The Count

It's taken a while from dialup hell, but my count is

37% men

63% women

That is, of 74 blogs listed, I excluded one from both counts as an organisation that seemed to have no gender bias. With other organisation or group blogs I used the gender of the poster of the relevant post(s) where I could find it. In a number of cases I had to use my judgement. In two cases I had no idea and arbirarily made one female and one male. There were no obvious examples of transgender or adopting a gender other than the blogger's habitual one. Of the 73 blogs considered, 27 were male, 46 female.

Oh, and I'm one of the males, in case anyone might want to take me to task about my previous statement that 'This Law Discriminates Against Women'. It seems to be fact as much as judgement, given the evidence.

Let me get this post in while it's still Blogathon day.

One thing I've learned from this

What I've thought for a while is now really clear to me. And I think it will be clear to the other bloggers for Backlash.

There are SIGNIFICANTLY MORE women than men here. I haven't checked each blog and counted up, but I will. This will be no surprise to many people here. But it will be to the lawmakers. They will be gobsmacked to find women in quantity popping out of the pigeonholes where they thought they had put male abusers.

We need to gather more evidence - evidence that surely can be found - and then say loud and clear

THIS LAW DISCRIMINATES AGAINST WOMEN.

Old news

When on August 31st the Home Office released the results of their consultation, the BBC reported it straight, simply relaying the facts of the Government's press release. Very soon, a different picture started to emerge.

Our cameraman, correspondent and producer spent the day looking into the story. They discovered that much of the material is faked - though a lot is extremely convincing. As other BBC outlets told the story there was an interesting audience response that challenged the assumption of many that there would be almost universal revulsion.

The editor of Radio 1 Newsbeat started receiving texts objecting to the proposals in robust terms. And by the Ten O'Clock News, the BBC was able to give a balanced view of the issue.

But the story doesn't end there. Ten O'Clock News editor Craig Oliver reported the turnaround on his BBC blog quoted above. One of the smallest but most important parts of a blog page is that little button labelled Comments, and boy, was it clicked. 182 people have had their say. Most of them had something to say too, there was little of the usual fluff with no serious point to make. Most too knew which side they were on.

So, of the 182, how many came out and said that the law would be a good thing? If you don't know, have a guess.

Thirteen.

Here's a funny thing

How come so many of the bloggers for Backlash are women? If they're supposed to be the 'victims', what are they doing here, and why do they seem so good at fighting their corner? Odd, isn't it.

Presumably the people Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker says need to be 'protected from themselves' are some other group of women. This lot here must be all on the 'muderers and rapists' side.

But somehow, that doesn't ring true either.

Today's the day

of Blogging for Backlash, and I'll try to make a few posts during the day from work. I haven't got 'some I prepared earlier', but I'll mention a few things that strike me about this law that haven't been widely aired.

The striking - I'd say the gobsmackingly stunning thing - about this proposal is the number of assumptions it relies on that aren't actually stated. Do the law's proposers think they're simply not worth mentioning, or has it not occurred to them that a few will ask for facts, and they will not be forthcoming. Probably they just trust the moral outrage that overrides their own powers of reason will do the same in everyone else. Whatever the reason, we need to identify and list their assumptions, showing that they're either provably wrong or backed by no evidence.

The first post has to be about blogging

which is something (blogging, that is), that I'd always intended to do. Of course, I'd use a trendy but arcane blog-tool and host it on my own site in full geeky style.

But - real life always seems to get in the way. And my real life never seems to tbe of a sort that I think is suitable blog-material.

This blog is an ad-hoc blog, and for a specific purpose. Tomorrow I'll be Blogging for Backlash . Backlash is the umbrella group formed to fight the UK Government's proposal to bring in what would be very worst of laws (and this Government has brought in some stinkers already).

I'll say what it proposes in brief. It would ban the possession of 'extreme pornography', i.e. images apparently of death and extreme injury created for sexual purposes.

That may seem reasonable enough when stated just like that. For why it isn't, go and look at Blogging for Backlash which will direct you to countless other sites blogs and pages with all the arguments.