Consumerism is gender oriented and Cyberspace is consumer oriented

One thing I thought of when discussing the article, Virtually Female: Body and Code by Margaret Morse, in class on Tuesday was the role advertisement may play in identifying or associating gender with cyberspace. If one acknowledges that media is a major tool of consumerism, and then looks at advertisement within cyberspace, will we see certain kinds of patterns, and more specifically, will we see gender patterns? If cyberspace is masculine, then is advertisement geared towards a masculine audience? I wasn’t sure, so I did a quick test. I went to yahoo.com. On the homepage found ads for “Popular Halloween Costumes”, a Dell computer, news articles, and a credit report company ad. The ads seemed pretty normal to me. But I think Margaret Morse would be interested in the nature of some of these ads. For example, if she did in fact agree that cyberspace was masculine, then seeing a computer ad may be a sign that the masculine cyberspace is targeting its masculine users with more masculine technology. The most provocative was the “Popular Halloween Costumes” ad. The ad showed a young woman in a skimpy Batman costume. Why would a Halloween costume business put up an ad in cyberspace of a half-naked woman for its product? The subject matter, Halloween costumes, is so broad and could encompass so many different forms of advertising. Why with all the possibilities of different costumes, models, etc would this company use an attractive young woman as its motif? Could it be, because the cyberspace user, most likely a male would be more intrigued by the ad than say a forty year old woman. And if it’s most likely a male on the computer and not a forty year old woman, then the target is the male and what is appealing to him.

These are just suggestions. I am not taking a stance on whether cyberspace is feminine or masculine, because I am not sure it’s either. But the way in which gender is set up in our world and rooted in our history is far from gone whether each of us grew up with it individually or not. But we are all surrounded by consumerism and gender is very much an aspect of consumerism, and if media is a tool of consumerism, then the ways of consumerism must makes its way into media.

I was trying to recall if I felt boys were given more of a chance in school to learn and experiment with computers and technology, or math and science and it’s hard for me to clearly remember. I am not sure if I was just not interested in computers, video games, and technology in general, because like Maggie said, I too was the kid who had to be dragged inside the house when it got dark outside. Surely my parents encouraged outdoor activity, but I think that’s what I wanted to do. I don’t think they had to do much persuading at all. I was never into computers or gaming much, and I don’t know if that’s because I wasn’t around it much or because I had better things to do. Maybe it was because being on a computer felt too much like school, but outside you could be wild and running around all over and getting dirty and laughing and interacting. That to me was fun. It was playtime, a way away from school and church and all that “boring stuff”. I kind of felt like computer games and video games were more boy things I guess, but that change for me happened more when the games got more violent. I see Mario Kart and Donkey Kong as pretty unisex, but when we get into snipers and grand theft auto, it seems more masculine. However, I have friends that are girls that play these games, so I wonder what was different about their experience to give them this interest and ability. I really could care a less about it, and I’m not totally sure why!