Newsflash: Men still invited to BlogHer!!

Also cross-posted on BlogHer.org:

A huge tip of the hat to Chris Nolan and Robert Scoble, two incredibly popular bloggers who took time this week to explode the urban myth that men are not invited to BlogHer. Update: A tip-of-the-hat also to Dan Gillmor.

Chris tackled the issue with her usual inimitable style -- here's an excerpt from her post, "Dear, Dear Kevin":

"This gives me a wonderful chance to state the obvious about this conference: IT IS NOT FOR WOMEN ONLY. Not only are men welcome -- a statement that it seems absurd to have to make - but some are planning to attend. So you will have company, Kevin.

"This gives me the chance to make another observation: If you are a man who likes code and software and things that plug in, and is perhaps having trouble finding a girl who likes Java (and knows it's not just a coffee) and undersands your inner Geek, this might be the PERFECT place for you to spend a summer afternoon."

Kevin who, you ask? Why, Kevin Drum, the Washington Monthly columnist whose Feb. 20 column posing the question, "why are op-ed pages so completely dominated by men?" provided one of the many outlets women and men really needed to get their gender-related ya-yas out over the nation's op-ed pages. Today, Drum initially wondered whether to accept a press pass to BlogHer, which our PR guru and advisor Renee Blodgett extended last week. "Should I put on my flak jacket and go?" Drum asked. Looks like he got all the feedback he needed to accept our invite:

"UPDATE: My mother says I should go. Chris Nolan says I should go. Good enough for me! But I'm flying up the night before...."

My favorite part of Nolan's comment on Drum's site, which she includes in this post, is this sentence:

"And I think you'll be very surprised to see that this is NOT a convention about "why it's unfair that men run the world." Nor is it a "sisterhood-only event." It's for EVERYONE."

Amen.

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