Tyler William's "Seal" and Women Bloggers

Tyler Williams has hit on a solution to the question of identifying bibliobloggers, by designing a seal of approval for "white male bibliobloggers everywhere, but especially in developed nations". (See all the links in Tyler's post to observations from other bloggers.) I love it.

Given his sense of humor, it wouldn't surprise me if Tyler has read James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, and Once Upon a More Enlightened Time. Some of these revisions of children's stories had me laughing so hard that it hurt when I first read them. Little Red Riding Hood scolds the rescuing woodsman for daring to presume that women and wolves can’t solve their problems without a man's help, and without resorting to violence. Sleeping Beauty is a "sleeping persun of better-than-average attractiveness". Hansel and Gretel become persuaded by the old woman -- a benevolent Wiccan -- to discard stereotypes of witches and assert their bonds with Mother Earth. The Three Bears end up eating Goldilocks (an invading research-driven biologist), even though they are vegetarians, because "trying new things" is a benefit of being multicultural.

On the serious side, I do hope to see more female bibliobloggers, but I don't see much of it happening. I've already mentioned my reason here; I just don't think women are as inclined to preach via the blog -- that's what we do, after all: "preach", though academically, and regardless of how religious or secular we are -- as men are. The biblioblog is a form of self-aggrandizement, and women don't care to draw attention to their own importance as much (or in the same way) as men do. Which is certainly not to say that our blogs serve the sole purpose of self-aggrandizement (if I thought that I wouldn't blog). We blog for very positive reasons too.

James Finn Garner would no doubt have a perfect parody for the issue we're debating.