March 12, 2008
Dear Clusterflock
Why do you think there are three times as many males as females in the flock?
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36 Responses to “Dear Clusterflock”
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Why do you think there are three times as many males as females in the flock?
36 Responses to “Dear Clusterflock”
Leave a Reply
Someone should hand us a chunk of money so we could do a study.
But seriously . . . that is something I’ve noted, too. Don’t especially feel one way or another about it, but it’s definitely there. I wasn’t in at the inception (maybe six months after, though), and I wonder what the mix was like then. I’m assuming it reflected a range of people whom Deron knew and who were rarin’ to mouth off in public. Then it expanded to embrace like-minded people whom those people knew, then snagged various passers-by . . . maybe someone should draw a chart. Something like Pete Frame’s family trees of rock musicians.
As I said, the clusterboy-clustergirl ratio isn’t something about which I have especially strong feelings, but it is interesting to consider how people come to join this crew. My connection is through Cooper Renner (boy), as (I believe) is that of Alek Lindus (girl). I think that I’m the link between India Amos (girl) and clusterflock — and I discovered India via a Coudal link, if I’m not mistaken, and struck up an acquaintance by posting comments on her blog. I do have a female friend (whom I quote every now and again in my own cluster-posts) whom I’d like to lure into the flock.
In summary: Cindy, I don’t know.
Neither do I; I was wondering what others thought. It occurs to me that most of the females in the group possess a certain crustiness that seems to lend itself well to all of this boy stuff. And, of course, most of what we do here has nothing to do with gender, anyway. I just find the mix curious. I’ve only noticed it lately, and I’m not sure why that is.
Of course, Sheila, you and I say so much that we probably count for 10 girls each.
We’re tomboys. We’re bossy.
Yeah, I wonder if the girl/boy post or comment ratio is any different. Because, like, I’m a flocker, but a computerless one the last year or so, so I post maybe once a week.
By my unofficial / quick count we have 8 regular female posters to 17 regular male posters. I’m all for a stronger female presence on the site and am open to any suggestions.
oh, while we’re on the subject, if there are any female readers of the site who would be interested in blogging here, let us know.
I don’t know if I’m addressed by this question, but I’ve always thought (this could be considered sexist) that men were much more aggressive in creating and fostering an online presence for themselves. Perhaps this is because they’re more likely to sit in front of computers, or because they’re less skilled at interactions in real life.
I don’t know of other possibilities. Well, random chance isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility. Or that males are more likely to join a male-dominated group.
Wait – I know this one..The surgeon was his mom!
What?
David’s observations are of the sort I was hoping to elicit. I guess a more direct question might be whether clusterflock comes across as more male than female somehow.
Shit, I don’t really even care about any of this. Let’s go bowling.
David, that’s an interesting notion, although I’ve also paid special attention to the places that have noted women’s special comfort on the internet- there’s that study that says women buy more music online, which is credited to the lack of the male-dominated music store scene in one’s own living room.
I have never thought of clusterflock as “male-dominated.” As Sheila and Cindy note, they count for like 10 girls each with their posts and comments. I’ve always thought of clusterflock as more girl heavy than most group blogs. Isn’t boing-boing 1 girl to 5 boys? We’re beating that while not really at the equal scale spot… although- I always second the motion to invite more girls to the table!
I think men are more aggressive in creating and fostering a presence for themselves in everything, not just web stuff. And there are usually more men in technology type careers and hobbies, so this male/female ratio we have here isn’t too unusual.
I only got in because I’m sucking Deron’s cock.
I thought Deron expected that of all of us! (And so another thoughtful clusterflock exchange begins its inexorable slide into a series of smutty wisecracks. Maybe)
I have an aggressive knack for creating and fostering a series of smutty wisecracks.
I only expect it of myself.
You will never hear Andrew complain about having more women around. Never. Ever.
For the record.
I want to believe Amy is saying “oral sex” in the metaphorical sense, but I don’t think she is.
I believe I have my answer.
getting turned on…
this reminds me of the t-shirt: it’s not going to suck itself.
oh, Cindy. we just got this at the clusterflock email. this may be a small step toward a solution.
“I am spanish and i am interesting to work in your agenti escort my picture can be founded in this weebsite erotic place.CAN be founded using the USERname CATALINA OR SPANISH VERY SEXI!I APRECIATE AND IM WAITING ANSWER!”
“Smutty Wisecracks.” I haven’t heard those two words together since the argument with my grandmother that changed our relationship forever.
I’m sorry grandma but you were wrong – may you rest in peace. Lawrence Welk was NOT supposed to be that color and he DID sound EXACTLY as if he was talking with a pee-pee in his mouth.
Well. That was cathartic. Has anyone seen my hairsuit?
if i could think of a suitable ’smutty wisecrack’ i’d add one just to make my feemal presence felt, do like that aggressive knack of Amy’s though… any t-shirts available?
Oh yes, Deron, we must invite Spanish Very Sex to join us on our weebsite. I couldn’t put my finger on it before, but that’s exactly what we’re missing–a Spanish whore.
Thank you for helping me work through this,y’all. We’re on the road to recovery.
Where the hell was I when y’all were having this conversation? Never saw a single pixel of it until now. This is why we need to categorize all those old posts, goddamnit!
My impression is that several people who’ve joined since I did got themselves inducted by asking, “Hey, how can I join this thing?” And all of those people are men (well, at least they say they are; but on the Internet yadda yadda). Have any women asked to join, or did we all get invited in?
When I try to think of female friends I could invite who might enjoy flocking as much as I do . . . well . . . there aren’t many. Most of my friends are either not as Internet-addicted, not as idle, or not as vulgar and juvenile. And those who are the exceptions already have their own on- and offline empires to tend.
I believe you are correct, India, that everyone that has asked to join so far has been a man. I also went back and looked and a lot of the women I invited blogged for a little while and split.
really there are only two criteria for blogging on clusterflock: that someone wants to and that Cindy likes them.
That’s the way it should be.
it’s a pretty good system.
Well, and that “that someone wants to” raises another question: does the gender imbalance among our writers correspond with a gender imbalance among our readers? Are women not asking to join because relatively few women read Clusterflock? We’d have to do a survey to find out.
I’d be curious to know. And I’d also be curious to know our male / female readership in relation to the internet in general.
Come to think of it, the only thread on which I’ve noticed a significant number of extraflockal female commenters is Your Drag Queen Name?
India, do you, or other flockers with their own sites, know the demographics for your site(s)?
Only via comments and private communications. Based on that, I’d say it’s either evenly split or tilted towards the girl side. Because, y’know, I’m girly. And because 99.9 percent of the sub-executive-level cogs in the wheel of the publishing industry these days seem to be female.
I’d love to find out what the demographics are here. I wonder if there is a way to do that.
Reader survey. With prizes for randomly chosen respondents.
I blogged a site that lets you set up forms. Hmmm. that’s a good idea.