BlogHer wrapup
I hate to sound starry-eyed and cheesy, but going to women’s tech conference BlogHer was truly inspiring. It was the first time in my life I’d been surrounded by hundreds of women who work in technology. These women love tech for all different kinds of reasons and come from a zillion different backgrounds. There were tomboys, mommies, punks, tarts, ladies, bitches, nerds, and girls. There were professional women in suits and perfect hair, and grubby rockabilly gals in tattoos and tight dresses.
Because so many of us were there, we stopped being women and just became humans. This is an incredibly rare experience in the tech industry. Usually at a tech conference, women make up about 25% of the audience, and about 10% of the speakers. We stick out like sore thumbs — we are “the women,” not just part the geek crowd. Even when we’re surrounded by cool guys who treat us like perfect equals, we can’t help but notice that we’re a minority and I, at least, feel obligated to be smarter, faster, and better than the men around me to prove that WOMEN BELONG HERE TOO.
At BlogHer, I realized that I should stop being so damn sensitive when I’m in those male-dominated environments. There are tons of other women like me, and soon there will be more of us (thanks to all those mommy bloggers, we’re breeding like bunnies). We don’t have anything to prove. We are geeks, and if some guys have a problem with that, then that’s their fucked-up issue and not mine.
A big thank-you to Elisa Camahort for inviting me to BlogHer! I had a great time attending several awesome panels. Gina Trapani and Barb Dybwad ruled the school with their talk on time-saving tech for bloggers; blogger-friendly lit agent Kate Lee and author/blogger Ariel Meadow Stallings had great advice on the panel about blogs and books; Susie Bright had incisive comments on the way women’s social power is squashed when we’re told that the online world is fraught with danger; Tara Hunt gave a smart and fascinating account of the Kathy Sierra scandal; Liz Henry urged us to talk back and intervene when blog comments get sexist and racist; Mur Lafferty and Jason Adams addicted me to their vidcast This Day in Alternate History; BlogHer founder Lisa Stone rocked the house every time she talked; and my fellow keynoters Esther Dyson and Rashmi Sinha were a pleasure to chat with in front of hundreds of people.
What’s my point? Oh yeah. Women rule.
July 30th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
Aaaa! I’m all teary-eyed too. I thought you would super like it for that feeling of solidarity and geekitude!
July 30th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Yes yes and more yes. (You were an inspiration to me and I posted about you after the keynote.) I thought the conference was an amazing experience. Glad you were there!
July 30th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Yay for lots of female geeks! Trust me, you’ve got nothing to prove to most of us guys - and who cares what the screwed-up ones think anyway? Most of them probably have Asperger’s Syndrome, anyway (this is geek culture we’re talking about, after all), and no attempts to prove anything will affect their unfortunately medically conditioned self-involved view of the world.
July 30th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
And now, in turn, you have addicted me to This Day in Alternate History. Thanks, BlogHer!
July 31st, 2007 at 12:09 am
It was yummy. I concur.
I didn’t know about what you described… the nature of your average tech conference. Blogher is the only one I’ve been to!
I’ve been to many feminist conferences, though, and this is just like that, except wildly entrepeneurial.
July 31st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Hanging out with you, Liz, Barb, Gina, and Susie was my favorite part of BlogHer by far. It is freekin’ awesome to hear that you are hooked on TDAH. We have you in our clutches! Mwhahahahahaha!
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:44 am
hello! i met you briefly, liz’s roomie with the boring hair colour! (also crapping on about Dr Who) i am still drowning in post-BlogHer cheese and good feeling too though some of it may be jetlag! I just wanted to say how much i enjoyed hearing you talk at the keynote, i grinned the whole time… what a superstar
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:51 am
Yay, it was great meeting all of you!
@Susie — I’ve been to feminist conferences too (most recently, the awesome WisCon), so it was great to have that “women rule” feeling combined with my great geeky passions!
@Jason — I hope for an episode on the sinking of the Lusitania soon.
@Shauna — thank you for geeking about Doctor Who with me when nobody else in the room had any idea what we were talking about! Plus, you helped me drink my giant whiskey on Thursday.
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
It sounded like a cool event. Maybe I should go to it next year.
August 5th, 2007 at 3:41 pm
Thank YOU, Annalee…you rock my little BlogHer world
Now about that WITI gig??????
I just posted that awesome pic I took of you and Gina and Barb here:
Who would not fall in love with such girk-geek-greatness?!
August 7th, 2007 at 5:49 am
Annalee, we’re accepting scripts for TDAH now… (will be announced on tomorrow’s ep)