Happy Sunday friends!
So before I headed off to the gym this morning, I briefly stopped by Dtube, as it's kind of part of my daily routine now. As I was thumbing through videos, something became glaringly obvious: there were no women in them. Video after video of male-centric videos and topics and not one female.
Here's the deal, I didn't come here to bitch about women's rights. Ultimately the curation team has the right to upvote whatever their heart desires, but I know what the Dtube powers that be truly desire is to be big, bad and respected. Shutting out women is a one-way ticket to, well, not that.
Women make up half the population and creator after creator, male and female alike, have discussed the importance of female presence on the blockchain. I need not beat that horse needlessly, it's been said and it's true.
So what perplexes me then, remains the curious case of the Sausage-Fest. If I were a female who just joined Steemit today, and I saw the dtube main page, I would not be enticed to create content.
I am not a huge fan of SJW terminology, but believe it or not, representation is important. If you don't agree, as a male, just ask yourself how you would feel coming to a website that bills itself as being for everyone, but only mainly promotes female content? Would you feel welcome? Would you feel like you had much of a chance?
This isn't even to mention the other roadblocks women face, like their looks. Men can have any kind of look really, and still get upvoted. It isn't a lot different than broadcast journalism or Hollywood. Men can get away with so much more compared to women: ie be a little overweight, have grey hair, not be a total bombshell.
(Don't believe me still? Can you even imagine a movie where a female Steve Buscemi had a main role? Even stereotypically "ugly" females in movies are pretty easy on the eyes in comparison.)
That being said, it's not hopeless. Let's bring more women to the blockchain by supporting the women who are already here.
I am in the process of starting a curation trail just for lady content. If you are interested in joining said trail, it is called @ladytube.
Anywho, all I want is for Steemit and Dtube to grow, and that can't happen only representing one sex. I implore those who have the power, to recognize more female creators more regularly! Personally, I wish that content was curated in content groups, and that females had their own group, but alas, maybe one day!
Thanks for watching guys, enjoy the rest of your weekend!
xx~Beth
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
PS - Where were all the women of crypto in 2009? I can't remember a single one. I can remember looking into bitcoin around 2010 because I was looking into payment processors for my website, but thought it was nothing more than just another Paypal. Then William Stickevers reminded me about bitcoin in 2015. I almost signed up for Coinbase then, but the KYC crap and my pressing responsibilities side tracked me again and I didn't get back to it again until the beginning of 2017 (just in time for it to moon a few months later).
Because there were no women back in the beginning that I can recall, that means that the majority of the wealth in the crypto community is held by men. We all know that change doesn't happen by the vote, but by who has the money (another Citizens United dilemma). This is the most likely source of the problem.
You need someone like Oprah to come in and buy out bitcoin (she could do it as a billionaire) and that would go a long way toward evening the score.
That would def help, but you are absolutely right, the people who are in on something in the beginning usually hold the lion's share of the wealth thereafter.
Historically speaking, computers have been marketed toward men, and that's why tech has kind of been a man's world. It's kind of a suck situation to be honest.
(I have witnessed this in my own life with my mom encouraging me to be a stay-at-home-mom, which has been awesome, but I could have likely done some amazing things with the right influence and encouragement. I am not saying that it's all society's fault that women struggle in these areas, but I also think that men take for granted how much support they get. It's highly unlikely that a man has ever been told that they should "just be a stay at home dad". I never really understood the female struggle until I became a mother that also wanted a life and career, and the insane amount of backlash I have experienced from my mother, society as a whole and employers. It's been a royal nightmare in some ways.)
I wasn't told this, but in high school my guidance counselor wanted me to go into psychology or service professions to "make me more well rounded as a human being". For a while I took this advice seriously and they even went as far as to offer college level courses (called Project Advance) to high school students. They offered me "Intro to Psychology". I then later majored in Psychology in college. I actually did quite well and DU named me Hornbeck scholar in 1982. But the profession wasn't right for me (long story). I ended up returning to the field I excelled in which was math and computer science after Dr. Jay Trowill committed suicide (he was my mentor in the honors program at DU). Saturn and Pluto were getting ready to cross my ascendant.
