Among the comments to come out of the recent discussion about blogs was this from Una:

Most of the time, I don’t think the bloggers are the ones being ‘ugly’, it’s generally those who comment on blogs who act the maggot.

It’s been enough of a problem for her that she has had to publicly lay down some ground rules. You would have thought it obvious that “Homophobic, sexist or racist comments will not be tolerated and will be deleted”, but it was clearly happening enough that it needed to be said.

More recently, journalist and blogger Sarah Carey mentioned a letter she received, which went:

“Dear Bitch, Why don’t you fuck off permanently to New York? You anti-Irish Bitch, Paddy”

She laughed it off. However, in the seven years I’ve been writing for The Irish Times I’ve had mail that’s called me anti-Northern, blasphemous, idiotic and cruel on Michael Jackson, but I’ve never had anything that fixated on my gender.

Nor would I expect it. But it would appear that being hetero and male shields a person from the nastier elements lurking out there. I’m curious to know if female bloggers do attract particular nastiness; how much the anonymity allowed by comments threads gives people licence to be homophobic, racist or sexist; and whether it’s rare – or depressingly common.