I guess it’s not lost on too many people that Ana Marie Cox’s departure for the greener pastures of book publishing at Riverhead/PenguinPutnam results in two males — veteran pro bloggers David Lat and Alex Pareene — becoming the voices behind Wonkette.com.

It’s an interesting branding problem. In this case, the suffix “ette” clearly referred to Cox’s perspective as a woman in DC’s social fray. So, now you have a couple of guys writing for a girly-named blog. And that doesn’t even factor in the replacement of Cox’s style, which undoubtedly will make it a different read (there’s the issue of whether or not a semi-personal blog like Wonkette can be transferred and still retain its identity; I don’t have a problem with that, no more than with any other media organ).

I’m sure the desire to preserve both Wonkette’s brand and familiar URL played in to Gawker Media’s decision. Most readers probably won’t even consider it. But it sure strikes me as some odd blogger gender-bending.