pop (and poink) sociology, best not critically examined

A recurrent theme in the blogging community, most recently cresting a month or so ago (summary), is why it should be that the A-List (ie most-read, most-linked) bloggers are almost exclusively male. The answer was revealed to your fortunate correspondent last weekend: many parts of the blogosphere resemble a lek:

[the male blogger] makes quite a scene with its theatrical mating displays. In the spring, before daybreak and sometimes by moonlight, on breeding grounds known as leks where the birds return year after year, the male[s] fan their tails peacock-fashion, puff out their chests, which swell like heaving white bellows, and fill the bright yellow air sacs on their throats, emitting acoustically impressive popping and poinking sounds as they strut amidst the low sage. Hoping to attract the apparently aloof and elusive hens, the males face off with each other like dancers engaged in a ceremonial karate match.

i could provide urls to buttress this observation but that would be skating on very thin ice...

update (not buttressing, but related) - Matt Groening (via) -

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.

Also Dating Design Patterns