Saturday, October 08, 2005
Blogging conference really interesting so far. Session on "Blogging on outside" turned into great discussion. Was afraid it was going to go off track since guy who came in late felt alienated as white male and was about to leave. He insisted that people shouldn't bring their baggage or make it personal when it came to blogging which seemed to be missing the point. Speaker talked about occasionally switching to black vernacular which people thought might alienate some, though it's an expression of who she is. Wolfram's class on dialects gave me more appreciation.
My knee-jerk response was to tell the guy making fuss that as white male is that he usually doesn't have to think about being white male since it's default and was uncomfortable when it was brought up to him. Even pointed out to speaker that default affected how one viewed oneself--she didn't mention she was straight the way if she wasn't, she might mention the lack of queer voices in the community. Fussy guy was commenting afterwards that he wondered why the people talking at beginning were white males, maybe not realizing how forcefully he tried to make his voice heard. Reading "Talking From 9 to 5" on male vs female communication patterns, mentioned that men were usually socialized to interrupt and not necessarily listen. He did say that white men weren't supposed to show emotion except for anger. In end a lot of harping on local Greensboro blogging scene, with one Republican guy who noone listened to since he had awful grammar and spelling. "He deserves to have a voice but not to be linked to".
When I think about it though, I don't know how much that comes through on my blog. Could one tell that I grew up in North Carolina in a Native community? Could one tell I'm half Mexican or Chicana or Latina or whatever else depending on context? Does the fact that I can "pass" mean that it's less relevant or noticed, or do I still stick out without even realizing it? I always feel like I'm talking to myself on this medium--one of speaker said "Blog as if noone is reading", but in my case it's generally true...
Other interesting session on faith blogging, though not what I was expecting. They kept on insisting that religion and politics were necessarily intertwined, though I could easily see a blog just focusing on exploring Biblical verses or prayer or proselytizing. In general most bloggers at the conferences were interested in commenting on politics, though Positive Liberty is about the only one I keep up with that's political...
My knee-jerk response was to tell the guy making fuss that as white male is that he usually doesn't have to think about being white male since it's default and was uncomfortable when it was brought up to him. Even pointed out to speaker that default affected how one viewed oneself--she didn't mention she was straight the way if she wasn't, she might mention the lack of queer voices in the community. Fussy guy was commenting afterwards that he wondered why the people talking at beginning were white males, maybe not realizing how forcefully he tried to make his voice heard. Reading "Talking From 9 to 5" on male vs female communication patterns, mentioned that men were usually socialized to interrupt and not necessarily listen. He did say that white men weren't supposed to show emotion except for anger. In end a lot of harping on local Greensboro blogging scene, with one Republican guy who noone listened to since he had awful grammar and spelling. "He deserves to have a voice but not to be linked to".
When I think about it though, I don't know how much that comes through on my blog. Could one tell that I grew up in North Carolina in a Native community? Could one tell I'm half Mexican or Chicana or Latina or whatever else depending on context? Does the fact that I can "pass" mean that it's less relevant or noticed, or do I still stick out without even realizing it? I always feel like I'm talking to myself on this medium--one of speaker said "Blog as if noone is reading", but in my case it's generally true...
Other interesting session on faith blogging, though not what I was expecting. They kept on insisting that religion and politics were necessarily intertwined, though I could easily see a blog just focusing on exploring Biblical verses or prayer or proselytizing. In general most bloggers at the conferences were interested in commenting on politics, though Positive Liberty is about the only one I keep up with that's political...
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