Female Internet

One and a half hundred years, one hero of Dostoevsky accused women of no less than creativity. “Without men, they will disappear like flies - here is my opinion. The whole female question is only a lack of originality. I assure you that this female whole question was invented by men, foolishly, on their own neck ... not the slightest variety, sir, they will not invent a simple pattern; and the patterns for them are inventing!” The belief that the maximum program is cheerfully walking along the paths -treasured by smart men, to this day, even among the progressive in all respects of the public, for example, among the inhabitants of the network. It's a shame for the human race, by golly. And even more offensive that it is on the Internet that you can easily find the next refutation of patriarchal stereotypes about the secondary of the female "I" compared to the male.

For if men have created the Internet, then women in a matter of years created their own archipelago in it. I promised to tell about him the last time (in the article "Portrait of Cyberwum"), and now I will try to conscientiously fulfill the promise.

As a cultural phenomenon (and he, of course, is such), female Runet is practically not studied - but a pity. In its very occurrence - over the years, from nowhere, from a certain predawn fog - there is something fantastic and at the same time causing respect. I do not exaggerate: for another 7 years, all the specifically “feminine” in Runet consisted in several dating sites representing foreign grooms a full range of Russian brides. Now it is a huge section of cyberspace, which has many thousands of sites (how much - no one has ever thought). The Runet’s female archipelago is something living and a single, pulsing common banners, with a single and at the same time extremely motley audience, which unites not only the floor and the presence of Internet access, but also the perception of the world.

In this case, two important reservations should be made immediately. Firstly, if it is difficult to find a female user who at least once visited certain "female" sites, then it is also difficult to find a user who would only visit them. The presence of a specifically female virtual space does not mean that a woman on the network is not interested in anything else. And secondly, men are also present among visitors to women's sites, although, of course, in more than modest quantities. For the vast majority of men, female Internet - if not enemy territory, then Terra Incognita, an unfamiliar and mysterious world, which is time for cognitive excursions. Well, let's try.

It makes sense to start a tour of this world with women's portals divided into two subspecies: universal and specialized. The first (for example, Assol , Women's Club or Iwoman.ru ) claim to the role of virtual embodiment of the female universe, in which there is everything that can worry a woman: from the properties of cosmetic milk (" it does not only cleanses the skin: but also regulates her fatty balance " to the gender asymmetry in the language (" the language captures the picture of the world from a male point of view, therefore it is not only Anthropocentric (focused on a person), but also Androcentric (focused on a man) ”). The universal female portal certainly includes many sections:“ fashion ”,“ beauty ”,“ health ”,“ love ”,“ carrots ”(sorry,“ cooking ”),“ psychology ”(in various versions“ he and it ”,“ you yourself ”, etc.),“ family ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ celebrities ”,“ “Hobbies”, “Travels”, etc., filled with articles and illustrations, thus, the woman who visited the portal gets the opportunity to find out the recipes of face masks, the size of the manual at the birth of the first child, the methods of establishing relations with the mother -in -law and the methodology of early diagnosis of deviant behavior in children.

The combination of such dissimilar things - albeit not within the same site, but within the group of sites focused on the same segment of the audience - this, on the first (or male) look, egregious violation of the rules, an intellectual vinaigrette, something like the Chichikovo cherished box, exhibited with all contents for public review. This is true. The contents of the universal female portal really resemble if not the Chichikovo casket, then the collection of the treasures of the old virgin, enclosed in a carved wooden casket: old letters interspersed with dried flowers, sentimental postcards, a diary in a thick general notebook and skein of hacking threads.

Specialized portals (" Cosmetics.ru ", " Intermoda.ru ", etc.) are much more monotonous: if from the very beginning (that is, from the title) the creators of the portal say that it will be, for example, about fashion (a fashionable site " Sarafan "), then even a culinary recipes will not be able to take Poiro. But such a narrow specialization allows the authors of materials to achieve in the development of the heights that are relevant for the beautiful half of humanity, in principle inaccessible to conservative male consciousness, as evidenced by the names of individual materials, for example, “Auto -Zagar in questions and answers”, “The exquisite style of safari”, “We correctly paint the lips”. In the section of the news of portals dedicated to terrible power - beauty - there is certainly a summary from the front of battles with cellulite (the information is always comforting: thanks to the superior strength of the "n" enemy, the enemy began to retreat). Support portals about beauty and health often manufacturers of goods that make beauty perfect, and unwavering health, or salons that provide appropriate services; And the portals about fashion are shops of expensive clothes.

