Gender in the digital age
Friday, September 18, 2009 by Zhou Jiang
by Zhou Jiang
I think that the technology itself is fairly gender neutral, but that the format of websites encourages the performance of gender along prescribed lines. For example, the Facebook site has a very rigid format. The first statements anyone is supposed to make about themselves are about gender and sexuality. One first describes oneself as either 'male' or 'female'. Then one has the option of stating that they are 'interested in' 'men', 'women' or 'both'. That might be logical for a dating website, but it is not at all inevitable that a social networking site should place such questions at the forefront.
Nonetheless, new users are encouraged into performing themselves along particular lines not only by the web format but also by existing users. New users look to existing homepages upon which to model their own. Existing users send new users messages which set the tone for the topics of communication and the sorts of humor that one should use. Different people also use the sites differently. Men's self-portrait photos tend to be more casual or deliberately comic. Women tend to show photos of themselves dressed up.
Something which I do not think is at all new is Proitz's observation that men 'feminize' their language in romance situations. I think that has been that case for a long time: men used to write salutary poems to women even while the language used with friends was more functional.
I think that web media allows for both the challenging of traditional gender roles and for reinforcing them. Some online interaction is decidedly non-visual, or if such interaction does involve pictures that are not of people. For example, electronic repair hobbyists can share ides on the net in words, with occasional addition of photos of electronic circuits. In this context, net identities are known for their knowledge and not for their gender. Indeed the gender of the contributor is often unknown. Other sites reinforced traditional gender roles, especially pornography or news sites about female stars or models.
References:
Proitz, L. (2005). Cute Boys or Game Boys? The Embodiment of Feminity and Masculinity in Young Norwegians Text Message Love Projects. Fibreculture. Retrieved from http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/issue6_proitz.html
I think that the technology itself is fairly gender neutral, but that the format of websites encourages the performance of gender along prescribed lines. For example, the Facebook site has a very rigid format. The first statements anyone is supposed to make about themselves are about gender and sexuality. One first describes oneself as either 'male' or 'female'. Then one has the option of stating that they are 'interested in' 'men', 'women' or 'both'. That might be logical for a dating website, but it is not at all inevitable that a social networking site should place such questions at the forefront.
Nonetheless, new users are encouraged into performing themselves along particular lines not only by the web format but also by existing users. New users look to existing homepages upon which to model their own. Existing users send new users messages which set the tone for the topics of communication and the sorts of humor that one should use. Different people also use the sites differently. Men's self-portrait photos tend to be more casual or deliberately comic. Women tend to show photos of themselves dressed up.
Something which I do not think is at all new is Proitz's observation that men 'feminize' their language in romance situations. I think that has been that case for a long time: men used to write salutary poems to women even while the language used with friends was more functional.
I think that web media allows for both the challenging of traditional gender roles and for reinforcing them. Some online interaction is decidedly non-visual, or if such interaction does involve pictures that are not of people. For example, electronic repair hobbyists can share ides on the net in words, with occasional addition of photos of electronic circuits. In this context, net identities are known for their knowledge and not for their gender. Indeed the gender of the contributor is often unknown. Other sites reinforced traditional gender roles, especially pornography or news sites about female stars or models.
References:
Proitz, L. (2005). Cute Boys or Game Boys? The Embodiment of Feminity and Masculinity in Young Norwegians Text Message Love Projects. Fibreculture. Retrieved from http://journal.fibreculture.org/issue6/issue6_proitz.html