Gender in Blogs article

[callistra]

Interesting reading for the day:

http://www.exposedbrain.com/archives/BlogGender.pdf

Arguments? Agreements? Discussion?

Comments

[meljane.livejournal.com]

I'll comment when I have read all ten pages *groan*, *goes to look for specs*

[callistra.livejournal.com]

It's actually only 8, and double spaced with nice big font.
:-)

I was worried too!

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Here's a precis:
Author uses "hegemonic" in almost every paragraph. Suggests we should be seeing males dominating blogging. Notes this isn't the case based on numbers, so claims non-female blogs are more "important". References Blogstreet's “100 Most Important Blogs” with maximum distortion of stats, not mentioning that it includes non-individual blogs and total non-blogs, such as Slashdot and statcounter.com. Tries marketing-speak fantasy: "Whether or not these blogs are actually influential is less important than the fact that they are considered influential." Shows that women's blogging is treated as inferior by the ever-popular method of proof by single example. Goes on about scientific reason dominating blogs, women not having the money or equipment to access the net (!), gender being exaggerated on blogs, oppression of women, blah, blah.

Gender in Blogs

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Not much in the way of arguments or agreements - just some random comments in no particular order and a question or two that may or may not provoke discussion!

Help! What's the difference between sex and gender? I did see a grammar rant at ars-technica complaining that gender applies to words not people, who have a sex. Given lack of supporting evidence, I'll continue to mis-use the term for the moment.

"many women lack the money to purchase the technology necessary to blog,"
Odd comment given that the author has already acknowleged that 65% of those LJers who identify their sex do so as female. Of course, that's not necessarily an accurate portrayal of the actual sex of the participants, and the author does acknowlege that it's more the formative past that they are concerned about.

I would describe Suicide Girls as erotica rather than pornography - while I don't draw a strong distinction between the two personally, in the context of the essay the latter has a more negative connotation. The author's later acknowlegement of the challenging nature of their site is, however, appreciated.

The section on the essential nature of the heteronormative framework reminded me of what puremyth was telling me on Friday about non-gendered accounts at deviantart (http://www.deviantart.com/) (an online artists community). Ve has several times seen people who don't state their gender get annoyed when people miss-guess it, only to have their genderless state pointed out, and for them to then retract their complaints and add gender to their userinfo.

What do you think of the use of manufactured genderless pronouns such as ve? I pinched it from some SF I read fairly recently, which narrows it down to three or four authors..

The use of stereotypically feminine images: has at least once to my knowlege been a contributing factor to my misguessing the gender of someone until the day before I met them IRL :)

Political blogs vs. personal:
Difficult for me to commment on - the only political blog I follow is that of Margo Kingston (http://webdiary.smh.com.au/archives/margo_kingston/) :)

Re: Gender in Blogs

[callistra.livejournal.com]

As far as I use the terms, sex is biological, gender is a construction within the language structure we are currently using.

Hence different languages will have different ideas of gender and how gender is created within the individual, however in terms of sex females have female genitalia, and males have male genitalia. This doesn't quite allow for hermaphrodites or anything like that, in terms of physiology (sorry if that's the wrong word!) but then neither really does gender. :-)

Although you could supplant the word "language structure" into "current societal structure in which we are currently immersed."

How does that go?

I like the idea of genderless pronouns. Sometimes gender is not necessary in conversation or construction of identity from my point of view, a lot like the way we decide to describe ourselves through various focii. For example, a description of me from me usually includes huge bust and large smile with glasses - I either feel it unnecessary or do not wish to draw attention to other features.

I find that it is difficult sometimes to discuss Sproglet in a non-gendered manner, since there is no way to ably pronounce s/he, and most people I speak to would not understand my lack of enthusiasm at gendering the child this early. And people ask if I want a boy or a girl. Does that matter? Should it? I'm hoping it's a baby!

I have friends who would rather always be known as the gender neutral, and I find it interesting to discuss with friends which parts of their gender we focus on. For example, I see the masculine side of a certain friend more than the feminine side, and yet to most other people, they see the femme. Gender is also an interpretation, I guess of how I/you/the thinker perceives...

Have I wandered too far off topic? I'm not sure if I am straying or not, please tell me if I am! I agree with the comment about financial relationships between women and internet - the author does use stats and then ignore the data provided by them. But then again, I read this as a uni level essay of about 2,500 words, which means I have written things like this, and this is a much better example than a lot of sh*t I handed in!! LOL.

In reference to the DeviantARTist - I would be asking if they wanted gender to be a part of the interpretive framework of their work. Is the intention of their design to challenge the status quo and make us question a part of ourselves, or to feel more secure within the constructions we are comfortable with? Do they want their work read in the comfort zone or out of? I've always liked art which stood by itself, stuff which is half surreal and half obvious.

Re: Gender in Blogs

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

As far as I use the terms, sex is biological, gender is a construction within the language structure we are currently using.