Women's portals are on the heels of women's Internet media, which are usually entertaining and divided, in turn, on the online versions of paper magazines (for example, www.cosmo.ru ) and the network actually existing in digital form (" Newwoman ", " Cleo ", " Bride "). Behind the online versions of paper magazines are professionals, which often can not be said about the owners and especially the authors of purely network publications, and meanwhile the latter are almost always much more interesting than the former, because: a) are more often updated (many - daily); b) thanks to the liberalism of the editorial policy, they are unusually close to the people. Many network women's magazines are not disdained by such works of amateur authors, which, if desired, can easily be considered training exercises of the novice parodist.

"The girl from the picture was increasingly interested in Leshka. It even seemed to him that she was watching him. What part of the store he was in, everywhere he caught her gaze." Probably, this is the focus of the artist, "he thought .
( http://www.kleo.ru/items/contest/tayna_doma.shtml )

"White snow came again,
The window was strewn again.
Where are you a dear person ...
I don't care.
You will not look for me
I will not call you.
All because, alas,
Together we no longer be. "
( http://www.womanclub.ru/?text&id=41561 )

It is easy to laugh at such; It is even easier - to find a better text among a pile of poetry and stories. But does it make sense to approach the fragile sprouts of amateur ladies' creativity with garden scissors of professional criticism? In essence, all female texts on the network - from Arbatova to unknown pseudonyms - are one giant metatex, the value of which is identical to his vitality. In the Simulakra era, when everything genuine has special significance, any attempt to drive freedom of expression into the aesthetic framework is at least doubtful. “Female” stack texts there is no need for structural elements creating the “effect of reality” (Bart) - they are already too real, floating and gloomy in the semiotic sphere of everyday life. That “prose about love”, that “prose of life” is one feature ... that is, excuse me, one stream of female consciousness, captured with the greatest strength, however, in “specially created” texts, but in the process of free communication on the forums.

If the forum, in principle, is a special Internet genre, then women's forums (“ Zhenosov. The meeting place ”, forum on “wwwomen” , forum at the magazine “www.4w.ru” , a forum about losing weight and others) are doubly unique - both in themes and in function. The female forum is absolutely unlike the forum "male", with its sebaceous jokes and an atmosphere of a crowded smoking room; And if in thematic female forums the features of genetic kinship with thematic male forums are still visible, then the virtual space, which discusses purely personal and cherished, decisively uniquely. The female forum is simultaneously confessional and a psychotherapist’s office, a bench at the entrance and a fair on a festive day, ladies' gatherings behind a bottle of “cracker” and a children's screech of high school students on a lawn.

Hundreds, thousands of votes - without interrupting each other, but by some miraculously forming a coordinated choir - explain, instruct, advise, console, amusement. There is no such topic with which it would be impossible to come to the women's forum, and there is no such trouble that could not be brought there.

"Women and men, help with advice !!! My brother meets with a prostitute !!! I would have nothing against such meetings, but he is going to marry her in my opinion. He lives in Europe. Our young ladies only in childhood and even saw in local brothels. How did he meet her, I have no idea what he found in it either. She also found it as an atomic winter. Wins. "

( http://www.zhensovet.com/utf/display_topic_threads.asp?forumid=6&topicid=1365&pageption=1 )

“For six months now I have been met with a married man. I love it very much. He is 13 years old. The horoscope is twins. He has been married for 9 years. There is a son for 7 years. I have been familiar with his wife. The other day I will suddenly find out that my wife is an ugly in the position. In the third month. I am still in shock. He certainly did not promise her. But how could he hide it from me?”
( http://wwww.eva.ru/main/forum/frames?idboard=42 )

" Kiss_of_angel
Is it really so cool to get drunk, discuss it, as if there is nothing more to talk about, then smoke. I do not drink (I just don't like it) and do not smoke (for the same reason). Are there really more such people or they just did not meet me?
2004-02-07 17:15:39 20
Constantly getting drunk is not cool, it is alcoholism. People like you are - it's me. "
( http://www.womanclub.ru/?forumView&id=1512924 )

Perhaps it is difficult to find a more visual confirmation of the words of Simona Bovoir that they are not born to a woman, but become than these are often illiterate, naive, reverent and violent attempts to look at itself, understand this world and its place in it. Wrapping through the thistle of the prejudices, sifting the fresh flour of someone else's experience and erasing from the picture of the world by gilding illusions, the young and not very inhabitants of the network learn to be women - and to watch this process is damn interesting. The world of female Internet forums is still waiting for its researcher, and I envy in advance the success of his psychological monograph.

What else is included in the female circle? Projects dedicated to motherhood and childhood, health, online stores of cosmetics and clothing, beauty salons sites, as well as sites of female political organizations that have chosen a gender-sensitive strategy for a woman’s presentation in politics (in other words, dealing with the same problems of childhood and motherhood). The huge layer of the female Internet is made up of sites dedicated to numerous female hobbies - from embroidery to fortune -telling, and the network is able to satisfy the spiritual requests of any level, and not only the centuries -old interest of women in the secrets of baking and magic.

