The (un)wanted veil

Orthomom recently posted a clipping of a short article called “How the Internet is Lifting the Veil from Orthodox Jewish Women,” that cited several orthodox female blogs as a ‘rare glimpse into an otherwise closed world’. The hyperbole that the unaffiliated use to describe our mysterious community is not a surprise, but I’d like to suggest that, in fact, there is a ‘viel’ over us orthodox woman and we are hiding behind our traditional role more than we’d like to admit. Before I get my shietel ripped off by angry mobs of enlightened, opinionated (and roaring) women, let me explain:

The Jewish blogsphere is fairly populated by female bloggers. In my unscientific poll of different websites’ blogrolls, I found that while we are a minority, our voice is present in equal measure to our relative involvement in communal/cultural affairs. It seems that men are much less likely to link to women’s blogs (if at all), while women link mostly to men’s blogs but also add their few girlfriends onto their blogroll. (Update: that was a mistake). I’m almost surprised that the JIB awards didn’t list a category for ‘best female blogger’.

Despite our solid presence, men seem to enjoy a far greater degree of security in this virtual world of blogging. The most popular male bloggers have, for the most part, been out-ed. Even if I personally don’t know their names, it’s obvious that many of their readers do. I have also seen a considerable amount of men using their real names: Gil Student, Stephen I. Weiss, Robert J. Avrech, to name a few. I dare you to find that many religious women unafraid of divulging their identities online. The rare exception, (i.e. Esther K.) are either professional writers who don’t benefit from anonymity or questionably orthodox. The rest of us cling dearly to the generous anonymity that the internet provides. I’ve seen countless bloggers trembling in fear of having been identified and threatening to shut down their blogs if someone were to publicize their identities—and more often than not, they were female.

Why is blogging considered a surprising, possibly dubious activity for an orthodox woman? Okay, dubious might be pushing it, but it is still on the fringe of acceptability. Why else would public acknowledgment of the blog tarnish a women’s identity? One (not I) can argue that since the entire function of a blog is to fulfill the narcissistic need for self-expression, to act as a personal reality TV channel focused on the writer’s life and mind, a woman that exercises extreme modesty of behavior and thought would not relate to this kind of venue for self-expression. RenReb, the Joan of Arc of the new breed of orthodox female bloggers, flies in the face of the traditional image of a rebetzin—she’s saucy, she’s funny, and she uses words like cocky—but despite her claim at totally forthright presentation, she is tediously careful with conserving her anonymity. I wonder (and let me know if I’m wrong here) whether she, or any other lauded female bloggers, would admit to falling into line with traditional expectations of the orthodox woman by avoiding public exposure.

I wish my favorite female bloggers would finally come out of the closet and reveal themselves—if not to promote identity and expression among orthodox women, then at least to give their fans a chance to admire them in person!