The Biblioblog Top 50: Now accepting women!
Posted by The Biblioblog Top 50 on April 5, 2011
Rod of Alexandria sends out an impassioned plea:
AN OPEN LETTER TO WOMEN WHO BLOG, WHO ARE IN SEMINARY/GRAD SCHOOL OR WHO JUST CARE ABOUT RELIGION,
To whom it may concern,
If you are a woman and are interested in theology, the Bible, religious studies, or anything related, no matter what the religious background, I invite you to consider joining the Biblioblogger community. It is quite easy to join us; all you have to do is:
“If you have a biblical studies or related blog which you wish to be added to the list, please email the URL, blog name, and blogger’s name to ntwrong[at]gmail.com.”
The Biblioblog rankings are just for fun, and there is no monetary prize, only bragging rights and noteriety…
(Rod of Alexandria, A CALL FOR WOMEN BLOGGERS: The Bibliobloggers… and here, too)
The Biblioblog Top 50 not only backs Rod of Alexandria in this endeavor, but will provide a personal reply – woman to woman – from legendary blogger of old, N.T. Wrong, to any woman who signs up in the current month. Not only that, but we dedicate this month to one of the great woman bloggers, April DeConick, and decree that this month will be hereafter known as “April” in biblioblogging circles. And yet, the Biblioblog Top 50 will go even further. We will also oppose those forces of systemic gender inequality that exist to marginalize (but not in a victimy way, ok, April) women in academia and in academic biblical studies. In solidarity with all those who are othered by the hegemonic centre, we call on all bibliobloggers to discontinue blogging about those institutions which defend the status quo, such as the Bible, the political system, the churches, biblical studies, and the Biblical Archaeology Review - until such time as the system crumbles and falls! Ok?
Joel said
I shall remember this month as April until the day that I expire. I shall tell it to my children and fight in my local community to have this month dedicated to April.
J. K. Gayle said
Wouldn’t it have been a good thing to have responded to April DeConick back in September of last year (http://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-blogger.html)? Why already into the second quarter of this year, after Rod of Alexandria writes, why just “Now accepting women!”? The humor here seems dicey if you’re taking what April and what Rod are both calling for seriously.
Tim Bulkeley said
Come on! If this Biblioblog top 50 thing is really not sexist how come there so often all the male locker room type “humour” there are times when I wish I could leave the club. Between the “bragging rights” and this sort of post I’m now ashamed my blog and podcast get listed. Please, think before you post.
Boys clubs - Sansblogue said
[...] Boys clubs April 6, 2011 tim No comments Sometimes I don’t understand guys. I mean what is it that ensures that when you get a bunch of men together there is always that male locker room atmosphere. Loud jokes, “veiled” competition, sometimes open sneering… It happened in academic common rooms (until the proportion of women became enough, in most places, to soften the atmosphere) as well as more obviously male locations. It shocked me in the seventies as a young pastor to find to some extent it happened in “Fraternals” gatherings of clergy (in those far off days almost exclusively male clubs)… I’d hoped we’d all grown up and become more sensible. But now just because Rod of Alexandria posts some interesting suggestions for releiving the horrid gender imbalance biblical studies blogging suffers (A CALL FOR WOMEN BLOGGERS: The Bibliobloggers) some anonymous twerp1 posts insulting rubbish under the title The Biblioblog Top 50: Now accepting women!. [...]
Rod of Alexandria said
@JK,
I did take April’s position seriously, in 2009:
http://politicaljesus.com/2009/09/06/can-the-subaltern-blog-the-problem-of-institutional-sexism-and-the-biblioblogs/
Rod of Alexandria said
And guys, perhaps the title should be, “Now Openly Inviting or campaigning for more women” since the current titles seems to make it look like they were purposefully excluded, which they weren’t. My campaign is to get people informed.
NT Wrong said
Do you think, perhaps, the point of the post might be that acceptance of women bloggers goes beyond individual actions, and requires a fundamental, systemic change? I.e. let’s be nice and liberal and make kind offers, sure… but at the expense of not on any account addressing the broader factors involved? Well, how’s that working so far? If you find those few woman who blog on biblical studies who have been missed from the list, how does that arrest the biases of a discipline and indeed of Christianity and Judaism against women? I suspect that the moral protest has a lot more to do with the trauma that one’s nice liberal approach is a band-aid, and that the approach was openly mocked, than any substantive grounds.
No, Rod, “Now accepting women!” uncovers the fact that the system does purposely exclude women, no matter how much individuals pretend that access is open.
NT Wrong said
JK Gayle – The Biblioblog Top 50 wrote a reply at that time, which was in fact September of 2009. And we made the same point to April: that the problem is structural, systemic. The answer is not in finding women who have been left off the list, but in pointing out that the problem lies in a discipline dominated by Christians exhibits male hierarchy. Every now and again good, concerned, liberal-minded people try to fix the problem with a band-aid, and go on searches for more women bloggers. And every time, the Biblioblog Top 50 makes the same point in return: it won’t work, because it does not deal with the root of the matter.