In the 1970's there was a push to get more women into math and the sciences because there was an overwhelming majority of men in that area. Not being fully aware of the political pressure that now had quota's for a certain number of women to be in a certain study, and wanting to have equal numbers for other areas, there was now pressure for men to bow out of science and math. I believe this was the reason why my guidance counselor suggested this because there was no other good reason for me to leave the sciences as I was a straight A student.
I know as a female I would just love to see more makeup tutorials (yours is the only one I have ever seen on here), feminine topics.. I get so bored listening to crypto talk.. and sports.. and so on.. everyone has their own likes and dislikes.. and maybe some women enjoy those topics. But I feel for sure that there is a lot of room for a wider plethora, and variety of topics.. from all sides! I understand how you feel Beth! You are brave to speak your mind! You go girl!
I am sorry if I sound rude, but when I see a female creator that says "I get so bored listening to crypto talk" it's like taking steps backwards. If we women want to be present in a crypto world perhaps we should also engage more in it instead of just yawning and saying "Yeah, more make up tutorials on Steemit". I am not an expert and I'm only starting but I do like taking part in whatever everyone has to say about growth and crypto. Yes, everyone has their own likes and dislikes, but I think that to become part of a community based on crypto one should be at least willing to understand the means instead of just using the tools. Just my opinion.
No one is saying women or men cant love to hear about crypto. For me it makes me want to fall asleep. I do understand it. I know all about it. I have spent months learning.. and I am sure I can always learn more. But I do not wish to watch 99.9% of all of my daily content concerning one topic. I am also interested in cooking... but I would not want to watch the food network from morning till night. There is little diversity in the selection of content. And you are being what you said sorry for. Sorry just my opinion ;)
Is giving my opinion being rude? You said yours and I was not saying you were rude, but I knew you'd take it like that. You are bored of crypto and I am bored of female stereotypes, simple as that, your opinion is your opinion and you gave it, mine is mine and I gave it, chill.
Wait a minute just because I am female and we are 'forward' as you say.. I have to like a particular topic? That is like saying African Americans have to like hip hop music. Forward thinking means accepting all people, from all walks of life, for their own ideas, thoughts, likes, dislikes. You can not put me in a box. And I do not fit into your narrative or what a woman should be like in this 'future' we exist in. I am girly. I don't like sports, I know much about crypto and it bores the heck out of me. Sorry if "MY" likes offend you.
oooohhhhh I like sausage ;)
I love sausage as well! ;)
Your video seemed funny at first but you raised some serious issues. I can understand guys trying to flirt with women and stuff but that's sad if women are being treated poorly and being harassed. :(
It does seem like the online world is mostly guys. Perhaps it's because of harassment? I'm not sure. Guys do seem more into techy stuff and revolution type stuff.
Have you talked to @whatsup? She is a woman and seems to be pretty "integrated". Her content is also pretty good.
Yeah I mean this was based for sure on generalities. There may be men who enjoy makeup tutorials, but considering the curation team is likely mostly if not all men for dtube, it's clear the kind of content that "men" on here enjoy.
I am so used to being harassed by men, that it's not surprising at all that it has followed me onto the blockchain. I guess what I find most egregious is these "be positive, stay positive evangelists" (as they identify themselves) not supporting the women on here. A few of them have even been part of the problem.
If I tell a guy friend on here, that I feel fairly close to that I am being sexually harassed in private chat, "boys will be boys" is not the response I am hoping for.
I hate that I haven't really been taken seriously on here, and that there are men who really think that I am so desperate to be successful that I will exchange my dignity for a few more upvotes.
As I said, I am disappointed, but not surprised...
Uh yeah there are some males that even use makeup. I am not one of those type of guys. lol In general I think women should use less makeup but I guess women do normally look better with some makeup than none.
Maybe I can help teach you how to regulate. lol You are a little "low" on Steem Power though so you still do have to be very careful on here. It kind of seems like this is the most censored platform and the most free platform all at the same time. lol Sorry about the harassment though. I think it's good you are raising awareness.
