Picture by Stroinski
Despite the popularity of social media among women and the growing number of female bloggers, it appears that abusing high profile women in the Twittersphere is becoming a national pastime. Julie Tomlin reflects on the impact of the Independent’s Twitter 100 list which only features 18 women, and asks what needs to happen for them to get their voices heard.
A recent spate of online spats has shown how quickly discussions involving women can become personal – and sometimes hateful and vitriolic.
The abuse hurled at freelance journalist Samantha Brick after the Daily Mail published her article claiming other women hated her because she was so beautiful. BBC1’s The Voice UK sensation Ruth Brown being taunted about her weight.
The row over columnist Grace Dent’s response to a Tweet sent by PR man Mufadal Jiwaji and whether or not you like her politics, Conservative MP Louise Mensch being called a “Tory whore”. The Twittersphere, like any online comments pages, is a forum where mockery and insults about people’s appearance abound.
Female bloggers and writers recently spoke out about the torrent of sexist abuse they leave themselves open to when they post. A few weeks ago TV historian Mary Beard took critic AA Gill to task for saying she was too ugly for television.
When Broadcast magazine launched its Expert Women campaign to encourage broadcasters to ensure that at least 30 per cent of interviewees were women, Lis Howell, City University’s director of broadcasting, said that many women preferred not to go on TV because they didn’t want to invite comments about their appearance.
Of course, as Howell pointed out, this doesn’t explain why so few women appear on radio programmes like BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, or why when they do appear they are usually speaking as case studies or as victims.
To return to social networks, when the Independent released its Twitter 100 in on 1 March this year, only 18 of those featured were women and the majority of those were celebrities or fashion writers. If the Independent’s list is to be believed, social media is recreating the cliché that women’s interests equals niche interests.
For example, women can speak authoritatively on subjects such as childcare or schools, but are rarely considered authoritative voices on issues that are not personal to them, like world affairs or the economy.
In an attempt to explain the lack of women among the “titans of Twitter”, the Independent’s Laura Davis sparked further debate when she suggested that it was because women are not very good at supporting one another.
There are plenty who disagree with her, but a lot of questions remain about women in both the mainstream media and social media. Are women de-selecting themselves or are the selection processes themselves at fault?
Are there practical steps women – and men – can take to help themselves and others break through to have their voices heard and taken seriously, not just on so-called women’s issues? The real debate hasn’t even begun.
For those of you who want to discuss this hot topic further, watch out for details of our special social media and women event taking place in London at the end of May.