Gender Trouble in Web 2.0. Gender Perspectives on Social Network Sites, Wikis and Weblogs
Keywords:
internet, web 2.0, gender, queer, social network site, wiki, weblog, MySpace, WikipediaAbstract
This paper explores gender relations on social network sites, wikis and weblogs: the gendered design and use, presentations of gendered identities, possibilities for feminist, queer and gender politics, and the negotiations of gender topics in web 2.0. It provides a review of early feminist discourses regarding the internet and some theoretical considerations on web 2.0 and feminism. It goes on to discuss initial empirical results obtained from other studies about gender relevance in web 2.0 as well as my own findings based on considerations of online documentation and press reports about two gender relevant incidents in web 2.0. This overview shows that while an insistence on binary gender roles can be observed in the design and use of social network sites, weblogs offer space for diverse identity constructions as well as for queer subject construction and politics without referring to offline identities. Finally, wikis as well as social network sites appear to provide a platform for tough struggles about gender issues
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
