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Tuesday, 24 January 2012

On gender and social media

Ever stopped to take a minute to ponder about how gender is both structured and structuring? As I stumbled upon a Wiki article on the topic, the subject grew on me and I wanted to understand more.  I find it particularly interesting to note how societal assumptions stay true in one context, yet begin to dissolve in another.

Let me explain:

Food blogs are a perfect example. The way food blogs are produced has a lot to do with the concept of gendered food production. Traditionally, women are associated with home cooking while mostly men populate professional kitchens (well, at least the ones that I’ve been in).

Dedicating effort into a blog in the form of photography and writing encompasses a different meaning than preparing food for oneself, friends or family in relation to gender. Gender becomes less prevalent in the food production process because food is brought out of the private sphere, the feminine space of the kitchen, into the online public sphere.

Here, you can begin to see how blogging through social media is debunking the social construction of gendered food production.

I was thrilled to see this short TED talk from media expert and researcher, Johanna Blakely, on social media and the end of gender stereotypes. While I agree with her view on “shared interest and values are a far more powerful aggregator of human beings than demographic categories,” I find it difficult to believe that social media will eradicate the significance of gender in online spaces. Even if it did, do you think this would change gender-based stereotypes that often connect women in online spheres? I don’t. This should make us wonder about how we classify people. By understanding this, we can move forward to strive towards a gender-neutral community offline.

When media and journalists stop using old demographics and start looking at the trends online as a whole, what effect do you think this will have if the majority of the users that are being studied are women? Will brands, T.V. shows and movies be more targeted towards the interest of the female population? What type of impact do you think this will have on “old media” and our society in general?
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7 comments:

  1. Boyd29 January 2012 at 11:57

    Interesting post . . . Thanks for the link to the TED talk.

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  2. Phil Fine29 January 2012 at 13:12

    Hi, Kim:

    I'm not quite sure why you're pleased that social media are debunking the construction of gendered food production! Is it really important to change society so that more women, and fewer men, are associated with food preparation in restaurants? And, if so, why? What's really wrong with the way things now exist?

    Susan Pinker, a Montreal psychologist, implies that more men than women are professional chefs because men are emotionally -- genetically? -- better suited to the combative, competitive nature of restaurant kitchens. If that is indeed, true, why would society necessarily want to change things?

    Phil Fine

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    Replies
    1. Kim Wolfshout31 January 2012 at 09:16

      Phil,
      Thanks for your comments. I’m not saying that it’s important to change society to incorporate more women into professional kitchens. Rather, this post was meant to highlight the fact that social media is becoming more active in dismantling the media’s role of dictating gender stereotypes (as outlined in the video above).

      I’d be interested in reading Susan Pinker’s views, if you could kindly post the link. However, I very much disagree with the fact that men are “emotionally – genetically?” suited to these environments and I believe that such ideas are rooted solely in the social construction of gender and nothing else.

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  3. SAFoster30 January 2012 at 16:21

    Absolutely fascinating post! I have saved this as a document for future reference when I am working on social media campaigns in the near future.

    The one statistic that surprised me a little - I though males would have had a higher YouTube percentage.

    Food for thought.

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  4. Anonymous3 February 2012 at 11:48

    Thanks for sharing this post with us! I really enjoyed reading about your insights. I think this is a new insightful approach into how gender preferences are shaping online spaces. I noticed a similar post in another classmates blog post about Pinterest, and its prevalence among the female demographic. In terms of food photography, and blogging, I had not considered the typical gender roles associated with traditional media. I'm going to keep this post in my back pocket, as I'm interested in learning more about the subject, and can definitely apply to my user experience personas that I sometimes create when designing audience profiles for some of my work.

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  5. Kim Wolfshout3 February 2012 at 13:01

    thanks! check this out: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-has-blogging-changed-the-voice-of-women/

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  6. Galia3 February 2012 at 17:28

    Thanks for posting the TED talk. Although I didn't fully get her argument about the end of gender, I found another point that was worth taking away: demographics are outdated. I agree with her that there is an upside to having our taste monitored because now "our taste is being respected in a way that it hasen't been before. It had been presumed before." Yes, this might be a bit creepy, but think of the potential.

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