Blogging is pretty awesome. It lets people put their ideas and thoughts out into the world, and gives others the opportunity to flex their creative muscles. That’s why the internet is a diverse place, populated with blogs written by and for, men and women, focusing on a wide array of interests and topics.
Typically, most people would assume that men represent only a small portion of the blogging community, and only write about things like sports and video games. While that’s not an entirely inaccurate assumption, it’s not wholly accurate either. A 2012 study of a random sampling of Western European social media users showed that men are more likely to read, comment on, and start blogs. Given that data, most people automatically assume that it merely accounts for men reading Deadspin, Engadget, or other stereotypically guy-centric sites – but, in reality, male bloggers and readers have a much more diverse range of interests than technology and sports.
Male Bloggers: A Passion For Fashion
One area where male bloggers are steadily branching out into is the world of fashion. The growth of the male fashion blog can be partly attributed to brands beginning to see men as targets of opportunity, and subsequently running smart promotions.
While starting a fashion blog takes dedication, many blogs are not just a means of creative expression and a platform for offering the blogger’s own perspective on an interest. They give bloggers an opportunity to make money doing something they love. As is the case with many lifestyle bloggers of either gender, bloggers with an affinity for all things related to a specific area of interest are willing to partner with retailers. Tie -ins like this have led to the proliferation of man-centric fashion blogs and social media profiles, a space that is usually thought of as reserved for female writers.
Shaking Up Gender Roles in the Blogosphere
Despite the growing amount of men blogging about non-traditional topics, there is precedent for successful blogs in the most customary of male interests, sports. Perhaps the most prominent example of this trend is Bill Simmons.
In the late ‘90s, Simmons ran his own website that mixed sports analysis and pop culture references, with the perspective of a die-hard sports fan. Simmons parlayed the success of his blog into a job at ESPN, and eventually launched Grantland. A sports and pop-culture website, Grantland employs a number of writers, some of who have begun their own Simmons-esque rise to blogger stardom, and some are doing it by writing about topics that are usually thought of as men-only. For example, Katie Baker is one of Grantland’s primary hockey writers. Just like fashion blogging is quickly becoming a two-way street, the same thing can be said for internet sports-writing.
As long as people have hobbies and interests, there are always going to be blogs (provided there’s always an Internet). And as long as there are blogs about those hobbies and interests, men and women will write about them. Certain topics are always initially “assigned” as male or female, but really, anyone can write about anything.
Do you blog about a subject from a gender perspective that’s not “typically” associated with an area of interest? Let us know about your blog in the comments and tell us what hurdles you may have encountered or how your audience responds and interacts with your blog.
