There Are No Girls on The Internet- reason for this assumption?

Here's where I get a bit ranty.

OK, so when I'm on the Internet, posting on forums, (yes, that includes here) everyone tends to assume I'm a man. I'm actually a woman. Not to make anyone feel bad, so I apologise if I come across like that.

But it's really starting to DRIVE ME INSANE (yelling from frustration) every time I have to post, "I'm a woman" whenever someone assumes I must be a man. It's one of my least favourite things about going on the Internet.

The default assumption seems to be "If you post on an internet forum, you must be a man." What's the reason for this? Is it that men tend to use more Internet forums?

edited 20th Aug '12 9:18:04 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

I get that this topic is about something that very understandably infuriates people. But let's keep the negativity to a minimum, OK? Instead of telling each other how frustrating this phenomenon is, let's focus on discussing its causes, as the topic would suggest.

@Best Of: Thanks. So what do you think the cause is?

I don't have this problem a lot - perhaps because I picked a feminine username.

I think that it's just because male is the default. Minus the verbal or behavioural cues that would tell you 'this person is a man' or 'this person is a woman', people don't assume 'genderless' or 'I don't know', they assume 'male'.

@Loni Jay: I strongly suspect it's because my username is an obscure Tolkien reference... And then it goes into "Why is male the default?"

edited 20th Aug '12 10:22:51 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

What's the reason for this? Is it that men tend to use more Internet forums?

Eeyup.

Just look at the Audience for 4chan, Reddit◊ and TV Tropes

edited 20th Aug '12 10:31:38 PM by DeviantBraeburn

@Deviant Braeburn: Wow. 64% men.

You think that's impressive?

4chan's audience is 75% MALE.

edited 20th Aug '12 10:38:07 PM by DeviantBraeburn

On certain sites like tumblr I assume female.

@Deviant Braeburn: probably because men would tend to be more open about liking some of the stuff that goes on there.....Or So I Heard.

edited 20th Aug '12 10:42:00 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

Tumblr's audience is audience demographic, is 51% male and 49% female. So, its a pretty gender neutral sites.

Most women don't like trolling, racism, flame wars, reposts, sexism, racism, memes, interesting original content (there are some positive things about the site), racism, ponies (this feels somewhat odd to put on here), fan-wank, and racism?

What freaks!

edited 20th Aug '12 11:56:24 PM by DeviantBraeburn

@Deviantbraeburn: I was referring to the fetish stuff. I like ponies. Oh yeah, and fanwank. As I said, I only heard about 4chan from my brother. (He's not a member).

There are girls on the internet. They are just subtle. Any man who knows anything about how women act in Real Life should not be surprised in the least that, in an environment where no one can see someone's face or hear their voice, women are hard to pick out.

Me? I always assume there's a woman present, even on the Internet. Especially when I've just posted something dumb. Like now. I'm pretty sure there's at least one woman reading this.

edited 20th Aug '12 11:12:33 PM by drunkscriblerian

Well, I certainly read it.

There is a reason I started using female character avatars here. I actually got called "My good man" by that joyflower girl. I just thought I came off as male somehow. *shrug*

But I don't know, seems like to me that even with those odds listed above, no one should be surprised by a female being present. Come on, fifteen to thirty six percent, while not the majority, is still a pretty significant chunk of a userbase.

@Drunk Scriblerian: There's definitely a woman reading this. I keep on checking this thread!

edited 20th Aug '12 11:28:59 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

Speaking as one of those people who refers to people using masculine pronouns all the time, I don't mean anything malicious by it. For me, it's merely a throwback to the old days of the internet where the majority of people posting in forums were guys and the few girls that did post were well-known. In my opinion it's bad form to go around asking people whether they are girls or guys in real life and so I simply assume that most people on the internet are guys until informed otherwise, particularly when we're talking about my personal areas of interest like the military, action movies, science fiction, fantasy, and so on.

I don't see anything sexist about it, aside from an Everything Is Racist mentality, which I do not wish or intend to attribute to anyone in this thread.

edited 20th Aug '12 11:46:42 PM by HouraiRabbit

See there? You can always count on women to show up when a male of the species is acting stupid, even on the internet.

I didn't realise you were a girl, Spades. You're one of those tropers who I don't really see as either gender *shrug*

I don't know what you're talking about.

edited 20th Aug '12 11:47:25 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

I'd default to neutral pronouns if English had proper gender-neutral personal pronouns, but alas, it does not, and male pronouns usually double as being at least somewhat gender-neutral.

@Hourai Rabbit: I hope I haven't offended you. Maybe it's my frustration talking.

Well, there's "heo", but it's highly archaic, and "she" used to be gender neutral LOOOOOONG ago. Doesn't help today, though.

@Ace: Your avatar's character is a female? I always thought it just had metalhead hair. (Corollary: I tend to assume that everyone in a den of nerds is a metalhead.)

There's always they. :p /off-topic

Topic: Hmm. :o Yeah, this isn't so great. :/

You can usually tell a lot about a Troper from there avatar.

For example; Ace of Spades is a girl, Zersk is a guy, Loni Jay is best pony, and Morwen Edhelwen is a Walrus.

But all joking aside, Pinkie Pie is best pony.

Its an outdated thing still holding on from the days before the internet 2.0 and smart phones and when the internet was something only nerds used.

Male nerds were the overwhelming majority, and it just stuck, and a meme of that size dies hard.

Also generally speaking male pronouns is the neutral gender in English.

Many people don't mean any insult when they assume male.

edited 21st Aug '12 12:33:00 AM by Thorn14