If I was there when it happened hopefully I could have helped or offered a positive suggestion. Perhaps you could have had him banned but hard to say.
In general I think guys probably do objectify women too much but I don't think women are 100% innocent when it comes to that though.
I haven't noticed much yet but then again it kind of seems like Steemit is about 90% men.
On a brighter note your videos do seem better than most. I generally prefer blogs but your videos seem ok in that I would not try and get you off Dtube and onto Steemit like I would most Dtubers. I can read very fast probably about 4x of a Dtube video speed if Dtube would ever work right. lol I could probably go through about 10 blog posts in the time it takes for 1 Dtube video. #rant #sorry lol
https://steemit.com/women/@mysearchisover/women-1-bounty-135
Thanks for sharing my post!
Yeah I am really not much of a vlogger. I want to produce real content, but it's hard to justify that time and investment when Dtube upvotes everything equally.
I have also been trying to Steemit full-time.
So, in order to pay bills, do I produce content that will get upvoted by spending an hour on it, or produce content that will get the same upvote by spending days on it?
I am actually working on a new series, and I am going to drop the first episode next week. It's a short comedy series. Dtube needs more content and less vlogs!!
That's just my personal opinion though!
It was a good post about important issues. Also important it provided me with content. lol I was going to talk about bots but I was having to much bot difficulty to even talk about it. lol
You seem to be a pretty good vlogger. I get annoyed by a lot if not most of the vloggers on here but your content seems to be worth watching. A lot of content I feel I am forced to watch because it's people that are "in the know".
Right now Steemit is my full time gig. If my metrics hold I guess it may always be my full time gig unless I get a job trying to save the world. lol
Have you reduced your bills?
I can see why people make all the Dtube videos for the big Dtube upvote but my metrics are holding up I just hope they continue to hold up. I get annoyed by people that ramble on. I think the typical Dtube video could be half as long. I also think at this point in time Youtube works better but people only upload to Dtube and not both.
Have you tried out Dlive? I think I like Dlive better than Dtube although I don't think Dlive has that big upvote that everybody craves. I think it's unfortunate that only gamers seem to go live on Dlive.
You don't want to sign up for @dustsweeper?
I noticed this as well and agree with you, my only solution so far is to feature the top 10 female DTubers every month, if you have any more ideas feel free to let me know!
It was actually really awkward for me when I tried to get my fiancé to DTube and they didn't upvote her content...
Well I mean I think things just need to be addressed with curation. It's clear that they prefer male content, and I completely understand trying to strike a balance between entertaining those that already exist here, and those we want to bring to the blockchain, but it is so out of whack right now, heavily favoring those that are already here.
And let's be honest with ourselves, how many people are really watching our content anyway? Naysayers make it seem like the males on this platform getting upvotes are entertaining thousands of men. That's just not true. There are way more producers than viewers on Dtube, and maybe, just maybe, content has something to do with that?
A 2 million dollar delegation is a lot of money. I see no reason why males and females alike can't be getting regular upvotes.
(I do potentially like the idea of having different trending categories though, and having a female category, but it will likely never happen.)
I get what you are saying, but I must say that I disagree what how it is being said. You state, "in order to get more women on the blockchain, there needs to be more women on Steemit and Dtube and the blockchain."
Feeling "safe and represented" is not the majorities responsibility. I hope I am not coming off as too harsh and calloused. I am trying to say that it should be the the burden of those who want to be at the top to strive and reach it. I am not a fan of quotas or affirmative action in order to force social change. The blockchain, Steemit, and Dtube could be the closest we have ever came to true equal opportunity. I hope they are not pressured into giving favors and special treatment to those who feel oppressed.
Maybe Steemit and Dtube are not the perfect solution and things may change. Maybe there will be another social blockchain platform that will outperform Steemit and leave it obsolete. I wish these things would happen organically and naturally and not due to a handful of folks who feel shut out or left out.
That's nice and all, but Dtube votes aren't organic, and that's what I am specifically talking about. If you want things to be natural and organic, then I highly suggest removing Dtube votes altogether so as to not create any kind of favoritism. All I am asking for is that if women have good content, for them to be considered as Dtube considers its male users.
