The Best Female Bloggers Of 2008
Posted by: Susannah Breslin
Filed in:
news
11:00AM, Sunday November 30th 2008
Who are 2008’s best female bloggers? From futurists to postfeminists, octogenarians to mommies, nonbloggers to celebrities, we’ve rounded up the best bloggers who happen to be women. Found out who they are after the jump.
The Futurist: Xeni Jardin leads the blogosphere into the new frontier. As an online “Curator of Internet Esoterica, Anomalies, and Curiosities,” co-editor of Boing Boing, and executive producer of Boing Boing TV, Jardin goes where no woman has gone before—from zero gravity flights to cupcake races.
The Trendhunter: Jill Sherman is a virtual coolhunter. At Trend de la Creme, this “marketing goddess” turns “trend fiend,” offering an ongoing stream of fashion trends that range from the extraordinary to the extreme.
The Gawkerette: These days, Sheila McClear is the lone female Gawker blogger at the site that invented snark. Unlike the Jezebels, McClear is more interested in covering the news than caterwauling about the patriarchy.
The Wacky Celebrity: There is no competition. Courtney Love takes the cake when it comes to crazyblogging. On a recent Sunday, she blogged 60 times on her MySpace page. Even when Love overshares, she does it like a rock star.
The Post-Sexpert: At Salon, Tracy Clark-Flory covers the sex beat and contributes to Broadsheet, the site’s blog for women. From high-tech pornography to political sex scandals, Clark-Flory writes about sex and culture with postfeminist panache.
The Nonbloggers: If you’ve been living in a cave for the last year, you may not be aware of NonSociety, a three-headed blogging Hydra: Julia Allison, Mary Rambin, and Meghan Asha. Together, the trio has turned lifecasting into a narcissistic art, complete with online colonics and “gonzo” coverage of fashion week. When Allison found herself on the cover of Wired earlier this year, she proved the ladies are good at something. What that is, no one knows.
The Octogenarian: At “83 years young,” Millie Garfield may be the world’s oldest blogger. From recollecting her days as an Avon lady to photoblogging a visit to the doctor, Thoroughly Modern Millie reveals blogging is more than a “hobby”: “I think there is more to blogging than that.” (So do we, Millie.)
The Virtual Newbie: With the launch of The Daily Beast, media veteran Tina Brown tackles the internet after stints at Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk. Taking on sister-rival Arianna Huffington’s already booming Huffington Post with an East Coast intellectual spin on current events and popculture, Brown sets her sights on the blogosphere as print sounds a death knell.
The Wonk: Ana Marie Cox got notorious as the founding editor of Wonkette, where she blogged dirtily about politics and exposed the Washingtonienne. When Radar folded, Cox held a pledge drive; in response, readers donated thousands to help her cover the elections with spunk.
The Mommyblogger: Dooce, aka Heather Armstrong, hit it big when she started blogging what other mothers wanted to say but couldn’t. Between the dirty jokes and her struggles with depression, this former Mormon living in Utah spawned the mommy blog phenomenon. Today Dooce.com is so successful, the site’s ad revenue supports her family. Now, she’s pregnant again, providing her with more income-generating content for years to come.
TheFrisky.com is part of the Turner Sports and Entertainment Digital Network
JumpingJiminyCricket
wrote on November 26 2008 @ 08:28 pm: [report]
Your TrendHunter pick should be Bianca Bartz, editor of TrendHunter.com. She’s written 3,000 articles for an audience of 7,000,000 monthly views… OR Sandra Stinchcombe, co-host of Trend Hunter TV…
ajawest
wrote on November 28 2008 @ 04:50 pm: [report]
Awesome choices.
alexh2
wrote on December 1 2008 @ 06:34 pm: [report]
Not to be a jackass but it is with great irony that I note there was an anonymous female blogger who died over the weekend, received a 15 graph obituary in the New York Times, and isn’t even close to being on this silly list. The only people up there who will get an obit in the NYT would have had an obit in the NYT with or without a blog (no offense to AMC, but moving anal to the forefront of political debate probably isn’t going to qualify her).
Anyway, I just wanted to note that blog can be smart, witty, opinionated, of unparalleled knowledge in a field, not for the pursuit of money, and written by a woman. I don’t see much of that in the list above—mostly consumer, celebrity, and silly. There’s often more to the Internet than meets the eye:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/business/01tanta.html
lilybriscoe
wrote on December 2 2008 @ 06:13 pm: [report]
It figures that a website that greets new registrants with a “yay!” and features only the categories “sex” “guys” “style” and “celebs” would be perfectly content with the patriarchy just as it is.
And I don’t think futurism means what you think it means. Unless of course this Boing Boing chick is a fascist Italian who’s obsessed with machinery. In which case, ok, you can call her a Futurist.
Like alexh2, I don’t mean to be a jackass. But someone has to speak truth to power.
witlist
wrote on December 16 2008 @ 12:27 pm: [report]
you forgot a category: The Geek. I nominate Christina Wood, author of the GeekGirlFriends.com blog and the newly published book “How to be a Geek Goddess.”
dtw
MademoiselleGramophone
wrote on December 22 2008 @ 04:34 pm: [report]
I like the list. It’s always interesting to see a list of blogs I never would have trampled on. I especially like the 83 year old (HAH!) That’s so great. We need more oolderbloogers to blug from Pasadena.