Irina Terentyeva. Wife networking on the eve of March 8

(Internet-holiday)

The editor of the "Net-culture" column approached me with a proposal to write, by March 8 , "a text about the women's network and women in general on the Internet, and not only about porn." Regarding the latter, I immediately remembered the words of Alexander Nikolaevich Zhitinsky, who noted back in 1997 in the Yellow Pages Internet: Recreation and Entertainment: “To say that there is a lot of erotica and sex on the Internet is to say nothing... I think that If you catch and undress all the women on Earth, there will still be fewer of them than naked women on the Internet."

Therefore, without touching on this aspect due to its volume, I will try to summarize my experience of web surfing as it relates to “Zhenoset” over the past three years.

At the beginning of 1997, in the annual catalog "Internet'97 Russian Resources" one could find only a few addresses related to this issue. For example, the site www.women.redline.ru with the following announcement: “Women’s WWW” - there are no topics dedicated to serious women’s issues, such as political activism, discrimination, etc. But there is cooking, fashion, cosmetics, hairstyles... Everything that might be interesting to the fair sex in a good mood." (This URL is currently unresponsive, but its current reincarnation is apparently http://www.woman. ru ).

In the same 1997, there was a small number of sites that covered the mentioned topics separately: for example, “Cooking” , “Shaping” , “Cosmetics” and a dozen electronic marriage agencies.

And at the beginning of March 2000, a separate thematic catalog “Internet Women” was published, which presented 911 resources. (For more information about the presentation of the catalog, see the report by Olga Goryunova) Moreover, these are the sites of only those organizations that officially deal with women's issues (gender issues). Outside the scope of the catalog there are numerous and varied informal thematic resources, ladies' communities, girls' personal pages, etc.

Over three years, the component of the Russian Internet in question has increased in volume no less than a hundred times. I will not be able to survey the entire breadth of the horizon in this short article; I will dwell only on the most expressive examples.

For simplicity of presentation, I propose to consider network resources based on the following aspects: what was created 1) FOR women , 2) ABOUT women , and 3) made by women THEMSELVES (for everyone) .

There are, however, projects that combine all three points. These are, for example, “Ladies’ Club” or “Bachelorette Party” , but they are intended for purely internal use and are integral, closed, I would say hermetic target formations in the spirit of the already mentioned motto “Everything that may be interesting to the fair sex in good mood."

The WWWoman project by Olga Taevskaya has a much broader task. The value of the site is that in addition to weekly updated articles, poems, photographs, it contains about a hundred links to pages created by women’s hands. Moreover, there is not just a “Catalog of all women’s resources and pages,” but also a “Rating of women’s Online publications.”

Another example: "Women's Information Service" , the main activity of which is the collection, storage and dissemination of information for women and about women. Currently, the official Database contains information about 2,248 participants in the women's movement, 1,500 women's organizations and 172 events in the women's movement, and the site contains only verified information, including information about women's media and government agencies dealing with issues of the status of women in Russia.

So, in order:

1. Sites FOR women

Especially for us, our loved ones, many highly specialized sites have been created, “from” to “to” dedicated to any one but relevant women’s issue. A few examples:

Well and so on.

I would especially like to mention the site "Mario" , which gives advice on how we women should live. There are sections with the following headings:

"Here you will find something that interests every young lady"

Or:

"What you need to know about men" . I can’t help but quote: “If a woman wants not to be noticed, then she should wear clothes that completely cover her body, and loose shapes that make her a shapeless creature.” Incomparable advice, thank you, we'll take it into account.

2. About women

The same Mario, on the other half of his website, has provided valuable information for men about the art of communicating with women . (“How can we better meet, please, pick up, understand, live and have all other friendly relationships with women” ) As you can see, Mario is a rare expert on a very wide range of issues.

And here is another kind of network project: “Girls on the Network,” which, in particular, says:

After many days of climbing the Russian part of the Internet in search of the female population, it turned out that girls really hardly do anything in design and webmastering (well, of course, compared to the opposite sex) and then the idea was born to create a site that would tell not just about girls spending your Internet hours for chats, ICQ, Irka and others like them, but about the girls who really create this very “Russian no” . Therefore, on this site the female part of the Russian Internet community will be presented, engaged in web design, web mastering, web programming, web promotion and all other web creative (web creating).

