Katie McQuater
WVoN co-editor
The rapid growth of virtual ‘pin board’ social networking site Pinterest has been documented in the media recently, its success attributed to its popularity among women.
Around 80% of the site’s US users are female, although the UK has more male users.
Pinterest was founded as a gender-neutral platform for people to collect and share easily. It allows users to pin and group images on a vast array of themes and is visually-stimulating.
Co-founder Ben Silbermann has said that it’s simply collecting and sharing common interests that lies at the heart of the concept:
“As a kid, I loved collecting. I collected everything from insects to stamps to books. I’ve always thought that the things you collect — whether it’s the furniture in your home or the music on your iPod — says a lot about who you are.
“I thought it would be great to bring that entire experience online and help connect people who have common interests.”
The site’s content is dominated by lifestyle themes such as interior design, crafts and style.
Along with the large number of female users, this has resulted in Pinterest being described as female-only by some – tech blog Gizmodo dismissed the site as ‘Tumblr for ladiez’, and one Washington Post journalist has called it ‘digital crack for women’.
Yes, the site is dominated by women but doesn’t mean that it’s only of interest to women, or, even more patronisingly, that it was created especially for women and women alone.
That perception portrays a very narrow view of a valuable and interesting platform, by confining it to one gender. The message is: if you are female, you will love Pinterest. If you are a man, you won’t get it.
Whilst doing a disservice to the many creative businesses run by both sexes using Pinterest to showcase work and drive traffic to their blogs and websites (it’s more than just kitsch and recipes), the idea that it’s only for women also pigeonholes women’s interests.
It also conveniently ignores the fact that Pinterest is not only rapidly expanding, but is also the fifth most-visited social network in the US, after Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Yahoo! Answers (according to data from Experian Hitwise).
Yes. That’s the fifth largest social networking site, not the fifth largest social networking site for women.
Meanwhile, 70% of Google+ users are male, perhaps because it is seen as an extension of other Google services such as Android, popular with young men.
The opportunities Pinterest can provide for both women and men are seemingly endless. It’s visually engaging and allows easy sharing and interaction.
It just remains to be seen whether this start-up company can bridge the gender gap and attract a wider male audience, or whether the sexes are to be confined to separate social networking spheres and outdated gender stereotypes.