But of course painting someone who strives for any degree of equality as someone who just feels oppressed is easier to do than to have a rational conversation about what I was actually talking about.
It's really important that the gender participation be equal and curating also even.
It's the same efforts and creativity that both sexes bring so I believe equal support system should be put in place.
@ladytube is an amazing idea and I wish you success with it.
Thanks so much! I appreciate your input!
Well written, and you made your point well. However, it reminds me of the 'everyone gets a trophy' culture.
Your quote - "Shutting out women is a one-way ticket to, well, not that."
Who said women are being 'shut out'? Maybe it's up to women to make content that is appealing to the users of the platform.
As well as you presented your post, it is a 'give us women something 'cause we are women' thing.
Of course it's great to have women represented, no one would rightfully disagree. But life is not a welfare state. If women want to be more represented, they must up the quality, frequency and interest-factor of posts.
Thank you for your post, compelled me to comment!
P.S. - I follow and upvote women on steemit. Good luck with your initiative!
This has nothing to do with "everyone getting a trophy", like, at all. I refuse to be sucked in to an argument I didn't make. This has everything to do with business, and not failing at it.
Take all of the SJW mumbo jumbo you were just talking about and throw it out the window. That's not what I said and that's not what I am addressing here. The only reason I threw out the word "representation" is because it just so happens to be something that people take seriously. It's 2018. What successful business in their right mind would pride themselves by having a 90% male userbase, unless they were a company that specifically catered to men? Is this mantube? Am I just a confused woman here?
Dtube is first and foremost a business. It wants to make money, it wants to grow. In order to do that, it will have to appeal more to women. Women make up half of the population, and some of the biggest YouTubers are women. Dtube is undeniably a sausage fest. You don't have to look very far to see that.
What you are suggesting in saying that "women should have to appeal to the users of the platform" is that the platform shouldn't grow. It should stay a secluded group of libertarian men all stroking each other's cocks. I don't think that's particularly good for growth, as a businesswoman myself.
And it is wonderful that you follow and upvote women on Steemit, but it is these huge votes that make or break a producer, that help them get in front of more eyeballs. The other platforms do not seem to have this problem and think just as highly of their female producers as their males. I'm not entirely sure why that is so hard for this platform to grasp. There is an undeniable difference in the amount females get for their content, even if it's high quality.
If this were just some dude who took his own money to start a business, I would say, have at it, do what you want. If you want to just watch dudes with beards and axes and shredded pecs all day, be my guest, but that isn't the case. Ned gave a huge gift to dtube to be evenly distributed to encourage use and growth of this platform. This voting trend is not encouraging growth, and is discouraging female use.
Ultimately, I want this platform to succeed, and there is a lot riding on it. EOS is nipping at Steem's heels, and WILL do things better if we do not.
No one is arguing with you, and your aggressive attitude at the start of your reply is both impolite and demanding.
I wish all women well on every platform, but as far as I can tell, there are no rules keeping women off Steemit or any other platform.
As far as SJWs go, I'm sick of them, as millions of others are.
Have a good day, and best wishes.
Apparently this is your first experience with my blog, and my subsequent non-demure personality.
Welcome.
"Of course it's great to have women represented, no one would rightfully disagree. But life is not a welfare state. If women want to be more represented, they must up the quality, frequency and interest-factor of posts."
"Where there's a but, there's an argument." - Beth Wheatcraft
I'm glad that we agree that SJW's are douche canoes. Finding mutual ground is important.
I can no longer retort to your straw man argument. If you don't want to address the things I actually mentioned so be it. Again, I never said there were rules keeping women off Dtube, just that I think they should be as fairly compensated as men are for the quality content they produce. Dtube holds a lot of borrowed voting power. It shouldn't just be reserved for mostly men.
Good Day!
Thank you for taking the time to reply. It seems we agree on most points. I wasn't aware of your non-demureness, but who cares? Give and take.
