Pinterest may have 20 million users and be valued at $1.5 billion, but some have proclaimed it as “too girly” for men. So what’s a man to do?
I’ve been quite vocal about my advocacy for gender-specific private clubs. Hence, it’s hardly shocking for me to announce my affection for gender-specific websites. (There’s a reason why I love working for The Good Men Project!) I believe gender-specific destinations, both online and off-line, serve a significant purpose: the exclusive opportunity to connect with one’s gender.
The internet continues to be populated with endless gender-specific web pages, e.g. The Good Men Project, AskMen, Be Better Guys, Man of the House, iVillage, YourTango, The Hairpin, etc. Aside from these gender-specific sites, there’s a new online trend of gender-specific social media websites cropping up at a rapid rate.
Pinterest may have 20 million users and be valued at $1.5 billion, but some have proclaimed it as “too girly” for men. So what’s a man to do? Fear not, gentlemen! Savvy male entrepreneurs have developed male-centric social media websites — Manteresting, Dudepins, and Gentlemint — as an alternative to Pinterest and the Pinterest copycat sites.
The advantage of digital media (and internet marketing) is the ability to create niche websites and distinct communities, while reaching micro-demographics. Specialty websites are havens for people with similar interests, and now, the same gender. It was only a matter of time before social media websites became niche and gender-specific. Clearly, I’m and advocate; yet, I’m curious to how men feel.
Men, do you prefer male-centric social media websites? Are you using Manteresting, Gentlemint, or Dudepins? Are you happy media companies are actively finding new ways to cater to men?
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photo of man at computer: Shutterstock.com
I think the entire question is misleading in its wording. You’ve taken a website, which has no sex, and given it a gender by calling it “girly”. I think you’ve touched on the core of the problem with sex/gender issues in American society by stating that something inanimate can have a gender; this is really only true in regards to language (gendered nouns). The website Pinterest is not “girly”, it is a website; how it is perceived is based on individual examination. It would be like calling Facebook “manly” because it (used) to be clean, simple, and direct to use…I’m… Read more »
To be devil’s advocate here, Josh, gender is a very large and powerful part of the psyche, and (as Schama points out above) in the US it happens to extends to many more parts of our psyche than it might in the UK. What if the answer were (at least in something as trivial as choice of social networking) “deal with it”?
IDK, kinda sounds like the cop-out my parent’s generation took when they decided to not deal with these issues and just let the problems of sexism/racism/classism/binary gender ideology be passed on to mine. Sounds like something said by a person who doesn’t have the cognitive ability to formulate a logical argument. I’m not trying to claim that I have all the answers, but I sure as hell know “deal with it” isn’t one of them. 😉
Damn straight…Sometimes “deal with it” really means “don’t.”
I’m looking at how close the poll is and am wondering how many women voted in the poll and if they did, how did they vote? BTW I only voted once.
Yes, I’m more comfortable on male sites than female ones. Female-dominated forums tend to be clickish, more censorious and their application of the rules tends to be highly arbitrary. It’s not much of a problem if it’s only a 50-60% female majority. Then you generally get a healthier dynamic, where people bicker, but the ban-hammer is less likely to swing and solid clicks are less likely to form. Once a site gets to be 70+% female, though, some queen bee or another eventually takes over. Then everyone else is locked out of the discussion, and the mods feel comfortable banning… Read more »
I think there’s a huge difference between a topical, gender-focused site such as GMP, and a site doing general social-media stuff but trying to target it an men (Dudepin).
I’m all for sites such as GMP that make men or male issues their focus by nature of their topic. GMP is inherently about men. Dudepin is not about men at all – it’s just claiming to be for men while doing exactly the same thing Pinterest is doing.
GMP and sites like it are important; Dudepin is a waste of time and does nothing but reduce the network effect.
I prefer male centric sites in general, but I do enjoy communicating with women. I feel that it is important for each gender to have their own space and that the space be respected. I respect forums and spaces that are designated female only as I would hope they respect spaces designated for men only. Although I don’t think that I would actually join a site that excludes women. There is also a need for sites that vary their focus by degrees, sites that strongly lean male or female, sites that moderately or slightly lean toward a gender and sites… Read more »
What’s wrong with speaking DIRECTLY to men or women? Nothing. I don’t want to visit websites that are speaking directly to women. That doesn’t make me a bad man. There is a reason why men go to this site and it’s not because of the female writers. The Good Men is speaking to me and my gender. Exclusion doesn’t equal failure it equals camaraderie, support, understanding, hope, solace, relief…..
I don’t really feel I have pictures that I would want to show to others. I don’t have any sorts of things that have sentimental meaning to me which I would want to take pictures of and share either. Maybe men are less likely to be into that kind of thing. An attempt to make a manly pinterest alternative doesn’t make sense if it is the very format itself which is gendered. I would hope that pinterest does not act in subtle or overt ways to make men feel unwelcome or discriminated against though.
The US Pinterest site is 83% female users, while the UK one is 56% male users. I doubt it’s the interest itself that is gendered.
It might be the idea of what’s “ok” as a guy that is different, with US guys feeling a lot more restricted in their choices of hobby.
Pinterest seems to be an extension of scrapbooking, which is a very popular hobby right now among women for whatever reason. Men, not so much. I don’t think Pinterest is intentionally aimed at women, it’s just that women (at least in the US) seem to like it more. Personally I don’t care much for scrapbooking and I can’t get into Pinterest. My hobby is knitting, and my favorite social media site is ravelry.com. Ravelry skews female because more knitters are female, but male knitters are certainly welcome.
There might be women interested in knitting or scrapbooking than men, at the base, biologically speaking. Except we won’t know because as a society, the west likes to say that Arts and Crafts are feminine stuff (so they make women who do it appear more feminine, and men who do it appear less masculine). We buy the craft stuff overwhelmingly for female children (like dolls and toy kitchens), and not male children. If it was just about choice, without socialization, it might still skew some, but not 83/17. Same for nursing. It wouldn’t normally skew 90/10, but since we want… Read more »
Personally I don’t have a preference but I am not against their existence.