For my presentation this week, I have decided to focus on the reading "Posting with passion: Blogs and the politics of gender". Just an overview of this article:
This article focuses on the notion, obviously, blogs and the politics of genders. It explores the argument that women's blogs are less noteworthy compared to men's blogs. It argues that most women's blogs often use domestic and personal sphere of reference. They normally revolve around their personal issues and their lives experience. It is more self-edifying. On the other hand, man's blogs are often more engaged in political debates. This is actually very evident in the two blog links that I provided in my previous post.
Mr Brown's blog talks about many issues the Singapore government face and discusses them in greater details. XueXia's blog is solely for entertainment purposes, where she talks about her daily life, the people she meets and what she's been up to. XueXia also extensively posts pictures of herself on her blog.
Thus, here's just some question I would like to post:
1. Exactly, what is the relationship between blogging and women? Can blogging actually be gender-free?
2. Also, the article argues that technology used mostly by women tend to have their values within society lessens (ie. the iron, sewing machine V computers), do you agree with this statement?
2. I also want to explore the transition between audience to public mentioned in the first article. (Focusing particularly on Mr Brown and XiaXue's blog)
I hope this gets you guys thinking about the article in more detail. Thanks! (:
Hi Wanjun!
ReplyDeleteI had a look at the two blogs you posted, and there really is such a striking difference between them. I think Mr Brown's can be classified as a filter blog, while XiaXue's is more of a personal one.
In reply to your questions, I think our gender definitely has some kind of impact (whether conscious or subconscious) on our experiences as well as our views, and that this would probably be apparent in our blogging. In that sense, blogging can't really be "gender-free."
However, this doesn't mean that gender is by any means the only factor that influences our blogging, and I'd like to resist any assertion that filter blogs are necessarily the domain of masculinity and that personal blogs are feminine. While it is true that the blogs that deal with "public" issues are more likely to gain a wider readership, I think this is more due to the fact that people read what they can relate to, and they are simply less likely to relate to the content of a blog that contains specific, individual experiences.
In the reading and in the tute, an important point that was raised was that there is the preference for filter blogs over personal blogs. I think it is possible to read into individual stories to find that private experiences are just as significant as events that occur on a national or even global scale, but it would have to depend on how well the blogger presents his or her everyday experiences.
I thought your presentation was well done and that your questions generated interesting discussion. :)