The Slo-Man was recently struck by a comment. It jumped right off the screen and hit him smack between the eyes. He then went digging into some facts and embarked on a mini-voyage of self-discovery.
How did this come about? The Slo-Man, who is still catching up with his reading, after the exertions of February, his not-so-smooth return to his coding roots and the need to update his other official blog/website, finally managed to visit some of the blogs he had earmarked.
In the course of his reading he had a brief conversation with an award winning bloggist and writer who blogs at http://www.purba-ray.com/.
And one of her comments made the Slo-Man blink and think.
“I thought you were a woman”, she said.
Is it true? Does the blogger operating as the Slo-Man, The LastWord, The Peeved Punjabi and LeggieLefty come across as feminine? It does seem that a majority of bloggers the Slo-Man reads are female. And the most active readers of this blog are female. The top 3 commenters of all time are all female and include a freelance writer, a college professor of English and a research librarian. It would appear that this blog appeals to the more English-aware and does not appeal to the masses.
If we were to further break down reader / correspondent data, it would appear that family and immediate friends stay away from this blog. So the bulk of the readers do not personally know the Slo-Man. They have nothing to go by except the writing on this blog.
Is it possible for writers to display a gender in the their writing?
(The photo showed up – thanks Zemanta! – and it was really interesting so it appears here. Someday, the Slo-Man will explore his writing personalities and you should expect some reference to the Writing Spider..)
Discover more from SloWord
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
How curious… I do think that writing style does, quite often, do betray the writer’s gender even if it is not revealed in the content itself.
I think you write like a guy 😉
But then again, I knew your gender from the outset, so maybe I ‘m biased…
On further consideration, of course, you never REALLY know with blogs. People have been known to pose and purposely mislead their unsuspecting audience… for all I know you’re a cat lady axe murderer…
Cats? yes. Cat ladies ? No
I better get myself some cats. Then I’ll be safe…
Before anyone gets the wrong idea – I have never murdered a cat. Or a cat lady… And I do not intend to I the future too. 🙂
Never say never… you can push a programmer only so far 😉
Been pushed quite far… But fought the temptation
That’s why I didn’t buy any biscuits today. If I don’t have them in the house, I won’t be tempted to eat them.
I should try the same approach with axes.
Or cats…
Let’s make a pact: I won’t buy any axes, you won’t get any cats, and the world will be a safer place 🙂
Shouldn’t it be the other way around? I agree on the pact.
Deal 🙂
agree, though your masses comment sounds elitist. and gender shows too. personally i prefer quirky. and yes, friends & family tend to stay away, probably as they have heard it before 🙂
My “masses” comment is the unfortunate truth. I don’t mean to be elitist. I do wish my blog was more widely read. However, based on the data gathered from WordPress, IndiBlogger etc, my writing style does not appeal to the masses. 🙁
As far as family and friends go, I think you have to find one of two things.
1. doters: who will read any old bilge you put out and will gush over it
2. readers: who enjoy reading and have the time to do so.
I think your writing style is unique and interesting. I didn’t really think you are a woman nor that your writing style is feminine. I have experience with this as I thought for some time that my husband was a woman!
uh… you might want to explain that last bit!
Thanks for the note. The Slo-Man would like to state that he is not expressing any preference as to gender in writing. He was simply curious to find out if a reader could indeed see any traits that identified with either sex. It is a purely unscientific sociological study based on reader feedback.
We met while playing an online game. My husband likes to say he is a gender bender – he likes to play female characters. I have heard of his character and since it was a she I assumed the player was a female as well. It wasn’t until a friend of mine told me the person behind the character is actually a guy.
Ahh!!
You are not alone, Slo-Man. I’m so careful now about assuming a commenter is male or female. I can’t begin to tell you how often I have thought a reader was one gender or the other, only to be surprised at a later date. Maybe WordPress should have a tiny gender symbol under each photo, ha ha!
And your right about writing sometimes being more appealing to one gender or the other. I thought my posts would only appeal to female readers, but half my followers are male.
Almost all the Slo-Mans’s regular readers are female…. He’s not sure what that means.
Or, may be she was just pulling your leg. Give it a thought. After all these days, you might want to look back on it. Like the salted coffee story…:)
Actually, I don’t think she was. Or maybe… who knows! It did give birth to an article, I guess that’s all that matters.
I don’t know the salted coffee story.
Pingback: 2014 : The Year - SloWord