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What's in a [Screen] Name?
By Kath Blackwell
The questions that are asked daily by webmasters from all walks of life, political backgrounds, sexual orientations, genders, races and religions...
Would a webmaster by any other name not be as sweet? Or perceived as being as intelligent? Or as respected within the industry? Or accepted into the industry fold? It seems almost comical that in an industry that is based upon the illusion of sexual fantasy that those who work within it would be wrestling with their own identities, but it's quite true.
Does anyone remember the old Remington Steele television series, which was broadcast back in 1982-1987 on NBC? This was a show about a woman who started her own detective agency, but pretended that it was owned by a man, in order to gain more legitimacy and respect within the male-dominated industry. From the show's introduction, Stephanie Zimbalist as detective Laura Holt says, "I'd always loved excitement, so I studied and apprenticed, and put my name on an office. But absolutely no one knocked on my door. A female private investigator seemed so... feminine. So I invented a superior. A decidedly masculine superior. Suddenly there were cases around the block. It was working like a charm."
This idea continues to "work like a charm" for women who work on the Internet within the male-dominated adult industry. There are many female webmasters who have chosen male sounding or non-gender screen names. When asked, some claim not to have done it on purpose but admit that they have noticed that the results have been positive. Others thought carefully about the name that they chose, making sure it was a name that could be respected, held in a strong, positive regard and would put on a good public front.
I interviewed Raven, owner of Sin-Text.com, an up and coming Web-based marketing company. I explained to her the basis of this article and drew the correlation between the Remington Steele character and some of the names and personalities used by women on the 'Net.
"When you think about it," she said. "All you have is this one-dimensional message board thing. The first thing that people see when you walk into a bar is your face, but online the first thing that they see is your name. That's important." She drew comparisons between the strength of her own name, and that of Remington Steele. "Remington is strong and Steele is something hard," she pointed out, "I chose my own name because of Poe's Raven, a strong and important character. Many people think I'm a guy because of the name. This gives me a chance to give a response that I'm a girl."
Other women come right out with their real first names, or a cutesy nickname that screams "female" to anyone who reads it. Again, whether intentional or not, this can sometimes work to their advantage. I spoke with Tia who owns and operates GraphicsbyTia.com, an adult Web design company. She is one of the only female Web designers in the industry, but says she has had a very positive experience. "My name actually comes from a drink I used to enjoy years ago called a Tia Maria." *laughs* "It really enhances my business I think- in a way. My designs are more beautiful and they really reflect the fact that I'm a woman."
But the door swings both ways - there are men on the message boards who pose as women, arguing that using a female name actually gets them more attention and gets their questions answered much faster. One webmaster I spoke with asked that I not use his name to protect his secret identity. "I've been using this name for years now. I did it at first as a joke because I saw that when chicks would come on the board and ask a question, the guys would be all over them, helping them out. It was honey this and honey that. But if I asked a question - or any other guy did for that matter - we would get ignored or told to figure it out for ourselves. My wife thinks it's weird that I am able to fool so many people into thinking I'm female, but it just works for me."
APPLES & ORANGES…
So what's the big deal? Are people really so gender-biased that they would choose a man to do one job, but a woman to do another? Granted, the typical assumptions for the stereotypical adult webmaster are that they are white males, late 20's to early 30's, perverts, been into computers and/or porn most of their adult life, and work out of a bedroom while eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew. But is that really a fair assessment of a typical webmaster?
When all the guys who fit that perception sit down we find that this industry is filled with younger folks, older business people and women. We even have a few health-nuts, who wouldn't dare let one Cheeto or even an ounce of caffeine touch their lips! We have computer novices, folks new to the adult industry - even stay-at-home moms are now on the list of adult webmasters joining the work force. Because of the global entrepreneurial feeling that's associated with this industry, it has, and continues to develop as one of the most diverse businesses in the world today.
Let's compare the obvious strengths between men and women for a moment. Maybe there IS something to this whole issue after all!
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PERCEIVED MALE CHARACTERISTICS:
Strong, powerful, decision maker
Entrepreneur or businessman
Owner, founder or CEO
Script/Programming/Tech oriented
Behind the camera vs. in front of it
PERCEIVED FEMALE CHARACTERISTICS:
Sweet, feminine, cute, friendly
Secretary-type positions
Works for or with spouse, not on her own
More software and Web oriented
In front of the camera, not behind it
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Some of these characteristics describe people we work with every day on the Internet. We've all seen the tech-guy figure, the cam girl, the couples that work together and the photographer (typically male). But many of them do not apply. I've known women who were strong and powerful decision-makers, founders and CEOs of some of the more successful companies in this industry. I've also met male webmasters whose online personality was more of the "tea and crumpets" type, waving hellos to friends on the board, posting cute jokes and using lots of smileys. You definitely can't just judge a book by its cover any more.
JUST THE FACTS, JACK…
When checking online media sources for statistics about male vs. female workers on the Internet, I was interested to see that most of the information available was either about Web users overall, or about men and women who use 'Net access at work. With just these facts available, we can still see a growing trend in women's involvement with the Internet as a whole. It's not an accurate count of women net pornographers versus males, but it can be a guideline of sorts to make assumptions and draw conclusions by.
Jupiter Media Matrix completed a study last year that showed a 20% increase since 1998 of women who admitted to surfing adult entertainment Web sites on the 'Net. That's a significant increase. As we all know, the numbers of those who admit that they do anything even remotely related to adult content, versus those who actually do, carries a wide range of error. So if 20% admitted to it, we can assume that perhaps another five or ten percent actually surfed adult related sites.
If 20% or more women are interested in adult content, versus JMM's report indicating 57% of males, we can use that information to project what the typical webmaster male-to-female ratio might be. Even if we assume that men outnumber the women by 2:1 overall, in sheer numbers that still creates a substantial female webmaster base that should be recognized and respected.
A webmaster poll was conducted on YNOTMasters.com, back in May 2001, to determine how many of their visitors were men and how many were women. Out of 130 respondents, the results reported 79% were male and 21% were female. I spoke with LAJ who runs the YNOT poll, and he said that the 130 who participated in the poll make up just a small percentage of YNOT's daily traffic. He guessed that the poll could experience a margin of error of about 5% in either direction. Overall, a pretty good indicator of what's really out there.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Let's look at the large adult Internet companies. How many of them have women at the helm as the driving force of the organization? Women are becoming a much larger voice in the corporate world of adult Internet entertainment. PythonVideo.com has Aly, Adult Revenue Service (ARS) has Becky, and iGallery has Holly. It seems the big boys are finally understanding that women are definitely a respected and important demographic within the industry, and these numbers are growing every year.
In an article I wrote for Klixxx Magazine this summer, I interviewed several top women in the industry. The interesting result was that most felt that while it was harder for them to prove their value in the beginning, overall they felt appreciated and respected by their male coworkers. Most didn't want any kind of special treatment because they were women, and were looking for an equal working opportunity versus a "take over the male world" approach, as is sometimes the perception of the general public as a whole.
It all boils down to, what are YOU comfortable with? Are you okay with just working together toward a common goal without being concerned about gender? Or as a woman or a man, do you feel it necessary to masquerade as the opposite sex or become a gender-less member of the community? It all comes down to personal tastes. So I ask you again…what's in a screen name?
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