To tell the truth, the site’s creators solve this problem somewhat strangely, in my opinion, but the intention is commendable.

I won’t write about girls in the Networks of virtual marriage agencies for reasons of principle.

Finally, a particularly cynical case, a vivid example of deception and unclean thoughts. Some guys, legally registered in Cyprus, offer young attractive ladies to take part in the Miss Internet 2000 contest for free and receive $20,000 for winning. Conditions - on the website "Miss Internet 2000" . The target audience of the site is girls who want to participate in some competitions and “Patrons”, for whom special instructions are given:

In order for the Patron to approach voting wisely and carefully and at the same time to express his sympathies to the Participant, he is given the opportunity to increase the bets on the Participant by playing at the Happy Chance Casino Sweepstakes, where one vote (or one point) is counted per bet of one US dollar.

No comments.

3. Made by the women THEMSELVES (for everyone)

I would like to dedicate this section to the most interesting and original representatives of the Russian web. Here are some of them that are quite widely known:

Asya Patrysheva is one of the very first FIDO girls to appear on the global Internet, the creator of the legendary page “Kenga.Ru”, and many very popular and useful servers, for example: “Food in St. Petersburg” and “Travel.ru” . Asya is a professional with vast experience and impeccable taste.

Nastic Gryzunova , almost permanent author of the “Seine” review in the Russian Journal, presenter of the “Internet” column in “Vestya.ru”, participant in the Hedgehog Movement , etc. Nastic with her Internet asceticism is an example of a combination of creativity, intelligence, charm and a living soul. It is unknown how she manages to maintain her enthusiasm while writing such a huge number of periodic online reviews, even since October 1996, when she joined the creators of Zhurnal.ru as editor of the news department.

Daria Telegina , a philologist by training who has devoted herself to raising three children, has been running the weekly updated website “Mysticism, History, Religion” since the beginning of 1997. She has written a huge number of articles about the Internet in the off-line press. An example of selfless service to a noble educational mission.

Vika Vinogradova, professional Internet user (author's website on the Internet: www.ladno.com ). Under her leadership and with her direct participation, a lot of Internet projects related to culture and art were implemented, for example, the textbook English-language website "Russian Web Girls" .

Looking back at the volume of this article, I decided to stifle the temptation to talk about a good dozen more Internet women.

The percentage of Russian Internet users at the end of 1999, according to Monitiring.ru, was about 25% of the total audience (among those who regularly visit the Internet and spend at least 1 hour there a week).

In 1997, these were mainly those who were professionally related to computers and the Internet. I will cite memories of that time from my long-standing article “A collective image of the staff of a provider company.”

┘girls found in the provider wilds are most often extremely witty, beautiful and efficient. Of course, they have knowledge of languages, PC, DP, database, touch typing, scanning, programming, etc., etc.... In such a concentration per 1 square meter, such representatives of the fairer sex are not found anywhere else: there are typical Slavic beauties with a luxurious braid to the waist, there are long-legged and elegant sports by European standards, there are miniature goldilocks with huge blue eyes, mysterious and elusive. A client lost in the provider departments, seeing one of them passing by in khaki shorts or a leather miniskirt, thinks deeply - why is this, I mean, did he come here?..

By now, the quantitative and qualitative level of the girls described on the Internet has, of course, increased, thanks to the general increase in the number of providers and female presence on the Internet. Other types also appeared: secretarial staff of most computerized offices, heads of departments, financial employees, journalists, etc. According to the same monitoring, recently among Russian Internet users the share of only housewives has increased to 2%, and this is such a special little thing that characterizes general trends.

What can I say to my fellow Internet users?

Clearly, we are not decorating the Russian web with our presence enough yet. Weak, sisters. We must realize our capabilities and together bring more beauty, comfort and kindness into this world.

On the eve of the holiday of March 8, I would like to wish: may men dedicate new sites to us and inspire us to achieve further creative success.

Happy holiday, friends!