The only real requirements are that it be from an Australian or New Zealander blogger who identifies as feminist, and that the subject matter be feminist/feminist-related. I’d like to go for fairly broad/inclusive definitions of “feminist” for both of the above, so it’s possible that everyone will find something they resonate with and something they disagree with; I’m hoping that will be less of a cause of friction and bad feeling in our little blogger pool than in the larger ones.

(That said, the American-centricity of many blogs really annoys me; sometimes it’s like geographical location in the USA goes completely unmarked, as if it really is the ‘centre’.)

I might draw up a call for posts in the next couple of days and see if I can get it out there.

They’re my raw thoughts.

I wonder if it might help if, say, a call were put out around the place inviting people to send in links? One of the advantages Hoyden About Town has in that respect is that it’s one of the few (if not the only) blogs that really crosses into both the Oz and broader feminist spheres.

Tigtog and I have been quietly mumbling about the possibility of an Australian feminist blog carnival for a while now, but daunted at the idea of the work behind it. I would absolutely support one, and if there’s something I could do to help, please drop me a line.

I have to confess to being a poor reader of blogs cos I’m so busy. Unlike most Australian bloggers, I’m not a PhD student who basically sits at a computer most of the time. I mostly read US blogs because I want to focus on women of colour. As you say, the Australian blogosphere is overwhelmingly white, male, able-bodied, cisgendered, straight and middle class. I don’t need to seek out the perspectives of such people since I’m surrounded by them. Why would I bother reading their blogs too? Unless they’re linking me and affecting the traffic to and atmosphere of my blog, I don’t see a point in having anything to do with them.
I don’t read American blogs by middle-class, straight, cisgendered, able-bodied white men either, despite Chris Clarke occasionally commenting at my blog.

I’ve found that the thing which makes the US feminist blogosphere — and other tightly-knit blogospheres, such as the progressive Muslim blogosphere(s) — is the large amount of off-blog networking that these bloggers do. They communicate via email and e-lists, meet up in person, organise their blogging so that it achieves other objectives (be it book deals or editing major websites), and generally treat blogging as part of a career, whether they treat it as a form of activism or as a form of self-promotion for a more conventional professional feminist career.
Unless I’m seriously missing something and nobody invited me to the party cos I smell, this is quite different to the Aussie feminist blogosphere. The Aussie femmo-blogosphere seems really atomised and individualised, same with the general social justice blogosphere in Aus. I tried to create some momentum around Australian issues through blogs through the National Day of Action to stop the intervention last year, but I was too busy to follow up on the dynamism it created, and there was nobody else to do it.
Bloggers here don’t seem to get the kind of recognition as they have in the USA, as writers or as organisers. But like I said, that “recognition” isn’t imposed from outside, it’s actively sought out through social networks. And I know for a fact that Aussie feminist bloggers are plugging into US networks because of the lack of Australian ones — I’m one of those Aussie feminists.

I’m not saying the solution to the issues you’ve raised is to start an e-list. In fact, I think it’d implode in a month given that many of the tensions around race, trans inclusion, sex work, porn, class, sexuality, disability and ideology that bisect the US feminist blogosphere also divide Australian feminist bloggers. A carnival or a group blog sound like good ideas, but I’m way too busy to commit to a project like that. If you’re interested, I’d suggest emailing around to see if you get any takers.

I guess its more blogs that call themselves left but are not specifically transfriendly where I would guess bloggers like Zoe Brain would be ridiculed. Not so much because of the trans issue but because of the right-wing politics. I’ve seen a couple of her posts where right-wingers in the USA have ridiculed transpeople and she has responded - I wonder if the reverse would happen here, where her politics are ridculed rather than engaged with and debated.

Obviously no-one should get a free pass, and all ideas should be up for debate, but people also need to know that disagreement will be within certain civil bounds, IMO.

It’s certainly a tactic which I’ve seen used to good effect on a lot of blogs, but it also limits the ability to engage in discussion with those who don’t agree, but might come around; or those in the peanut gallery who might get exposed with those arguments. I try not to block unless people are over the top, but if people aren’t engaging respectfully, I’m inclined to go for the snark. I try to walk a line between all of those on this blog; sometimes I succeed, sometimes not.

For instance, I wonder how Zoe Brain (an Australian libertarian-right transwoman) would be on some left blogs in Australia? Not that I think she would have problems looking after herself in a stoush. But what about those who would silently watch?

I actually know Zoe personally, and she’s an occasional commenter on this blog. I’ve never seen her not respected in trans and feminist circles; I’ve never actually wound up in a discussion with her on some of the areas where she’s more conservative.

Setting up a blog carnival would be a simpler and easier start than a group blog, I would imagine. If you choose to do this, please post and I will let you know what I might be able to help with.

I’ve certainly been thinking about that, but it worries me that it might be a difficult job to get together: there’s so little networking going on between feminist blogs out here that compiling a list of blogs that’s longer than about twelve would take some serious research. It’s something - at least for the first time - might be easier if a few people could do it collectively, so as to combine all our blogrolls.