gender and blogs

Hello there Susan Getgood! I am one of the many Auburn students that are reading your blog and apparently, I am the first to comment.
After reading what you had to say about gender and blogs, I read Neville Hobson’s blog. I agree with both of you. When I am looking at blogs, I rarely pay attention to the author, it’s the subject that will get my attention. To be perfectly honest, I probably couldn’t tell you if I’ve read more blogs written by males or females, it’s just something that doesn’t strike me as important. I don’t judge a blog by the gender of the author, but by the content.
I hope that this is the kind of feedback that you were looking for from us “young folks.”

Hi Ms. Getgood. My name is Mary Kneeland and I am another one of the Auburn students reading up on blogs this semester. In the brief time I have taken to look over the site, I have become excited at the opportunity to gain a little insight to everyone.

As far as gender in blogging, I tend to agree with Danielle in that I read a blog based on the title. If it is a topic I am interested in or want to further research, I am likely to read the blog regardless of the gender. I do think you have a good point about the accessibility of women’s blogs when accessing them through a search engine. I tried to do a search of them also and found very few women’s blogs on the first few pages of search results. The conclusion I have made for myself is that I look at a blog based on titles, but the majority of blogs that I find are blogs by men.

Hello Ms.Getgood,
I am Rachel another Auburn student who will be commenting on blogs this semester. I have never blogged before so this very new and exciting for me.

After learning that I would be blogging this semester I decided to go and check some blogs out. I found myself reading blogs whose subjects caught my attention. It was after I opened the blog that I noticed the author’s gender. I also agree with you that blogs from women should be more accessible than they are now. It is sad to say that we are still living in a man’s world and we need some extra help promoting our ideas. In conclusion I believe that content is all that matters when blogging, not gender.

Hello Ms. Getgood,
I am Courtnay, another Auburn student. I have never blogged myslef up until this point, but I am very excited to enter this new world.

After reading about gender in blogging I have to agree with the above postings, it is the content of the blog that should be of concern to a reader not whether they are male or female. When I read something on the internet it is not because of their gender but because they have written something of interest to me and I would like further information on the topic. However, I find it interesting that more women have not come on board to express thier ideas and opinions through blogging. I then have to wonder have times really changed for women?

Hey Ms. Getgood! My name is Rachel, and I am also an Auburn University student. I am a PR major, and this will be my second semester to be participating in blogging. I must say that blogging is definitely a quick and efficient way to make contacts with people in the field of PR.
When I first started blogging last spring, I read a lot of different blogs and made my best effort to draw some conclusions and analyses from these various blogs. I must say that gender definitely did not affect my attitude toward the content or opinion of the blog. Last spring semester I remember reading some female blogs, but I will say that I think I read more male blogs. One name that especially stands out to me from last year is Jeremy Pepper. I even voted online last spring for the blogging awards. It seems like more men were up for awards than women, but in no way, would gender affect my interest in a blog. I am solely interested in the subject of the blog.

Hi Ms. Getgood. I’m Christi, a newcomer to the blogoshpere and (you guessed it) another Auburn student. I started with Neville Hobson’s post and then moved on to yours and, I have to admit, despite your very convincing counterpoints, I was still initially inclined to side with Mr. Hobson. When searching for a blog, I want to read the posts most relevant to my subject. Within it, I want to find intelligent comments, valid sources for information, and an entertaining writing style. Be it a novel, textbook, editorial or even blog, I am far more interested in the comment than the commentator.

BUT, while I read blogs based solely on content, and (I think) others from the “younger set� tend to be similarly gender blind, we can’t blame BlogHer for tying. In fact, (I can’t believe I’m the first one to point this out, but) we should applaud them from a PR/marketing standpoint. Like the whole “girl power� cheer or not, there is a lot of buzz about “bloghers.� Ms. Getgood summed up the genius behind BlogHer when she called it a “hot potato.� People love to rant (and write) and unite about the battle of the sexes and equality, so much so, that even opponents of the networking site have visited it and included links to it in their own blogs. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have ever visited BlogHer were it not for this comment. But I just had to see what all of the fuss was about. I wonder how many others were drawn there for the very same reason? How many men? Agree or disagree, it’s hard to deny the attention BlogHer has brought to women on the web—attention that would not have been there otherwise.

Hey Ms. Getgood,

My name is Rachel and I am also a student at Auburn University. I am a PR major, and will be officially graduated in May 2007! This is my first semester blogging, and I must say that it can be quite intimidating. But here goes my first shot at it…

I agree with most of the above postings, gender does not have any influence on whether or not I would read a blog. It should be about the content of what the author is trying to convey, not the gender of the person behind the computer screen. Being as it is my first time blogging, I normally do not even look at the names when I am reading the blog postings, instead I read the title and decide from there whether or not the posting would interest me or not.

