technoculture314-09

I have been looking and comparing two fashion blog websites; one is written and looked after by a male (‘Isaac Likes’) and the other a female (Fashion Toast). I would like to discuss these two sites in regards to gender performance, and link it to Sarah Pederson and Caroline Macafee’s article: ‘Gender differences in British Blogging’. Their studies (Pederson and Macafee, 2007) have shown that the blogs by male users receive a much higher profile in the media and in other blog links. Pederson and Macafee (2007) also found that the differences between the sexes were found largely in three areas: “In their responses to the survey, women tended to describe themselves as more interested in the social aspects of blogging, while men tended to be more interested in information and opinion. Men demonstrated more technical sophistication. Privacy was a major issue for women (and also for gay bloggers of both sexes) (Pederson and Macafee, 2007).”

“Men are more avid consumers than women of online information while women are more enthusiastic online communicators” (Pederson and Macafee, 2007). The online blog site- ‘Isaac Likes’ has seen to receive much higher profile in the media, and in an article in the recent Pulp magazine; they have even deemed the author as being a New Zealand celebrity. This is because ‘Isaac Likes’ offers readers with much more information in the form of interviews with people within the industry, whereas ‘Fashion Toast’ takes on a diary style, the female writer writes in first person and presents photos of herself in almost all of the blog posts. It can also be seen that the author in ‘Fashion Toast’ also tries to present to the reader an image of being a socialite, there are many photos of herself and industry people. “Isaac Likes” provide readers with fashion news, interviews, scandal and celebrity encounters, this shows the male tendency to blog about information and opinions. By putting these two blogs side by side it is obvious that there is a gender difference, the page layout of ‘Isaac Likes’ is seen to be more sophisticated and well thought, whereas ‘Fashion Toast’ uses a simply layout that resembles a diary structure. It is also apparent that ‘Isaac Likes’ welcomes public opinions and comments on his blogs, and frequently replies to opinions that are posted. From these two blogs it is obvious that there is a gender difference in the way that the two sexes perform while blogging.