Ta. And yes, hermaphrodites etc do make an already complex issue even more so :)

Although you could supplant the word "language structure" into "current societal structure in which we are currently immersed."

*nod*

How does that go?

Good, thanks.

I like the idea of genderless pronouns. Sometimes gender is not necessary in conversation or construction of identity from my point of view, a lot like the way we decide to describe ourselves through various focii.

Cool. FWIW, it was Greg Egan's I was pinching. *ponders using them more often*

For example, a description of me from me usually includes huge bust and large smile with glasses - I either feel it unnecessary or do not wish to draw attention to other features.

Heehee - I'd definitely noticed all three (mmmm, boobies :). You do seem to use those as defining characteristics, and they're certainly sufficient to pick you out from the usual crowd.

I do find it intriguing the extent to which I incorporate the length of my hair into my identity. What happens when I finally relent and remove half of it? I was oddly pleased last night to find out that my sister-in-law-in-law used to have hair past her rear as well - we then spent some time discussing the use of olive-oil as a hair conditioner LOL.

I find that it is difficult sometimes to discuss Sproglet in a non-gendered manner, since there is no way to ably pronounce s/he, and most people I speak to would not understand my lack of enthusiasm at gendering the child this early.

The world is full of strange people like that.

I'm hoping it's a baby!

With you there :)

I have friends who would rather always be known as the gender neutral, and I find it interesting to discuss with friends which parts of their gender we focus on.

Ooh, curious. I don't that I'm aware of..

For example, I see the masculine side of a certain friend more than the feminine side, and yet to most other people, they see the femme. Gender is also an interpretation, I guess of how I/you/the thinker perceives...

*nod*

Have I wandered too far off topic? I'm not sure if I am straying or not, please tell me if I am!

No idea - but I'm finding the discussion interesting nevertheless :)

... I read this as a uni level essay of about 2,500 words, which means I have written things like this, and this is a much better example than a lot of sh*t I handed in!! LOL.

:) I can't talk - last time I wrote any essays of non-negligible length was year 12 English Lit, longer ago that I'd care to admit to. A fairly typical comment was "fabulous stuff, but you must write more". I nearly failed..

In reference to the DeviantARTist - I would be asking if they wanted gender to be a part of the interpretive framework of their work.

That's a good question. I may have to ask my sibling for some concrete examples :)

You also asked if their art was intended to challenge the observer. Most of the art I've seen from that community has been quite challenging in general, although that could be an artifact of my choices of artists to follow :)

I've always liked art which stood by itself, stuff which is half surreal and half obvious.

Ditto - and DA is a good place to hunt for it. (Now we're definitely off topic ;)

That said, I just dropped by the site to check that I was going to link the thought provoking skulpturro (http://skulpturro.deviantart.com/) correctly, and stumbled across this (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/19736670/) amazing piece by Katerina423 - check out the first couple of comments. Heading back on topic now :)

Re: Gender in Blogs

[callistra.livejournal.com]

Oops, I forgot, the thing about political versus personal; for a lot of women and women's blogs, there is no difference between the personal and the political. I know I find that I value my judgements and money as a political statement every time I do something, which is why I try and avoid coles and woolworths, and simple things like that. From my point of view, ginmar is a hugely political blog, however almost all her stories are her own stories about her own experiences.

From a male point of view, "political" tends to mean related to politicians. (In a rough kinda way. You know what I mean?)

As an interest thing, once Chesh had finished one of his alternative history books, he was ranting at me about it, and how interesting it had been, and how one little thing might have changed the way the world looked etc etc etc etc etc etc etc, and we were discussing which little thing would have caused what changes. After a while, instead of talking about countries moving and politicking in that sort of sphere, I asked what sort of insignificant things would have contributed to an alternative history resulting in a present day in which women were already treated the same as men in the career sphere, pay sphere, children and childcare was treated as a career option worthy of respect.. etc etc etc etc. I think it was difficult for Chesh to be able to see what I would call the instant and personal political in terms of the political political.

It's also just a part of the different ways Chesh/men think/have been brought up to think, in terms of "if Germany did this then France would respond thus" instead of "If Germany did this, then it affected life on the streets in this way, and this happened..."

Anyway....
;-)
*sidles away*

Re: Gender in Blogs

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

political vs personal

*nod* - I've certainly noticed that most of the female political blogs I've come across are very personal in nature.

re ginmar; ok, ok! I'll start reading her :) Or rather, I did earlier yesterday. Interesting reading. From what I've skimmed, I agree with much of what she says about rape and abortion, but could easily get into a debate about her sweeping generalisations about prostitution. I'll watch that space and do more research before I say much more though :) And yes, there's so much else there to see!

As for your alt history discussion - I've seen similar, and noticed some gender correlation with the whole political political/personal political focus, but I'm not sure how strong it is.

[meljane.livejournal.com]

That article just annoyed the hell the more pages I read of it .

From what I could read from it seemed pretty sexist and didn't seemed to have any creedence .

I think his article is pretty stupid .