Anonymity, Accountability and Identity
From:
Alan Smart
Date:
2007 Jun 18 11:17 UTC
Short link
Women and the internet is I think a different issue but a huge one, Go for
example to Scotsman.com blog/forums ( incredibly popular, thousands of posts a
day, worth a look , much more participatory than the Times /Guardian etc and in
a country a 10th the size). But you would be excused from thinking 90% of this
country is male. Simarly I can tell you that 80% plus of the members of
YouScotland.com , fourum I moderate are male, despite great efforts on our
part to counter this.
In short, in terms of political/current affairs e-discourse there is a huge
gender imbalance, and this is not a phenenemum exclusive to Scotland, though we
may be a little worse than most.
Why is this case? Not at all sure, as most of the "bariers to participation" of
the non virtual world seem to be lacking, indeed the web appears to be in
theory a geneder neutral medium for participation - your time, your space etc.
But in reality it aint, not by a long way as far as I can see.
One reason, though only one - and I see it regualarly on the Scotsman forum (
I flag it up to moderators) - is that when women post they are near
immediately "chatted up" and subject to, not necessarily crude, but pretty
obvious sexual innuendo. Don't belive me? - just try posting. Another is that
women politicians in the news and the subject of political controversy - in
Scotland, Kirsty Wark, Wendy Alexander and our new Deputy First Minster Nicola
Sturgeon come to mind - are near always subjected to a level of personal abuse
about their appearance, being called "stupid bitches" ( or worse) which a man,
no matter how controversial would not have to put up with.
I know more than a few female e-actvist who, aware of this, post using either
geneder neutral or even implicity male name. A huge issue for another strand I
think. But a reason, and very real one, why women will be more reluctant than
men to give real names. And as there already is a problem with female
e-participation levels, why make it worse by insisting on actual idendtities
online?
And just where are the female political bloggers?
Has there been any resarch done on any of this, is there any ongoing? If not,
maybe there should be.