See the reply from the Biblioblog Top 50 on the very post you cite (http://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/2009/09/what-are-we-going-to-do-about-blogger.html):
In that post, April had noted: “Biblioblog Top 50 commented in my last post on the subject that they have considered this and have come to the conclusion that biblioblogging is mainly confessional so ‘Simply put, because the structure of Christian authority is male-dominated, and because most bibiobloggers have Christian affiliations, biblioblogging is likewise male-dominated.’”
April replied that she did not see any Christian authority standing over women to stop them from expressing their opinions on blogs. That reply, as should be obvious, misses the insidious manner in which power asserts itself.
Our reply:
“April,
“When you say, quite correctly, that there is no Christian authority “hovering over women and telling them they can’t or shouldn’t blog on the bible”, you are of course quite right. But the structures of institutional power never work solely by “hovering over”. The methods are much more diverse and often more insidious. Power works to hold onto power in subtle ways, getting those it has power over to agree with its propaganda, propagating its ideology by internalization.
“Women make up 5% of bibliobloggers (1 in 20). This statistic is evidence of deep structural marginalization of women’s voices in biblioblogging. While there is no parity yet amongst the sexes in other disciplines, it is certainly nothing like 1:20. The obvious cultural difference is the dominant religious background of bibliobloggers. Most bibliobloggers are Christian; Christianity remains dominated by male structures of authority; this authority structure is absorbed into the ways of thinking by women wanting to biblioblog. Anecdotal? Yes. But I can’t think of another explanation which would account for the discrepancy to the same extent.
“The story has a parallel when you look at the (majority) two-thirds world of Christianity and (minority) Western Christendom. Guess where the “mainstream” view resides? Guess where the “margins” are? Again, the margins are with the majority, as a fact of power. “From the margins” contains no value judgment. It is a matter of fact that the voices of women are marginalised. Yours, April, is a marginal voice. I’m hoping what you’re doing here might reverse that. If you’re marginalized, as we believe you are, you’re going to need to put in more effort just to get to the same place as those who are not marginalized. So it’s good to see you doing it. From our own experience, we know that additonal effort is required to seek out bibliobloggers who are women, or who live in non-Western countries.”
The desire for change is good in itself, but it barely touches the surface of things. This is why we see the endless cycle of liberal-minded bloggers protesting the inequality, little resulting from it, and more protests…
Tim Bulkeley completely misses the point when he thinks there is some in-group humor. To the contrary, the humor is aimed at the in-group and at its utter ineffectuality to change things.
Rod of Alexandria said
@NT Wrong.
I stand corrected.
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jkgayle said
The desire for change is good in itself, but it barely touches the surface of things. This is why we see the endless cycle of liberal-minded bloggers protesting the inequality, little resulting from it, and more protests.
NT Wrong,
To be fair, I hear your frustration. Hence “Our” question (the question for us women “and” men together) really could be: Are we touching the surface of things, even barely?
Yes, of course you here made “Our reply” to April DeConick. It was a disputatitive reply and still is. It was the reply from a male, who listened enough to declare “listen, lady, I am not part of your problem here.” Yes, of course the bad guy, you say, is “the system.” Who could dispute that?
However, when it was really one of “Us” (i.e., one of the boys) expressing (like DeConick does) not only a desire for change but also a call for change, then you were not disputatitive or argumentative in comments at his post or yours. Rather, you raised his call (and not hers) to the level of an entire post.
This seems (and appearances are often everything) another layer added to “the system.”
I’m using passive voice to be gentle. What if I just said that you yourself are perpetuating the system you may desire to change? How can you stop? Is humor all you’ve got?
How would you reply to the commenter at my blog, who emboldened our desire for change again in the first place? Would you have the courage to reply, without dispute? She asks:
Why are there … no classes for men on how to recognize attitudes and trends within themselves, their friends, and society in general, which leave a back door open for rape to happen?
She’s echoing in April 2011 something that an anthropologist and social psychologist and counselor of adolescent girls and of their families once said. Mary Pipher (in the mid 1990s) was saying:
There is something eerie about teaching our daughters how to fight off rapists and kidnappers. We need classes that teach men not to rape and hurt women. We need workshops that teach men what some of them don’t learn: how to be gentle and loving.
If you’ve read Pipher’s works, then you know how real to her (as it seems to be to you) the daunting system is. You know that she (like you perhaps) has a good desire, a desire for change. And yet, she would reply to both Rod of Alexandria and April DeConick with the same gentle respect, wouldn’t she? And she seems to be saying to us boys (as much as to any of the girls): Fellows, how about you learn something? How about you do more than just desire? How about you actually change profoundly?
But who can stop with such liberal expressions? What is exciting about Rod’s call and April’s call before that is that it faces various aspects of the surface of the system. And it says: We know the problem here is not just one of numbers of women blogging the Bible in proportion to men. The problem is largely men who will not own up, who will not open up, who will not find the courage to act on their own good desires for change.
