of it is just... a bit much. Are you familiar with the term 'squick'?

Maybe if you just sort of crouch…

The Dropkicks aren't after a token as such, we'd like someone just like us but with a "women's perspective". ie. Able to talk bollocks while not possessing any.

It's true some women do have a different perspective on rugby from most men. We're still trying to work out if the…

I want to hear more about the terrifying amounts of porn, or was it the amounts of terrifying porn?

I'm just keeping Speaker warm until they find a lesbian midget.

Maybe if you just sort of crouch down a bit? For my money a…

I can only echo Judi, Deborah and DPF's posts.

No, the real horror story is that you're a Cantab. And that means you fight in the streets, marry your…

Lovely post, Emma. Tell me you will be writing more, pleeeeease?

...one who writes like a Spectator columnist ...

When you said that, I hope you were thinking of the glory days when Auberon Waugh, Jeffrey Bernard, Alice Thomas Ellis and Jennifer Patterson were all in the house – spilling red wine and blood on the carpet and refusing to bugger…

I've sat in a cocaine dealer's trailer and listened to guys howl aggressively at pay-per-view boxing. Does that count?

I'm saying 'yes'.

Also, to quote David Cassidy, I think I love you.

Excellent. That' going to push Russell's Official Diversity Rating right up.

But then I think we may be…

Greetings Emma or is it Emman

You can call me whatever you like, luvvie.

They do now. There were curly quotes in the coding, doubtless added by some word processing application that thinks it knows better.

Oh balls, I meant to fix that before I sent it off.

And no…

It’s more the times I wonder if I’m the only one here who’s ever sat in a gang house and listened to guys talk about killing people.

I've sat in a cocaine dealer's trailer and listened to guys howl aggressively at pay-per-view boxing. Does that count?

Also, to quote David…

I'm just keeping Speaker warm until they find a lesbian midget.

Would being a lesbian midget in Second Life count? Just asking. For a friend.

Anyway, welcome aboard Emma – which seems weird to say, because with your longstanding prolific and interesting input, you're as fully-aboard is anyone here on…

And no dis intended, but I don't really have a clue what…

The whole question of why more women don't write or comment on political blogs is one I find odd. Pol-blogging is a hobby.

True. My wifey blogs more than any two PA byliners, and I've never once heard her plaintively wonder why she's never had more than one or two…

When they speak, they want to feel they have something worth saying, and they want to make sure it's exactly right.

Exactly!

Judi
(a semi-lurking PA devotee chick)

However your links don't work. damn! Do you have any info on ratio?

They do now. There were curly quotes in the coding, doubtless added by some word processing application that thinks it knows better.

So it may be that I speak with such an unconscious masculine energy that I don't have a recognisably female voice. And perhaps this is Russell's fiendish plan. "Ha, I'll get that chick who sounds like a dude, that'll fcuk 'em.

Heh. A-heh heh heh ...

Yep. It's just like…