Blogging and Gender

Hello everyone,

I thought Id share my rambling thoughts about the reading I presented on a few weeks ago on blogging and gender. The reading was written by Melissa Gregg and was called Posting with Passion: Blogs and the Politics of Gender.

A few ideas the Gregg throws around throughout the article are

• it is perceived that the most influential bloggers are men
• the female perspective is domestic and have a personal sphere of reference
• feminist bloggers take on the role of promoting and highlighting womens issues
• there are also specific 'web-rings' that are produced by and for women - "where men can link but not touch"
• women bloggers hold the suspicion that men are only interested when sexual fantasies and encounters are involved
• blogging for women helps break the isolation they feel from societal expectations
• the unequal distribution of labour between genders
• when a technology is used mostly by women its value in society tends to lessen
• "blogs are for boys, journals are for girls"
• the stereotype of blogs are online journals written by young women about their personal lives
• women on a whole are less interested in politics therefore less women create blogs
• time influences womens participation in political punditry blogs

One quote that I wanted to discuss in the tute...

"internet's Utopian possibilities put such emphasis on the liberating and playful opportunities it offers those looking to escape the confines of gender identity"

Other questions or ideas I put forward for discussion was the stereotype that 'blogging' is an outlet for men to express themselves in a way that wasn't a journal or diary which is seen as more feminine.

Also how the article mentions that women done have time to blog due to the time consuming nature of child-rearing and housework. My thoughts were that men are also at work all day also and therefore dont have copious amounts of time to blog either. Do you think this is a fair distribution of 'labour' or 'work'? Do men and women have the same amount of time to blog?

I also found that there was a feminist lean throughout the article and the author is a woman. I felt there was more of a discussion about women blogging which is compared to men but not much insight into male bloggers. Do you think this has anything to do with the female perspective of the article? Would you respond differently if the article was written by a male?

Another thing that was on my mind when reading the article was my perception that men are more IT/computer orientated and understand technology better. Does this influence blogging and who is more likely to blog?

These are all questions we touched on in the tutorial a few weeks ago. I think that there are an equal number of male and female bloggers but I also think it is the younger generation that are blogging, although it is definitely expanding as the social networking sites expand to all ages.
I posted a few weeks ago that only the men in my office seemed to blog. which was my general perception before starting this unit. Now actually exploring the blogging world online I've realised thats not the case. it is although quite interesting the read the content in both male and female blogs...

See you all on tuesday