As far as compensation on Dtube, of course women should be compensated fairly for quality postings. It is demented to think otherwise. And (no more 'buts'), it is a market economy here. Does it suck? Certainly sometimes!
Any systematic discrimination against women is wrong, full stop. I wish and hope women on Steemit and Dtube feel welcome and do as well as men, sincerely.
But it has to occur 'organically'. How that happens is beyond my brain power, except for maybe persistence. This is not a welfare state economy. If women attract attention for posting good content, great! If they don't, well life is like that. I'm not sure what exactly you are asking for.
You seem to be asking people to change their natural inclinations and behaviours to better support women. Do I hope women are supported? Yes! Do I want people forced to support women? No! Time will level the field. Forced behaviour will lead to a backlash.
By the way, I have plankton status, so it's not like I'm raking in the bucks by the bushel.
Let's pass the peace pipe, I think we probably agree on most points.
I appreciate the discussion going on here. Beth brings up some valid points, which I fully support, but I agree with @mmo-mmo that it has to happen "organically".
When I get an upvote I don't want to wonder whether I really earned it, or if dTube had to keep their ratios of votes to women up. Do you know what I mean? I also happen to be critical of affirmative action for the same reason. Once guidelines are in place to 'protect' a certain group, we create more division.
@bethwheatcraft, I am not suggesting that was your answer. I'm just saying it's complicated. I've not been involved in DTube enough to really notice a discrepancy. I barely have enough time to post daily and support my followers. However, I was approached in a very disrespectful (to put it lightly) manner through Discord and to be honest, had I not been warned by someone and ready for the proposition, I likely would have packed my bags, cashed in my SBD and left the platform. Instead I approached the situation with humor and disarmed the would-be aggressor.
So again, I don't have an answer. It almost needs to come from men because the more women bring it up, the more we're viewed as whining or wanting special treatment. Is that right, fair or even accurate? Of course not, but it's the climate for now. @bethwheatcraft, I applaud you for having the guts to speak up. I hope we do see some change and I hope we can create it without polarizing.
There is nothing organic about Dtube upvotes though.
Again, that is what I am specifically talking about here.
The "Dtube Darlings" didn't become popular organically. They became popular because they got consistent upvotes from Dtube, which boosted their visibility and subsequent SP.
If you really want things to be organic, then completely remove the dtube upvote and force people to find support organically. This isn't it though.
I also don't support affirmative action in most instances, especially when it might put someone in danger (ie accommodations made for women who want to work in the fire dept but wouldn't be able to lift a heavy person out of a burning building.)
I do however support some of the changes brought forth by AA regarding the police dept, which has for too long focused on brute strength, and not the power of de-escalation, which women are provenly better at.
I feel like this is kind of a straw man argument when my real point was that, if dtube upvotes continue, and the platform wants to grow, it will have to consider upvoting more women. That's all there is to it.
@crowbarmama - Thank you for the considered and balanced reply. I'm all for women - after all, my mother and grandmothers are women. But I'm against coersion of any kind.
@bethwheatcraft - I am not arguing with you, I appreciate your post and bringing up the issue. Some of the best posters I have seen here are indeed women. The most important thing is conversation and debate, and thank you for your contribution.
This is a faulty argument. Nobody is being shut out. It’s literally impossible to do that on steem. Anyone can create an account, power up some steem and start creating and curating content.
If you want to promote female authors and content, then great. Go for it.
That's besides the point I was making.
I have invested money into Steem, and anyone can, you are right, but again, not the point here.
Women are being shutout of Dtube upvotes. The same Dtube upvotes that their male counterparts are getting. And Christ on a Stick if one more person tells me it's about "quality content", so help me God I will make a compilation video of all the male "quality content" that was given upvotes this last week. It won't be pretty, trust me, so don't go there.
My point was that ignoring women's content by not upvoting at least some of it is bad for business. No more, no less. Women have just as much of a right to a dtube upvote for their quality content as men. I'm not sure why this is such a contentious issue.
When you say dtube upvotes, do you mean the upvotes of the @dtube account or the upvotes of random users on dtube?
The upvotes of the Dtube account.
Ah that wasn’t clear to me from your OP.
