I’ve been thinking about how I want to approach the third travelogue, and I know I want to explore gender and cyberspace, and test the myth (or is it?) that the internet is a male space. After reading Jenkins’ blog post for last week where he mentioned the participation gap, I began to question what parts of the internet I involve myself in and how I present myself.
In general, I’ve always had very masculine interests (i.e. I love horror films and Star Trek), and this translates into how I spend my time online. I watch 4chan and SomethingAwful forums (but don’t participate), I play World of Warcraft but don’t bother involving myself in guilds because I don’t want to deal with the whole gender issue (even thought female players aren’t as rare in WoW). I don’t feel uncomfortable being a female at a horror film convention, but I feel uncomfortable disclosing my gender in male-dominated parts of cyberspace. Somehow, dealing with “TITS OR GTFO!” is much less appealing than being one of a few females at an Evil Dead 2 Q&A panel.
So, I want to do something about it. Either posting on 4chan and seeing what happens, or actually talking to other players in WoW (I’d probably do this as a male character, since I almost always play female ones, this is interesting). In both instances I wont make my gender known outright, but wouldn’t make efforts to conceal it.
I’m not really sure if either of these are good ideas, or if anyone will really care that I’m a female in a male space online.
Thoughts/ideas?
Possibly Relevant Posts:
- I Officially Hate the Internet (9) | Elisa Verna
- Language and Gender in Cyberspace: Is the Body Necessary in Identifying Gender Online? (2) | Elisa Verna
- Wait, Did 4chan Just Enlighten Me? I Feel Dirty. (13) | Elisa Verna
11 Comments
I think the premise might be interesting but I am not sure about the research methodology. What is the question you are coming with to these environments? Are you trying to prove 4Chan will indeed attack out with misogynist slurs? The internets IS obviously used by women, but like many sites and online communities geared towards women, others are geared towards men, and both have their minority of opposite gender users.
I think you can do a better job of defining what are you trying to find out.
I’m not really sure what I want to do with this, or if I even really want to do it.
What I think is different about sites like Dont Date Him Girl and spaces like WoW and 4chan is that DDHG is a site specifically created for women. There are lots of sites like that (i.e. exboyfriendjewelry.com). What man would find it useful? The only thing I might be able to see is a man using the site to defend his reputation. WoW and 4chan are technically “gender neutral,” they weren’t created around a subject that is only of interest to men. 4chan technically discusses topics that could be of interest to any gender (gardening, anime, etc.) Women are free to participate, but might feel awkward or unwelcome.
I cannot think of an aspect of cyberspace that was initially intended to be for both genders, but became more popular among women and dissuades men from participating (if anyone can think of any, let me know)!
This is interesting, because I was thinking about just the other day about how one of the message boards I frequent is overwhelmingly women and gay men. Seriously, I can name the straight men on the board; there are three. And it’s a basic pop culture board, so it’s not particularly gender aligned. (I’m not going to post the address here, because then the internet at large might figure out my internet handle. Elisa, if you want to know the address, I’ll e-mail it, and some similar boards, to you.)
Sara I’m very interested!! E-mail (elisaverna@gmail) or Fb message me.
Wow, I really hope you pursue this direction. Although the Internet is clearly not a male only club, the photo you use with this post is so representative. Sometimes, it feels like we, as women, are busting into the fort, no? What about the idea (and you were starting to go here) of going into a space (and I’m not sure which one would be best) and being extremely vague about your gender, even if asked. Have you ever read Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson (sic)? It is a stunning book wherein you could read the main character as either gender, and she never explicitly confirms it.
This travelogue could be a Written on the Body-type experience in our networked world. Very intriguing.
Gordita, I really like that idea. Second Life would probably be the best tool for it because you can customize your character the most (in WoW, you can only choose gender, race, and make minor physical changes like hair, etc., you can also change clothing but gender is always pretty obvious). I’ve used Second Life a few times (I can’t really get into it), and have always wondered if other users approached me if I intentionally made my character “ugly” or gender ambiguous. I’ll see if I can think up something.
This seems like a dope idea. The whole interesting thing about the Internet also is that i assume that some “male dominated” spaces may not be so male dominated after all, cuz who knows who is behind the screen of some username…i also think you sould post on 4Chan and see what happens, after all this talk we’ve had about it it’d be very exciting to have them take an interest in what you are writing. Hopefull the site doesn’t get hacked…;)
I have always been interested in this idea, especially in relation to identity formation online and Silveria’s (1980) idea called the person = male theory. Basically when people use gender unspecific language, the message they send out is generally perceived as referring to males. When no clues are given about a person’s sex, he or she is automatically considered male. i.e. how you represent yourself online. I would be interested to see if you could create a few personnas in second life or post on boards and compare how you present yourself and the assumptions people make. I think being in one of the boards that Sara mentioned or going into 4chan, though, may be a nonverbal cue as to what your gender will probably be.
Very interesting idea, but to what end? What is the main purpose of your… experiment?
The male domination of the internet drives me crazy! I am bombarded with ads for “girls in my area” whenever I’m on any website. There are tits on display on the sidebar all the time. To be honest, it makes me feel that all men are arseholes.
Ah… I see now. I’m interested as to how you intend to prove your point, though I think Nurn drives the point home quite well. I find simple conversation with female classmates can easily be achieved without making unsavory concepts. In fact I find the media’s view of starting a conversation rather convoluted. It’s really not that hard. But you are correct, the gender-neutral internet rule does portend many issues about one’s individuality. In essence, I suppose one must give up individuality in order to be anonymous. Also, I too am bombarded by the “local girls” ads. many of them on closer inspection are not local.