Intro...

Hi everyone,

Apologies for the late introduction. My name is Kate and I'm an Arts (Communications) student in my final year. My major is political science, but I really enjoy english and the more artsy type units so decided to try this women's studies unit as an elective. I am always intruiged by technology and the constantly changing nature of the internet, and am so far finding this unit very interesting.

I have never blogged before but have often thought about it - I don't know what my hesitation in starting my own blog is, but this may be a step in the right direction. I do like to read blogs, generally in the areas of fashion/arts/culture but I'm starting to explore the web and read different blogs on all topics. My favourite blogs include: Girl With a Satchel, a daily pop culture blog featuring reviews of the latest 'glossy' magazines; Go Fug Yourself, a comedy blog designed for critiquing and ridiculing the fashion disasters of celebrities; and The Sartorialist, a pictorial blog that is updated with photographs of notably stylish people from around the world.

I wanted to mention The Sartorialist specifically as it is quite relevant to last weeks topic of gender in blogging. It is a fashion blog written by Scott Schuman, a straight man, who has worked in the fashion industry for a number of years. He travels around the world, most often to fashion capitals like New York, Paris and Milan and photographs people he finds to have exceptional taste. The blog occasionally features words about the subject of a photograph, but is generally just a collection of pictures, from which the reader can create their own analysis. Fashion is a field most often associated with women or gay men, so it is interesting to see that such an influential commentary on the industry is produced by a straight man. Any steps toward transforming this stereotype can only help to break down the gender barriers in blogging. Also, he recently photographed and wrote on a man in a knit cardigan, so I guess this answers the question from last weeks reading "where are all the male knitting bloggers?".

See you all in the tute!

Kate