Hi Ms. Getgood. I am yet another student at Auburn and apparently the only male to blog on this topic thus far and this is the first blog I have EVER posted. On to the subject at hand.

Of course a professional would not admit to blatant sexism on the internet. What professional would? It conveys ignorance. Although I have read about 20 blogs in my lifetime (all of which were read this weekend) I did not find myself even browsing over the names of the authors. I could have been reading a blog written by Abe Vigoda for all I know. I have, however, read dozens of titles to blogs and skipped over quite a few. Not because the author was a woman or man, but because the blog titles did not interest me.

Hello Ms. Getgood! My name is Elizabeth Wood Rodgers and I am also an Auburn student! This will be my second year of blogging. It has been a while since I have blogged and it will be great for me to get back in the daily routine this semester.
I have always found blogs to be interesting and it was easy for me to get hooked. I have to agree with you in that I do not think gender matters at all when you blog. The title of a posting and the content has always hooked my eye and kept me reading. I usually do not care to know who wrote something until I get to the end. I think the quality of the writing, organization, creativity, and the ability to keep a reader reading is what is important. I am a person who finds many things interesting and I’m always willing and ready to read and hear what people have to say. I ‘m excited to participate with you and others this semester!

Hi Susan Getgood,
I am a junior at Auburn University majoring in PR and this will be my first blogging experience. I am still in the process of familiarizing myself with the world of blogging and I look forward to participating in the future.

Regarding the issue of gender and blogs, I noticed that while I searched through various blogs, I paid much more attention to the titles and content of a blog rather than concentrating on the gender of the author. For me, gender has no effect on whether or not I read a blog. I am looking for titles and content that fit into the criteria for which I am searching.

On the other hand, I do agree with your statement that gender does impact how likely it is that you will find a blog. Because I was paying attention to the issue of gender during my searching, I did notice that many of the blogs I came across were authored by men.

Hello Susan Getgood!
Looks like I’m one of the last of my classmates to post. Yes, I am an Auburn student as well and I’ve blogged before. I’ve also researched blogs for previous assignments, and when I read a blog I don’t look first to see who the blogger is. If the subject is interesting to me I read it, not if a woman or a man wrote it. The only reason I might look specifically for a man or a woman blogger would be if I were looking for a specific blogger, someone who I had heard a lot about and was interested in reading about.
I think that with this class that we are all taking, Stlye and Design, we will be able to explore much deeper the world of blogs. I’m looking forward to becoming a better and more informed blogger because I think blogging is an important thing to be aware of in our world.

Susan,

I am a student at Auburn University as well and have read your blog on “Gender and Blogs”as well as Neville’s and I have to agree with the both of you. I believe that it all comes down to whether you find the article interesting and does it present you with good ideas. I don’t think I have ever really looked at the author of a blog or any article before reading it to determine what gender they are. Maybee I will start to, but I still don’t think it will change the way I read a blog.

Susan,
I am also an Auburn Univerity Public Relations student, I was introduced to blogging last semester and have really enjoyed having my eyes opened to this new online craze, before last semester I didn’t even know what a blog was and before I knew it, I was writing in one weekly. I know that in my experieces I have definitely noticed more male blog authors. This peaks my interest because we hear so much how the field of Public Relations is mainly dominated by women, we even see this in our classes of 15-20 girls and 4 or 5 boys. But like you have said in your blog, when we search these common places we tend to find predominatly male authors. I think it could be that business men may be more confortable with changing technology, maybe more so than women. Luckily the times are a changing and we are all being taught these sorts of things in school- I know that when I am reading a blog I look for subject lines and content, but maybe we should all be a bit more careful and at least note the gender of the authors we are reading. Thanks so much for everything- I am really looking foward to working with you this semester.

More females blog than males? better yet, who cares? Let’s take Auburn University for example. Auburn has a strong social media discipline and Auburn students in the department of communication and journalism blog, it seems, all the time. Not only are they required to, but it makes for great networking. My example is that there are way more females in these communications majors than males. This tells us that more females do blog more than males. I could say that Auburn would be a great sample that can be related to the rest of the bloggers. More females do blog more than males. Males could care less.