J. K. Gayle said
@ Rod,
We do remember your ABC post in which you took April DeConick seriously. And you spoke for yourself (“as an individual, dedicated to anti-sexist movements within Christianity”), concluding:
The question is not a matter of either/or, but a question that deals with both/and–the individual choice of the female person who is a religious scholar and the social decision of a few individual conservative evangelical denominations…. I conclude that there can be a sufficient case made either way to start listening to the voices of women.
Glad you’re continuing to listen, and encouraging the rest of us as well. The post of mine that you linked to recently in the post of yours that NT Wrong excerpts here is one in which we are listening to Kristen asking why us men won’t take classes on recognizing our trends and attitudes as men; here:
http://speakeristic.blogspot.com/2011/04/men-around-top-of-hill.html
NT Wrong said
That’s Ok, Rod. As much as I completely back you own call, I’ve seen many of them before, and as I’ve explained, I think they don’t deal with the big elephant in the room.
Women in higher education in the “West” stands at just below 30% on the latest figures I could find. Women in biblical studies and theology stands closer to 10%. There is something deeper going on. I suggest it has to do with the structure of the field, which is still centred on teaching men to become ministers and priests (and the majority of Christendom only accepts men as priests). Christianity has historically (not essentially, or necessarily) and today been dominated by forms which secure patriarchy. This, I believe is the deeper problem that is being avoided by focus on ‘getting more women to blog on biblical studies’. There may be other equally important factors which should be discussed. So let’s.
NT Wrong said
JK, most of what you write is simply incorrect. When April DeConick first raised this issue in 2009, I posted three posts on the issue which engaged with her, and made several more comments on her blog. I followed up with adding a number of women to the list whom April found. (This site stopped for a year, and only the posts which announce the top 50 each month remain, so regretably these are no longer available, along with other posts made on the dominance of “western” bloggers and US bloggers.) You also misinterpreted the “us”, which refers to the unnamed volunteers in the Biblioblog Top 50. Aristotelian binaries have given you a heightened awareness of gender oppositions, but perhaps also a tendency to construct them where there are none.
J. K. Gayle said
JK, most of what you write is simply incorrect.
NT,
Fair enough:
Please let me to re-construct most of which “so regretably … are no longer available.” How was I to remember?
Please also allow me to re-interpret that “‘us’, which refers to the unnamed volunteers in the Biblioblog Top 50.” Sorry fellas!
(Now, let’s see, did I write anything else, anything else wrong?)
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Kristen said
I am the Kristen that J.K. Gayle mentioned, and I have some questions. How is a blog determined to be a “biblioblog” and how does it get added to the group whose ratings are checked for the Top 50? If a person writes about the Bible in a blog, but doesn’t have a scholarly degree, can his/her blog be counted as a biblioblog?
Would this blog be counted as a biblioblog? Or does the fact that her degree is not in biblical studies, mean she doesn’t get to be counted?
I am the Kristen that J.K. Gayle mentioned, and I have some questions. How is a blog determined to be a “biblioblog” and how does it get added to the group whose ratings are checked for the Top 50? If a person writes about the Bible in a blog, but doesn’t have a scholarly degree, can his/her blog be counted as a biblioblog?
http://kbonikowsky.wordpress.com/about/
What if women are writing about the Bible but see no reason to seek addition to the “biblioblogs” or to be counted in the Top 50 ratings? What if they just aren’t interested in the competition?
Kristen said
I apologize for the repeated paragraph in my post above.
NT Wrong said
Hi Kristen. As per the “Complete List of Biblioblogs” page, “Biblioblogs” are blogs which deal primarily with matters concerning academic biblical studies. No scholarly degree is required to be counted as a biblioblog. Your blog would be counted as a biblioblog. What is required is that a significant number of posts show an interest in critical analysis in relation to biblical studies. Jeremy runs the ratings, and we add blogs as we become aware of them, either by finding out from the author or by ourselves. If anyone isn’t interested in the list or the rankings, I guess they wouldn’t look at the list or the rankings.
Kristen said
Thanks for the response, NT. I should clarify that the link I posted was not my blog. It’s just one by a woman that I happen to like. I don’t have my own blog at this time. I’m considering starting one.
I just think that there may be something about “Top 50 Biblioblogs” that gives a certain air of competition about this kind of blogging. Competition isn’t something that appeals to me with regards to blogging about the Bible; I’m much more interested in collaboration and interaction. I suspect there are other women who feel as I do.
Kristen said
To clarify: I’m not saying that the only ones who might feel as I do are women; what I mean is that if I were to start a blog, being on a Top 50 or Top 10 list is not something I would actively seek– and I think that if other women feel as I do, that might be one reason why there are not more women on the lists.
NT Wrong said
Yes, the idea of turning academic biblical studies blogging into a top 50, like some sort of popularity contest or pop-music contest, is absurd. It’s my little joke on the whole biblioblogging caper, you see. Most of them get the joke, mind you, and take the rankings quite lightly. The whole site also has a more serious purpose, in that it raises awareness of the various biblioblogs. In this, I think it adds to collaboration and interaction rather than detracts from it.
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