Hi Steve: Thanks for coming to BlogHer...sorry I didn't get to do much more than wave.
The issue of specific sessions crops up for other groups to, like ElderBloggers, for example.
We go back and forth. We have had sessions at BlogHer 05 and our track at SXSW that were generationally-specific. But at BlogHer 06 we instead made some effort to have broad age representations on panels. Given it was an Internet-oriented conference I think we did pretty well at having women over 40 represented, for example.
Same goes for the LGBT community. Last year we in fact did have a transgendered speaker, speaking about blogging openly about that. This year we had several lesbian/bi speakers, but not on a panel about LGBT issues specifically. Then again, only one out of 26 sessions was specifically about mommyblogging either.
Luckily, we have a really easy path to getting an issue or subject matter on the BlogHer schedule called the Room of Your Own tracks. This year we had 6 rooms of your own, proposed and staffed by BlogHer attendees. The Room of Your Own track is specifically for attendees who think we've missed the boat by not scheduling a topic they'd like to see.
It won't be long before '07 planning begins, so I totally encourage people to email me with the sessions they wish they had seen at BlogHer 06.
Hmm, as a lesbian, I don't really care about having lesbian discussions. I'm gay and that's really kind of the end of the discussion. Maybe there's room in a political or a youth-oriented session for glbt issues, but it's not something *I'd* care about discussing at BlogHer.
And people assume bloggers with kids are straight women because...most of them *are* straight women. You're not a mommy blogger, you're a daddy blogger. Like you've said, taking care of kids isn't the responsibility of just straight women, so you don't need to take on the mommy blogger term. Of course, it was BlogHER, so naturally they're not going to have a Daddy Blogger session.
Also, from reading blog entries about BlogHer and Flickr picture captions, I saw lots of representation of other types of bloggers.
I agree with you that lesbian perspective - and acknowledgement of lesbians - was sorely missing at Blogher 06, and have blogged about it at my blog, Sour Duck.
As for only one out of 26 sessions being geared for mommyblogging, this strikes me as going against my perceptions. So now I'm well motivated to go over the two day conference and check this.
However, I will say that even if that figure is correct, it is not the only factor that would give mommybloggers dominance. There is the matter of who is sitting on the panels and what they're known for, and sponsors and what target audience they're catering to, and other things that can all combine to give attendees the impression that mommybloggers are the dominant force.
There was also a distinctly less political feel to this conference, which I believe had everything to do with the BlogHer Ad Network and the substantial increase in sponsorship money.
Thanks for the comments. My statements about the perception that LGBT blogger issues were not adequately represented came from a conversation that we had with a lesbian blogger at lunch who felt very strongly about the issue and after hearing her side of the issue I felt she was right,
My comments about the gender stereotyping of men as not being seen as being people in the nuturing role with their children comes from personal experience. We often hear single mothers of children say they have to be dads as well as moms to their kids. Rarely are men invited to participate as moms even when we are the people in that role.
I think the role of mommy is not gender exclusive. I am proud of being my childrens "mommy," after their first mom died, and the closeness I have with them because of the family we had then, and the fine adults they have grown up to be. Few men get to experience that. Few men even know they can.
I didn't so much care that LGBT issues weren't addressed, because like FlippyO said upstream, I don't really care about those kinds of discussions. We live those discussions.
What really struck me though, and I think Sour Duck gets at this in her post in particular, was the jarring difference in the overwhelming heteronormativity this year as opposed to last year, when I didn't feel that way at all.
I'm a lesbian. I was a speaker. I didn't find any problems with the content or the respect paid to me or any other lesbians.
I also blogged about it on my blog, in response to Sour Duck's post specifically.
I attended both BH05 and BH06.
I've commented some at Koan's blog on the heteronormativity and the mommy-blogging-influence.
The more I think about it, the more I think the physical layout of BH06 -- main room here, breakout rooms way over there, a confused central space for hanging out and bumping-in-to -- contributed to, erm, dissatisfaction.
As to SourDuck's comments about politics -- look, the reason I read blogs is to find people who have worldviews different from mine. I want to hear their points of view, and discuss them in a civil manner. Having a single political point of view at a conference like BlogHer defeats the point of the conference.
I didn't prepare as well for BH06 as I might have, because I wasn't sure if I would even be able to attend. The value of a conference like BH is both the formal, planned discussions and the informal. I didn't get as much from BH06 because I didn't do the prep I should have. As in -- inviting folks I read regularly to think of attending, making plans to meet F2F, and so on.
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