During the first two years of Lorelle on WordPress, people who met me were sometimes surprised to find I am female, but more interestingly, they thought I would be younger or older than I am. In time, I found that the way I specifically wrote on that blog, to take “me” out of the equation without the writing lacking personality, people put “themselves” into their vision of me. If they were young, they assumed I was young. If they were old, they considered me their age peer. My technique worked, but it was fascinating to see it in action.

Personally, I don’t care if someone is male or female. If they write good stuff, I’m there. If they write crap, well, I know they are male. - no, kidding.

What bothers me is the assumptions, just as I joked, people put onto the sex roles. Years ago, helping on the live chat of WordPress support, I helped a man with a problem and he thanked me by calling me Mr. Lorelle. I told him I was female and he went nuts. At first he was angry that I’d helped him, calling me names, not mean but cautious. Then he was turned on and wanted to get to know me better. When he handed out his big clue, I knew that it had to end.

He was from Saudi and he explained that in his country, the women are all twits, ignorant, and useless. His words. His cultural training made him angry to find out that a woman was smarter than he was on something, especially geek stuff, and yet it was exciting. A woman with brains. Again, his words.

I got rid of him carefully, but I know there are brilliant women in his society. He probably just doesn’t hang out with any. Which is the problem. A society that separates the sexes, labeling them and restricting them by laws - it’s heartbreaking.

One of the things that I so adore about blogging is that anyone can blog. We don’t have to know, nor care, what your sex is. We just care about what you think and say. This is what will melt all the other barriers, don’t you think?

So thanks for the reminder. We still have to think about this and talk about this so it can become accepted and forgotten because it no longer exists.

Thanks for the feedback!

I’ve blogged several times on this issue:
http://readburner.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/who-would-have-thought/
http://readburner.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/new-linkblogs-are-coming-in-fast/

I’m working on solving this issue, since it’s a problem for me too. Currently I seem to have found a very easy and practiable solution. If it works out fine in my tests, then expect to have language filtering implemented in 1 to 2 days.

cheers -
Alex

If you don’t want it read, don’t make it public. And if you make it public, give a thought to the readers. Thanks for getting that point.