Tech news sites "stunned" by women using Pinterest, decide it's about "social shopping experiences"

[unjapanologist]

About a week ago, The Mary Sue reported that some major tech news sites are apparently using the fact that Pinterest has a majority of female users as an excuse to write sexist copy:

However, another topic started to emerge that should be far more troubling to social media users. Tech journalists covering the site started using phrases like “female-centric” and “catnip for women,” in their articles.

(...)

And yet, when tech blog Gizmodo put together its write-up on the site, the lead read, “Quick! Name the most perplexing social site you can think of. If you are a dude, it is probably Pinterest.”

Even MSN Money framed the conversation in terms of male v. female users: “Even though the site may be dominated by women’s interests, think of it this way: It’s essentially a guide telling men everywhere exactly what women want.”

Neither of these statements is a problem on its face. It’s true that women use the site in large numbers. In fact, Forbes is reporting that 70 percent of the user base is women. However, it should be no shock to seasoned tech reporters and talking heads that women use the Internet.

In fact, the core problem is the idea that somehow the site has less value or is inherently confusing because women are using it. Ask yourself these questions:

1. Was Reddit’s rise covered by tech bloggers and journalists with aside paragraphs like: “If you want to know what men like, go check out Reddit!”?
2. Did snarky bloggers make pie-charts like this one when Tumblr was growing that pointed to gender stereotypes about men?
3. Did tech analysts write blog posts about the “manliness” of any given tech startup?
4. Did tech experts ever go out of their way to explain the appeal of a new social media site to women by stressing that it really wasn’t overtly manly?

If you answered “no” to all these questions, I’m not surprised.

I took a closer look at the Pinterest-related reporting from the tech news sites in my RSS reader. About half were either not reporting on Pinterest or reported about it without saying anything strange about its user base. The other half unfortunately confirmed what The Mary Sue claims. Examples:


TechCrunch: Where The Ladies At? Pinterest. 2 Million Daily Facebook Users, 97% Of Fans Are Women

The article starts with an "OMG". It states that "Pinterest is becoming an obsession for flocks of women" with its "gorgeous photography, and links to shopping sites". Presumably it's also becoming an "obsession for flocks of women" because it's useful, but carrying on.

"The stunningly feminine fan base" could grow because "even though it was co-founded by three men, the site’s not shy about courting women". Women liking a service made by men, and men feeling totally okay with marketing their service to women? Remarkable!

TechCrunch clarifies that there is a significant majority of male users, but these are "probably not addicted to pinning tuxedos and power tools like women pin brides dresses and bundt cakes". The article is accompanied by a few graphics of hearts and squealing women that are probably intended to be amusing.


The Next Web: Here's why Pinterest is growing so fast

"At the risk of sounding sexist, we have to examine the traditional habits of females versus males. To that end, women tend to like to shop more than men do. You could easily define Pinterest as a way for people to “window shop” for anything that interests them, whether that’s a physical object or something as intangible as quotes. They can then show off their “purchases” (pins) to their friends, and even re-pin and create discussions around what they've found. It’s a social shopping experience, disguised as a website full of interests."

So, you can define anything women collect (pictures, text, whatnot) as "purchases". Women like collecting things because they like to show off their "purchases" in "social shopping experiences". If I ever feel like it's time for social and career suicide, I'll do it by writing an article about how deviantArt favorites galleries and rec/fic bookmark collections can be explained by framing these fannish activities as "social shopping experiences" that are a traditional habit of women females.


ReadWriteWeb: Who's Using Pinterest? Yup, It's Mostly Ladies

"Well, there's a reason it's not called Dude-terest. The latest darling of the up-and-coming social sharing space, Pinterest, has experienced rapid growth in both users and industry buzz in the last few months. If you had a sneaking suspicion that the majority of those users happen to be young females, you were right." Dude-terest. Females.

"Here at ReadWriteWeb, the guys are a little more receptive (than Gizmodo) to the Pinterest and its potential use cases." Really? Thank you, ReadWriteWeb guys, that's big of you. "In "A Guy's Guide to Pinterest", Dave Copeland outlined why the site isn't exclusive to women and detailed his own experience getting started with it."


Well then, on to ReadWriteWeb: A Guy's Guide to Pinterest

"One of the first things I noticed when I signed up for Pinterest earlier this week is that several of my female friends and acquaintances were already on the site. It was as if they had been holding out on what many are promising will be 2012's hot ticket in the social networking space." Perhaps he simply wasn't noticing what his female friends and acquaintances were doing because the interests and concerns of other groups often don't register on people's radar, but all right. Perhaps the women really were conspiring to hide things from him. "I suddenly felt like I had ventured behind some secret curtain."

The rest of the "guy's guide" is actually a... well, a how-to guide for using the main features of a website. I have no idea why this article is not called "A Guide to Pinterest", there's nothing gender-specific about it.


