At a seminar I recently attended about how blogs are used in the corporate environment, one of the speakers, Susan Dobscha, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Marketing at Bentley College) mentioned that she believes blogs are a masculine form of communication, and wikis are a feminine form of communication. (In this context, blogs represent an individual making a statement to maintain independence and status in a hierarchical world (see Deborah Tannen's Difference Theory), and blogging involves a strong sense of identity and ownership, whereas wikis are a collaborative and iterative effort without a single identity or owner, to create a network of links based on consensus.)
At first I bought in, because the association was appealing, but it doesn't hold up. It's easy to say that it's masculine to hold forth on your opinions (whether anyone responds or not), and it's feminine to organize and edit without being in the spotlight. Blogging is hurling arrows around and wiki-ing is nest-building, right?
I kept thinking about rocks covered with petroglyphs, paintings on cave walls, and hieroglyphics - I can't prove that no women were involved, but my sense is that the men were doing this collaborative, uncredited work.
I thought, too, about women and fashion - how women use clothing to make a statement and show status (think of an actress at the Academy Awards, or a bride on her wedding day) whereas men in those situations generally wear variations on the black tux.
I'm sure there are other examples that show how men have a history of collaboration & consensus in their communications (e.g. The U.S. Constitution & Bill of Rights) and how women have eschewed compromise in favor of victory (the Suffragettes?). What are your thoughts?
