Recently, when the Nashville TV station WKRN ‘friended me’ on MySpace, I blogged that it caused me to discover that TV stations must be “feminine” as WKRN’s MySpace profile described “her” as a 53-year-old female.
Today, I learned (sorry, I can’t retrace who pointed me there) that some resourceful reporters at the Fife Herald in Scotland have set up a MySpace account. (Side note: I actually consider Fife “local” as the 19-year-old attends the University of St Andrews.) In its case, however, the Fife Herald is described on MySpace as a 100-year-old male. (”The Gray Lady” may be surprised to learn that newspapers are males.)
Shouldn’t MySpace be issuing guidelines on this important matter?
I apologize in advance for not being aware if there have been any long-simmering debates in the linguistic community related to the genderfication of institutions who/that join online social networks.
Technorati Tags: myspace, fife, socia media
December 20th, 2006 at 3:52 pm
Plato’s Closet in Cool Springs is a 20 year old female. Coincidentally, that is pretty much inline with our target market.
December 20th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
Jackson, I thought Plato was a male — however, I am happy to learn the store named after his/her closet is a female. These are important philosophical issues. (Pun intended.)