Under the title " Gender & Internet. Underneath the imaginary, the ordinary uses ", the editorial platform Reset (Research in Social Sciences on the Internet) devotes its latest issue to gender relations in the digital world.
In response to the call for papers, the journal received 46 proposals for articles, of which just under a quarter were in English. " The large number of responses testifies to the interest aroused by the theme . If twenty years ago there was no research current on the theme of gender and communication, "the works devoted to the social relations of sex, or attentive to this perspective, are now numerous in France, including within the research devoted to the Internet.
The objective, say Marie Bergström and Dominique Pasquier, who coordinated this issue, was "as much to question the gendered uses of new technologies as to revisit the theoretical approaches of gender studies from the digital.
"In contrast to a sociology that is sometimes complacent about the so-called upheavals brought about by the Internet, whether it be to claim the end of the usual social assignments or to deplore the commodification of relationships, the works published in this issue of Reset "note the great permanence of behaviors and interactions between the sexes. Online, as offline, gender relations remain marked by the double principle of opposition and complementarity between the sexes. Far from being an escape from the gender relations that structure offline life, the digital universe does seem to be traversed by power relations, inequalities and struggles that we observe elsewhere, and that it often even accentuates."The gendered relationship to technological objects is another area of research where empirical results often contradict hopes for new forms of equality. Numerous studies have shown important differences in the socialization to technology in early childhood, which contribute to the subsequent development of women's loss of confidence in their abilities."Should we therefore, Marie Bergström and Dominique Pasquier wonder, "consider that not only has nothing changed, but worse, that the online world reinforces, especially because of the technicality of objects, male domination? The answer is no. The observed practices look like a house of cards: the male is fighting for a territory that he has partly lost while claiming to be the only master.
- In an article devoted to the digital practices of French retirees, Lucie Delias shows that " according to the professional and family trajectories of the women studied, digital practices are not the same". She shows "how the jobs they do (some of which are highly feminized, such as secretary or teacher) allow more or less autonomy in the use of the Internet at retirement age". The attention she pays to family paths underlines that life as a couple, as well as separations and periods of celibacy, socialize digital practices very differently. "The gendered roles traditionally assigned to women in the professional and private spheres (...) contribute to the way they use and perceive ICT. However, these roles are not fixed and they evolve over time," she concludes.
- Dina Pinsky's investigation is based on individual and group interviews with 53 college students in the northeastern United States and focuses on their online "flirtation" relationships. "The results are unambiguous: the principle of female modesty and the male prerogative to initiate sexual requests remain intact on the Internet. In short, Pinsky tells us, " the scripts of digital flirting closely reproduce the traditional frameworks of seduction between men and women ". And this is true regardless of the sexual orientation of the interviewees.
- Chloé Paberz followed the daily reality of relations between male and female employees in a small video game design company in South Korea through ethnographic immersion. Chloé Paberz offers a double narrative. "The first concerns the place of women in a culture where they are assigned a position of retreat in relation to that of men. The second reveals the foundations of a masculine professional culture that has "acquired references, values, rites of passage, reserved spaces and moments of togetherness where qualities, tastes and skills thought to be masculine are cultivated.
- Johann Chaulet and Jessica Soler-Benonie conducted interviews and observations at League of Legend LAN (Local Area Network) tournaments. Female players, who are very few in number - 4% of all players! -They have the choice between two postures: "the tomboy who adopts the same dress codes as male players (hoodies and jogging suits), or the hyper-feminized lolita (miniskirts and heavy makeup).
- Florian Vörös' article focuses on the use of pornography by men: nine men out of ten declare having already seen a pornographic film in their lifetime (compared to three women out of four) and one man out of two says that he has "often" or "sometimes" seen one in the last twelve months (compared to one woman out of five) - percentages that vary little according to social background. "The author shows that " pornography is not illegitimate in all places and at all times: in fact, it is especially problematic for men whose social status depends on cultural capital.
Contents
- Marie Bergström and Dominique Pasquier :Introduction
- Dina Pinsky: "Doing Gender" on the Internet through Seduction. Intimate online interactions among college students.
- Chloé Paberz: tomboys, monsters and lolitas. Playing with girls' roles in a South Korean video game company
- Johann Chaulet and Jessica Soler-Benonie: Getting together to play. LAN parties between adjustments and reaffirmation of gendered identities
- Florian Vörös: The value of online pornographic pleasures. Masculinities, sexualities and cultural hierarchies
- Lucie Delias: The factors of autonomy in the face of connected computing among French retirees. Generation and gendered trajectories.
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