ReadWriteWeb again: "Pinning" has to become bigger than "liking"

"With all these eager-to-shop female audience members who are most likely interested in fashion designers, style, collections and craft, it's rather surprising that Pinterest hasn't really figured out how to cash in." Most likely, yes.

" "I bet you in a few months, the usage will change," says Visua.ly Editorial Director Aleksandra Todorova. "It will be just like Twitter and Facebook. Companies are going to start using it, professionals...it's not going to just be women planning their wedding or scrapbooking or sewing quilts and all that." " Soon, there will be professionals on Pinterest. Not just women.


I'm not on Pinterest myself yet, although several people have recommended it and it looks quite shiny. But I already feel so terribly behind for not having a tumblr. People on tumblr, why is Gizmodo saying that Pinterest is Tumblr for Ladiez, aside from that they're dumb? Is tumblr that dominated by male users? Just from browsing around on it, I never got the impression that tumblr is heavily skewed towards one topic or another. There are lots of porn tumblrs, apparently, but there are lots of porn everythings. I was half considering making a porn tumblr myself for the more mature A:tLA art that I'm too embarrassed to post under any of my existing handles.

ETA: More links and analysis at How to stop being a Pinterest sexist．

Comments

here via network

[copracat]

Actually I thought pinterest was tumblr/flickr with a better layout.

Re: here via network

[unjapanologist]

Sounds good!

[busaikko]

I purchased a Pinboard account (not the same, I know, but: pinning!). How very girly of me, reducing the masculine wonder of the Internet to a shopping experience. Sometimes it feels like you can't win for losing.

[unjapanologist]

Subscribed to you there. Let's have great social shopping experiences together!

[kimboo_york]

I honestly think the tumblr=men bias comes from the fact that tumblr has a lot of porny accounts, and as we all know, only men likez teh p0rn, right? *rolls eyes*

I'm assuming that because Pinterest has a lot of interior design and fashion and crafting devoted accounts, that makes it girly, because as we all know, only girls like that sort of thing.

*sigh*

Personally I'm avoiding Pinterest simply because I've already got two tumblr accounts, two dw accounts, FB, three twitter accounts and several email addys. Not to mention pinboard, delicious (yuck), and three "professional" blogs that I neglect. I mean, I only have so much time FFS! hahahaa!

[unjapanologist]

as we all know, only men likez teh p0rn, right?

On the one hand, it annoys me that that idea refuses to die. On the other hand, in moments like these, I like to grin at those guy-authored websites and think "oh jesus god, buddy, you have no idea".

...How many of you are there? You must teach me the secret of self-multiplication, I promise I'll use it only to do good and to have more lie-ins.

[cala_jane]

I got a Pinterest account because somebody suggested it would work really well for brainstorming novels - what with all the visuals and the shiny factor. It actually works really well. I spend time online mostly for the text (which is why I spend little to no time on tumblr) but since I do research anyway, I might gather the stuff in one place, right?

What worries me about the way things are going for Pinterest right now is that once it gets labeled as Tumblr-for-ladiez or "social networking site for women" or anything like that, we will then have to face years and years of the Lifetime argument. "You don't need a social media site for women, you already have Pinterest!"

[unjapanologist]

Really liking the look of Pinterest, but since they apparently have some copyright issues, I'm going to wait for a little bit until that gets resolved.

If we feel the need for a social media site for women, we'll make one and the tech news sites probably won't even notice ;)

[cala_jane]

...Well the copyright issues suck. I will probably need to go and take down all the visual brainstorming then :/ Bah. Thanks for pointing this out to me.

[unjapanologist]

I really should read the fine print more - I was literally on the registration screen at the moment when that other article flitted across my internets :P The stuff that other article claims is indeed in the Pinterest TOS.

Taking a closer look at what Pinterest itself says, I'm not too reassured. Their copyright page talks only to copyright holders who might want to file DMCA notices and doesn't say anything about what users can do to contest bogus copyright claims, and the etiquette page says they don't allow "nudity", which sounds too vague for my taste. Doesn't sound like a place where fannish stuff can comfortably exist, and fannish stuff is probably what I'd like to pin...

[cala_jane]

Serves me right for not reading the TOS carefully. Thanks for bringing this up to my attention! *cries for all ther wasted potential of the website*

[unjapanologist]

This sort of thing pisses me off, to be honest. You really shouldn't have to read the whole TOS to find out that this shiny new website you're using reserves for itself the right to lay claim to everything you post there... Whoever expects something like that?

Wasted potential indeed.

[cala_jane]

When you get a shiny bookmaklet that allows you to pin any image on any website, and everytime you do the website you got the image from is linked back and credited on the images page on pinterest... well you certainly don't expect TOS like that...

[unjapanologist]

Exactly. It feels borderline disingenuous to me.