Crawl Across the Ocean

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Orshee

Catching up on some of my blog reading, I see that Paul had a post a couple of weeks ago, measuring the relative frequency of the words 'he' and 'she' on various blogs (as measured by doing a google search for 'site:blog url he' (and 'she', of course).

Paul listed the ratios of a few sites:

Le Revue Gauche “he”/”she” ratio = 83%/17%

Dr. Roy’s Thoughts “he”/”she” ratio = 81%/19%

Accidental Deliberations “he”/”she” ratio = 81%/19%

Stageleft “he”/”she” ratio = 77%/23%

Calgary Grit “he”/”she” ratio = 72%/28%

Jason Cherniak “he”/”she” ratio = 73%/27%

www.Conservative.ca “he”/”she” ratio = 86%/14%

www.Liberal.ca “he”/”she” ratio = 79%/21%

www.NDP.ca “he”/”she” ratio = 78%/22%

www.GreenParty.ca “he”/”she” ratio = 64%/36% (most “she” references refer to Elizabeth May)

News Media:

Far Right:

CanWest Global (Canada.com) ”he”/”she” ratio = 76%/24%

Right-Wing:

CTV.ca ”he”/”she” ratio = 72%/28%

Globe and Mail “he”/”she” ratio = 77%/23%

Centre-Left:

Toronto Star ”he”/”she” ratio = 67%/33%

Left-Wing:

Democracy Now! “he”/”she” ratio = 48%/52%


Paul got the idea from this earlier post at Uncorrected Proofs, which had some more breakdowns:

WarrenKinsella.com 69% HE vs. 31% SHE

CalgaryGrit.blogspot.com 72% HE vs. 28% SHE

JasonCherniak.blogspot.com 73% HE vs. 27 SHE

BloggingTories.ca 71% HE vs. 29% SHE

Liblogs.ca 81% HE vs. 19% SHE

Conservative.ca 86% HE vs. 14% SHE

Liberal.ca 79% HE vs. 21% SHE

NDP.ca 78% HE vs. 22% SHE

GreenParty.ca 64% HE vs. 36% SHE



Uncorrected proofs, in turn, got the idea from this site, where you can punch in your url and it will do the google search for you.

So with all that as background I, naturally, checked the ratio for CAtO:


16% He, 84% She


Not what I was expecting, that's for sure. I did the actual google search just to check, and it seems accurate. It's possible I've just devoted an unhealthy amount of time to debunking Margaret Wente's nonsense, but I feel that there has to be more to it than that. Perhaps I refer to women as 'she' whereas with men I use their names? It's odd, anyway.

Have you noticed the female dominated nature of discourse here at CAtO?

6 Comments:

  • Okay, that is seriously fun. 68%:32% for me, in favour of 'he'. My favourite U.S. feminist blog, Pandagon, is 54%:46% in favour of 'he', and my favourite Canadian feminist blog, Thought Interrupted By Typos, is 48%:52% in favour of 'she'. But of all of us, you are clearly the best feminist! *grin*

    By Blogger Idealistic Pragmatist, at 4:55 AM  

  • Thanks, Declan, that was interesting.

    Our Moving to Vancouver blog racked up a 27%/73% he/she ratio. That was surprising to me, as well . . . .

    By Blogger West End Bob, at 6:56 AM  

  • I don't know IP - I think 50-50 would be 'ideal' 16-84 just suggests something is off, somehow.

    Still, it's nice to have West End Bound for company over here on the feminine side...

    By Blogger Declan, at 12:45 PM  

  • Paulitics: .... the superficiality of our society and the marginalization of women in dialogue.

    IMO that's a bit of a leap. Given the political nature of the vast majority of the blog posts within his list the male/female ratio shows that there are more male idiots making bad government policy than female idiots making bad government policy.

    If Maggie Thatcher was still in power, if Hillery Clinton gained power, if Elizabeth May won a seat this time around, or the government of Iraq elected a woman president, I would expect those ratios to be different.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:12 AM  

  • Ah you're just a bitter old chauvinist :)

    More seriously, I'm sure Paul can speak for himself, but perhaps it is the dominance of men in the areas a political blog would discuss which reflects the "superficiality of our society and the marginalization of women in dialogue."

    I mean, it's a fair point that you might expect a political blogs he/she ratio to reflect the ratio of men/women in the arena of politics (which just makes CAtO's score all the more puzzling...)

    By Blogger Declan, at 7:04 PM  

  • This was a fun read and started me wondering about my own blog. pario.blogspot.com is 37%/ 63% he/she ratio.

    By Blogger talk talk talk / Shireen, at 6:02 PM  

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