Susan,
As you’ve said, I don’t think that the gender of the author of the blogs has to do with why women or men choose to read them. I think that we read certain blogs because certain things interest us. I don’t usually look at whether a man or woman wrote what I’m reading, but I look at the title and issue that is discussed.
This is where the gender difference comes in. It is not that women want to read other women’s’ blogs, or men want to read other men’s’ blogs. It is mostly that women and men have different interests. Since we have different interests we write differently than each other, and we read different blogs than each other. It doesn’t have to do with being sexist, but merely has to do with the way we are wired.
I don’t think this is true with every woman and every man. For instance, I am very interested in outdoor sports. I like hunting, fishing and camping. These things are viewed mostly as men’s’ interests, but women still do these things, too. The same is true for men with traditionally women’s’ interests.
Some of these thoughts are stereotypes, but gender differences and interests have a lot to do with science, too. I’m not saying women and men don’t share interests, but a woman may be more likely to read a blog about breast cancer or breaking the glass ceiling than a man would. Different issues interest us because we are put together differently.

Gender is an important factor that does actually affect many systems or actions; however it doesn’t seem to affect blogging at all. In blogging or commenting many times we do not even look to see if the author of the blog is male of female. This is an important question to raise though; gender does effect almost every aspect of our lives today without us realizing it. However, blogging in one area where it is possible for us to escape the impact and judgment of gender and are allowed to give a comment based on our knowledge and interest. Blogging is definitely an activity where either gender can participate and all are encouraged to participate. Also, with the many diverse and unique names that are out there today, sometimes it is hard to tell if the person is male of female just based on their name. Blogging does not judge on gender I feel and think that all are encouraged to do it. If it were not for the different genders’ insights, how would our world of blogging be diverse? It wouldn’t! The world of blogging should be stampeded by all and used to its’ full capacity. No male or female should be afraid of posting a blog based on their gender and I don’t feel that it is that way or ever will be that way at all. Thanks so much for the insight Susan!

I can honestly say that the sex of a blogger is of no importance to me and most of the time I don’t even register it unless his or her gender-specific name is written large. Where it does matter is in topics that have greater significance according to gender. For example, I am more interested in a woman’s perspective on breast cancer or a man’s perspective on baldness.

As for blogs of a more serious nature, such as politics, PR, economics or science, I think we have all evolved to know that men and women can be equally as knowledgeable and equally as daft.

Oops, I should have read before posting. I didn’t mean to infer that breast cancer is not a serious issue. Actually, a good friend of mine was recently diagnosed with breast cancer - at 36! - and the blogosphere has been a very useful resource for me to learn more about it.

Hello Ms. Getgood! My name is Hollon and I’m a pr student at Auburn. I was digging through the archives and your post caught my eye.

I’ve always been a girl who believes in equality and that woment should have every right and all the respect of men. It’s sad to think that we even have a divide in blogging.

It seems there will always be a glass ceiling of some sort, a barrier that will just never break!

I have been blogging for not much time, a few months, and I base what I read on the content. Sometimes I don’t even look to see if a man wrote it or a woman. My opinions come straight from the material. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I had no idea it was even thought of in the world of social media.

I am also a pr student who was just looking through the archives and this post caught my attention. I do not think gender is important when it comes to blogging. Blogging, for me, is expressing opinions and making comments on your particular field. There is no reason a man’s opinion should be ranked any higher than a woman’s.

There might be a glass ceiling in the business world, but in the world of blogging, gender seems to be a non-issue. I read blogs daily and I do not choose which blogs I read based on who wrote it. I read for content. That should really be all that matters.

Susan,

I thought that this post was interesting. This topic is something that I had never considered after beginning to blog. I don’t believe that the gender of the blogger matters. As a senior in public relations I believe that the men and women in my major will have the same opportunities once we enter the workforce because we have all had a chance to learn the basics of blogging in Robert’s class.

There are some instances that gender may matter. If a site has a particular audience or is based on a gender-based topic it may be important who is blogging. On some subjects, women/men may feel more comfortable reading posts made be their own gender. Some people may also find it easier to relate to his or her own gender on different topics.

Hello Susan,
After reading your post and the other bloggs, I honestly find that topic kind of silly. Just determining a difference in male or female writing through blog posts? Personally, I don’t even pay attention to the names or genders of the writer. If the topic line grabs my attention then I read the post.

Since gender effects so many other parts of the busniess world (that are typically a face-to-face situation) I feel that it should have no level of importance in the blogging world.

I hate to be the one to ruin this great run of “all equal, gender blindness,” but I like male authors more than female.
Sorry.
Maybe it is my habit of reading novels written by men. Don’t get me wrong, three cheers for women’s suffrage but I have always preferred series composed by misters. In terms of blogs, I think that the humor of the male authors are wittier and I find them less inclined to worry about the audience they may offend.
I’m not looking for a blog that I can relate to, I enjoy the ones that really stimulate my thinking.
Is this really an abnormal behavior or was everyone before me just being polite and p.c.? Please don’t tell me that Susan B. Anthony is turning in her grave right now.