The range is wide - from numerous sites dedicated to Latin American television series - " Telenovelas of Televisa ", " World of Televisionlies ", " Braziliada " - to projects such as " Real Literature ::: female family " and the official website of Masha Arbatova . Many of these sites are made by enthusiasts and are located on free servers, which does not prevent them from being in demand and even popular. Moreover, if the world of professional or semi-professional female resources is still amenable to some ordering, then the world of amateur sites, personal web pages created by women and/or for women is inexhaustible, as inexhaustible and female fantasy, which found new and inexhaustible opportunities in cyberspace. And since female resources are universality of the geniuses of the Renaissance, combined with the survivability and reproduction of the ciliates-tufelek, then this massif can be covered by not a single catalog of female resources. However, this is not of particular need: as we have convinced, the variety of women's sites is a variety in monotony.

From the article "How to distinguish a real man from surrogate":
"I prefer men. I prefer not to women, but to the male -like - those who are heterosexual is" attributed "to the strong floor, but the attitude towards it has a purely formal one. I’ll take the courage to clarify how the real man differs from the surrogate."
( http://www.woman.ru/?text&id=41110 )

From the recipe "Fake caviar from semolina and fake herring under a fur coat":
"I am doing this way: when I buy a sprat and it itself. It is salted for a day, and then I clean it, and I boil all the right together with the brine. Therefore, I filter it up, and put the semolina in this brine. The main thing is to put vegetable oil with Manka, then the semolina will not be confused in lumps."
( http://www.cooking.ru/interceate_exchange/board41/message669853.html )

(Here they are, Simulakra!)

The essence of the female Internet is not so much in men (this topic is not too interested in their topic), how many users themselves. For some, a reserve won from a cruel world, where you can finally be yourself and relax; For others - a cell in which women are driven by the apologists of Domostroy. Probably, both of them are right in my own way, but I personally would like to say about one characteristic feature of the female Internet - for which, in essence, an article was written.

The fact is that in the virtual female world there is nothing specifically "virtual." (I note as a curious fact: the massive female hobbies do not include computer games of all types, they are not compact on female portals and in the form of programs, and in the form of banners). Everything that interests the woman in the very fact that it is real life is simply transferred to the cyberspace - personal life, shopping, economy, children, etc. On the other hand, the female space of Runet is surprisingly tight: all social worries and economic crises, shaking not only the real, but also the virtual world, pass through it not that in the homeopathic doses (recall about the sites of female political movements), but somehow a side. The news of the female media is not terrorist attacks and fluctuations in the dollar, but the love suffering of Hollywood stars and recipes for preserving the family hearth.

The first association arising in connection with this circumstance is, of course, paper women's magazines and other female segment of mass culture. Then, when you read into a simple rhymes about “cruel love” on amateur sites, so similar to painted notebooks and albums of provincial high school students, this association turns pale. The female segment of mass culture is made by tough professionals. There are on the network, but this is not the charm of the female Internet. The artless sincerity, which so often breaks through in it, in combination with the "eternity" of topics, suddenly refers us to the protected past, with Tatyana, guessing to the Christmas time, with girlish gatherings in the light of the beam, with a bitter woman with lamentation. All these mystical sites, women's forums, pouring the soul and recipes of eternal, real, genuine female happiness bear the imprint not just traditions, but archaic. All that feminists fiercely fight with, and that is included in the concept of “ gender stereotype ”, all that seemingly hopelessly the world of experiences, feelings, superstitions alive and flourishes on the network.

So the story is toe: I have left my ex -former almost for 3 years. After there were acquaintances and there were guys among them in which I specifically fell in love. But there was nothing to come out, the guys eventually left me. Then they started the country's things to happen with me and I went to one woman and she determined my damage.
( http://www.ameno.ru/cgi-bin/forum/yabb.cgi?board=m1&actlay&num=107489492 )

I am in complete despair. I go to the sorceress about my beloved ...
( http://www.ameno.ru/cgi-bin/forum/yabb.cgi?board=m1&actlay&num=1072815767 )

But, oddly enough, this archaic at the beginning of the 21st century, connected with the latest technologies, does not cause irritation. And not only because no one is imposing on the network. The female Internet is an analogy of the house where everything should be: children, and the kitchen, and the bedroom, and ohi -ahi when viewing the television series, and curtains in tone to the wallpaper, and holy fortune -telling, and Easter cakes; At home where there should be order, okay, and where everything should be beautiful. All creative activity of women - in reality, that in the network is a continuous attempt to arrange the world. By and large, this is an attempt to confront entropy and the aggressive chaos of cyberspace. And like any attempt by this kind, she deserves respect.