Turn in my Man Card

I am somewhat annoyed. Blogging has become the realm of women. I am talking here about the personal blog and not the pseudo-blogs which serve only as a platform to promote or review products or serve as a soapbox for an agenda. One might ask, 'What is wrong with that?' Well, nothing really at least on the surface. I like women. Generally, they can be at least as intelligent, articulate, thoughtful and witty as men and what they write is interesting. The problem is that while I enjoy keeping up with people I know by reading their blogs, I keenly feel the pressure of social mores that, as a man, I am somehow spying into a cyber hen party. I'll read someones recollection of a trip they took or a birthday party that will spark a response but I stop short at the thought of being an unwelcome intruder.

I know that this is all so very illogical. One should expect that when posting your thoughts online, the world will see and possibly respond. I know this and yet I still feel like a lurking voyeur.

What is to be done about it? Reassurance from fellow bloggers probably won't do much. What else can they say about a publicly posted journal except that all are invited to read and comment. Similarly, just 'getting over it' hasn't really worked so far either. Logical argument? No; tried that one already. I believe that the only thing that may cure my petty angst is to see more postings and comments from the Y chromosome demographic. I'm not looking for competition so much as participation. Many of these blogs style themselves as 'family' blogs and yet are maintained by only a fraction of that family. Alas, the likelihood of this plea reaching my target audience is nil because, guess what, it is a blog post and most men do not read blogs.