http://itsdifferent4girls.com/blog/2008/04/08/the-thrill-of-competition-and-trying-harder/

When we talk about differences on-line, it would be interesting to see the percentage of flamers in comments. Some of the most brutal comment threads I have seen are on tech blogs which tend to be male dominated. But I have certainly seen some absurdly obnoxious comments by women on social topic sites as well.

I think establishing relationships and communicating has long been considered a feminine quality (rightly or wrongly), but we men will attempt to exploit things in the name of money and competition which leads us to participate in things we normally wouldn’t such as social media. Once we’re involved though, we find we truly enjoy the activity so we stick to it.

There is also an undercurrent of competitiveness to social media that attracts us men–number of hits or visits, followers, friends, rankings, etc. so that will keep the man’s man involved. Women would socialize without any competitiveness involved so it makes sense that they’d enjoy social media.

Bottom line: we’re seeing a shift in attitudes by both genders to where we both take on non-traditional roles, and both of these posts underscore that.

http://thegirlriot.blogspot.com/2008/04/blogging-as-sacred-feminine.html

It is a thoughtful retort for the notion and well done. Thank you Riot (or whatever your name is) for the continuation.

Todd — Yes, you’re a girly man. And you have a very good point that putting yourself (or your ideas) out there for all to feast upon, even critically, plays a role. Natalie illustrates it well with her agreement.

David and Andrea — There’s certainly something to be said for the quality vs. quantity. Blogging is a lot about how big/influential you are, how many subscribers you have, etc. Women often times want one person to respond and that’s sufficient. They want to be heard and acknowledged whereas men tend to want to be heard by everyone and acknowledged as important. (Stereotyping, certainly, but you get the point.)

Geoff and Suki — I think Suki answered the question of a glass ceiling well. It’s not that one exists in blogging, it’s that the bloggers are mostly from male-dominated fields. Is that because the business, finance and tech worlds have a glass ceiling? I’m not versed enough to know, but that could have an effect.

Because of the sheer number of fantastic females out there blogging already, I don’t think there’s a ceiling here. Keep in mind that blog success has a lot to do with traffic, subscribers, visits, etc. And when it’s numbers, not politics or prejudices, that determine outcomes … women are going to win every time.

In response to Todd’s comment, I agree that blogging does require a certain ability to put yourself out there and bounce back from negative feedback. I know many women who will not share their thoughts and ideas with people unless they’re in their trust circle-even if this means that they have to ask me to ask where the bathroom is instead of asking themselves.

I also think that blogging has a technological barrier to break and that some women may see it as too complicated to spend the time on. Of course, this varies greatly depending on the amount of exposure and interest in the subject.

Thanks for bringing up a topic that can be confrontational and handling it in a very balanced manner.

So - no one can assume that women just want to connect via social media, because not all women do. This is where gender stereotypes get so tricky, and men and women both stereotype the opposite gender at times, I know. We can never say ‘all women do this’ or ‘all men are like this’.

That’d be too easy and give all of us - men and women alike - much less to blog about. ha!

In regards to the top blogs being written by men I think maybe one should observe the topics (technology and finance unfortunately generally male dominated fields) of those blogs also and titles. Techmeme, Technorati these are names in my opinion a woman would not choose. Just some thoughts that popped into my head.

I’d be happy to hear your thoughts on the “virtual glass ceiling” also.

“I’m content with the friends I have and not looking to manage any more relationships. Quality is my game, not quantity. Plus there’s just too many freaks out there where masculine can be translated to testosterone.”

Great post!