Comments on: ROFLCon, Women, and Digital Natives

By: kurquoise

kurquoise — Tue, 06 May 2008 16:13:58 +0000

To respond to the first post by Anonymous – believe it or not, white males actually make up the minority of the ROFLCon team!

Adam, you’re entirely correct in saying that the people I named are closer to Internet personalities rather than meme-creators. And I also agree with you that everyone at ROFLCon felt like they belonged (though maybe some panelists were closer to Internet personalities than one-time meme makers.) I think all Internet fame needs the viral component, but there is a difference between those who want to attract an audience and those who stumble upon fame entirely accidentally.

Eszter, we’d love to hear about your research and whatever insights you have on this gender imparity! I wonder how much of it is a reflection of the Internet and how much it is a function of gender differences that already exist in our analog lives.

By: Eszter Hargittai

Eszter Hargittai — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:55:26 +0000

Research I have done with Gina Walejko shows that women are much less likely to post content online than men, which could itself account for differences in resulting fame. Why we see this trend is a different question to which, as of yet, I don’t think anyone has solid answers based on rigorous evidence. I’m doing some related work right now with the hopes of finding some answers to such questions.

By: Adam Lindsay

Adam Lindsay — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:11:12 +0000

Sarah, it’s an interesting list (especially as I generally stay away from the center of theYouTube-verse), and I think who you’re pointing to are far less meme-creators, and far more personalities in their own right, which was one of the first points raised in response to the initial gender/racial imbalance question at the first ROFLCon panel. Is personal fame a greater achievement than birthing an idea? Is being an online video personality closer to traditional celebrity than accidental micro-celebrity (wherethehellismatt, TRON Guy)?

I dunno. As I said, I’ve been struggling with it myself. I felt that the invitees and panels at ROFLCon belonged there, together, and it made sense at the time.

By: kurquoise

kurquoise — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:34:08 +0000

That’s a good question, Adam, and I’ve been thinking about it after the conference too. Of course, I wasn’t involved in organizing the conference, so I don’t know was approached and who couldn’t come. The other thing is that , the Internet is about micro-celebrity, right? The names I’ll toss out reflect my Internet habits, which I think skews slightly differently from the general sensibility at ROFLCon.

I would have liked to seen some some of the women of YouTube: happyslip, lisanova, brookers, stevieryan, etc. (Though what does it say about gender “equality” if the most famous female YouTubers are all young and attractive? I’m not deriding their talents at all, but this fact is mostly true.) And there’s also the GoFugYourself women and Xeni Jardin of BoingBoing. While I can think of many famous women on the Internet, their target audience isn’t the same people who go on 4chan, Something Awful, etc. I don’t particularly see the gender imbalance as a problem, so I was a little surprised the issue had such long legs. (But then, here I’m blogging about it and dragging it on even longer…)

By: Adam Lindsay

Adam Lindsay — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:42:54 +0000

Sarah, this “running gag” had me thinking about it the whole conference. (Even before it: I’ve been painfully aware of the male skew around LOLCODE, which is why I was pleased Cheez confirmed my suspicion that it’s almost exactly the opposite around LOLCats in general.)

I was wondering which women you would have invited as being overlooked amongst the gathering of the memes.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 02 May 2008 20:13:03 +0000

who constitutes “famous” is going to be different in different circles. the main difference here is that white males tend to be the ones who like having conferences to celebrate themselves.