It could very well be that whoever is running the account is picking videos subjectively rather than being impartial with respect to the subject matter.
I think you really clearly and eloquently outlined some of the concerns here. We do hear a lot of people talk about encouraging more women to join the platform, but if they don’t see that kind of content being celebrated here, they won’t feel at home - or inspired to post their content here.
If Dtube wants to become a more male centric platform, then that is totally their decision. But they should be conscious of how their curation decisions affects women content creators and where those women feel most excited about sharing their videos.
I totally agree!
Sometimes these schools happen naturally without intent simply because like attracts like. I've tried to stop watching these patterns because it does me no good.
Well said. Someone must have been upvoting some of the women here because when I checked the 'hot' page there were at least 17 women there. I stopped counting.
The curation trail is pretty cool idea. Looks like your video got a bit of traction.
Yeah, I think this def got through to some degree, for better or worse.
Careful - you might upset the boys with their little toys!
Same lack of representation in the witnesses - 4 I know of / out of nearly 200..
Yeah I have definitely kicked the proverbial bro hornet's nest.
I have been brushing up on my programming in hopes of running for witness at some point.
I feel like I have good insight into the issues the Steem blockchain is having from a user standpoint, I just need to really get into the technological side of it. I think both are equally important though.
Witness is not unlike other political roles. The people running are so obsessed with popularity and securing their spot that they are completely overlooking the very issues that could bring down the whole platform.
Good look with the witness thing.
And if you've upset people with the gender issue, may I suggest NOT mentioning the social class issue!
thanks for being such an influencial female on blockchain. other ladies look up to you.
Thanks. I just want Steemit and Dtube to succeed. We all lose if it doesn't.
absolutely right.
Hey @bethwheatcraft, you look so attractive in this post.
Yeah I have my sexy face on for sure.
hahaha
Your story really feels great and the words that you talk about blockchain and technology are really beautiful and the video is more beautiful and you want to thank you so much for the last three months I have posted dtube but I am not If I get the reply then I will get the votes from them and if they post a video they will like it in my video I used to say a lot to me
sorry about the downvote... :( I forgot this is not YouTube and downvotes really matter. I forgot I could not take it back. I wish there was something I could do.
I honestly feel terrible and especially after I wrote a disagreeing comment previously. Please accept my apology and in the future if there is content I do not like I will just move on with no vote (as I should have done this video).
You should be able to remove it. Just click the flag again and then change it to an upvote.
You make valid points in the underrepresentation of women on DTube, but in saying that you also open up a new whole argument of many minorities not being represented (and you also acknowledge only 2 genders in this video).
I know it's not your intention but the vlog does come off as misandrous. Plus you assume men are only into crypto/beards/arnarchy etc.
The model does need to change but convincing someone to come onto dtube and make videos because of their gender rather than if they want to make videos is a tough ask. As always, appreciate your strong thoughts :)
I feel like I could build a scarecrow out of all of these straw man arguments.
I wasn't aware there was a community of lgbtq people who produce high quality videos daily on dtube and are dissatisfied because they aren't regularly upvoted. If you could point me to that group I would be more than happy to help them get seen too.
For now, I am championing for the sex I identify with, and telling me I am wrong for not representing everyone is the worst kind of strawman. Srsly.
I don't think it's misandrous to point out the obvious. If you get offended, that's not on me. Women are being underrepresented for content that is as good as the men. Just a short while after releasing this video, about 12 women got upvotes, and their content was all good. They upload daily, and had been missed for ages. Why does it take someone having to shout from the rooftops to get women heard?
I only assume men are into those things because it is what gets upvoted, and with the majority of this platform being men, and curators swearing that they are upvoting the best content for its consumers, one can only conjecture then that men are only into videos about that stuff.
From the reaction to this video, men certainly aren't into women voicing their opinions.
I guess when you throw in that divide it does add pressure on Dtube. Same with that anti-darlings movement. Either way, glad to see it worked :)
Don't know any LGBTQI groups on here, but that's because I haven't delved into it. It's cool how you are slowly exposing the ones who feel threatened. Steem On!