Ladies, Amirite?

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

Shaker insomniax sent me the link to this post about the shock and sexism that resulted after the creator of the popular Facebook page I Fucking Love Science disclosed (via a link to her Twitter account) that she is a woman.

There's nothing I can say which I haven't already said in a million different ways about the inherent misogyny in neither having considered that the creator of any space, particularly a space concerned with science, could be female, nor in having the decency to not respond to that news with a torrent of misogyny, including commenting on the female creator's appearance.

I will, however, observe an odd thing about my own reaction: I would have been surprised if the creator of I Fucking Love Science wasn't a woman. I don't follow the page on FB, but lots and lots of my friends do, so I see content from the page shared all the time. And I can't account for what made me (unconsciously) presume it was female-authored, but I did.

I am reminded of my early days of blogging, when there was a "rumor" that one of the Big Liberal Bloggers was "secretly" a woman, and it took me ages to figure out that people assumed Digby was a man. I also can't account for what made me (correctly) presume that Digby is a woman.

I dunno. I do know, however, that one must be open to the possibility of unidentified content creators being women to come to that conclusion, though, however unaccountable.

* * *

As an aside, early in my blogging, when I was still pseudonymous, even under the female moniker Shakespeare's Sister, I used to get a lot of email accusing me of secretly being a dude masquerading as a woman. And even to this day, after eight years and disclosing my real name and posting countless pictures of myself, I still get the occasional email accusing me of being a male someone else.

It's an interesting commentary on what some people believe women to be capable of, I suppose. It also grants me a far greater capacity for sustained prankery than I have, lol. That would be one hell of a long-con!