

Pinterest isn't feminine: An essay on ladymags and aspirational clipping - ssaraiya
http://persephonemagazine.com/2012/02/my-pins-my-self-getting-pinned-and-liking-it/

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Drbble
The entire essay is about how pinterest is a modern scrapbook for women, and
has one line flatly and bizarrely stating that it is not feminine. How not?

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andrewcooke
i think that it's making an implicit distinction (which might not exist)
between social and biological cause. the argument is that it's rooted in a
social activity, which might be (implicitly, is) constructed / learnt, rather
than innate.

(and it's a better article than i expected - credit for being honest enough to
detail the "defined by consumption" aspect in fairly neutral terms (or maybe
it's just the male in me that finds that a little crass? don't you know that
all value comes from winning the game?))

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mattgreenrocks
> don't you know that all value comes from winning the game?

All value comes from bowing out of the game...at which point you win.

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apricot13
the appeal of pinterest is the ability to see multiple things at a time
instead of scrolling through one image at a time like tumblr. It also adjusts
to the size of the image so things don't get cropped out. (If tumblr added a
feature to make the dashboard a mosaic like layout it'd be amazing!)

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Tichy
She mentions searching for gifts on Pinterest, how does that work? I can't
find the feature.

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hellweaver666
There isn't a 'gift search' feature... just search. Some of the stuff might be
gifts I'm guessing.

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pselle
Nice writeup! Glad someone's taking the casual talk about Pinterest and
writing something interesting about it.

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billpatrianakos
Ehh... It can be argued that Pinterest really _is_ a female thing but the idea
behind it most certainly isn't. Those two ideas seem contradictory but I think
what makes it so appealing to women is the sharing part of it. Women love to
share their needs and desires, especially material ones, publicly or so it
seems.

Men definitely do similar things but they just don't share it. Just today I
met with a founder and we were discussing ideas for his startup when he pulled
out am iPad and showed me a scent sized collection of screen shots and images
of features, designs, pricing plans for services, and other things he'd been
collecting that he was mulling over using and wanted. There were also a number
of folders in his collection that I did not see but am positive were full of
clippings of other material things and ideas he wanted.

It's a lot like having an idea book for design or a box of junk except the
junk isn't junk to you, only to everyone else. We all do it but I think the
super social nature of women as far as these things go is makes it so
appealing to women.

 _Or_ I'm a totally insensitive sexist who needs to shut up now. Either way
I'm really not married to the idea it's just my take.

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shantanubala
> totally insensitive sexist who needs to shut up now

Don't worry about this. Really. It's a very valid psychological observation
that there's overall differences between men and women.

It's only sexist if you ignore that these differences can result from a large
combination of socialization, upbringing, and culture (in addition to some
genetics). It would only be sexist if you were being partial or biased in your
analysis in a way that favored a gender.

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shingen
Would it be so bad if Pinterest were feminine? Why? It seems perfectly
reasonable that women would have a big social network that appeals distinctly
to them.

