The Metro-Sexual

This term has become popular throughout pop culture and shows such as Sex in the City and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, but the implied definition and use of the word in masculine culture opens up a whole new level of “self awareness and personal freedom”. As the blog prompt question states, this term “metro-sexual” and the websites dedicated to male health such as the UK Men’s Guide,  AskMen.com, and GQ open up a non-traditional role where awareness over passivity towards emotions, sexual issues, and pleasing your partner is no longer seen as wrong. Many men are uncomfortable with these new trends in the internet where sites don’t aim to just discuss cars, women, and beer, but even more still are going with their wives or girlfriends to the spa to get a mani-pedi and facial. These sites work as an outlet and a tool of freedom for men who wish to explore the conventions of their gender and perhaps dabble beyond there comfort levels without anyone questioning their own personal “masculinity”.

AskMen.com functions as a second Cosmopolitan, but for men. Though it highlights Gaming and Fine-Living, the highlights  are sexuality, women. and lifestyle as is evident by the number of drop down menu’s related to these categories and the pictures of women plastered over the site. In contrast, UK Men’s Guide seems to me more ambiguous with it’s footing shifting many of the links into so-called “feminine spheres” such as cooking. The GQ website is a odd mix of both, they empathize every aspect of supposed “masculinity” that is excepted by the culture of men, sports, DIY’s and cars as well a plethora of women on the site, however they also list a section for anti-aging treatments, exfoliators, and moisturizers. These products are often seen as only for females as they begin to freak out when their aging process kicks in and their men won’t want them anymore because they are no longer young and beautiful.

As the term mentioned above and the websites listed indicate, men are branching into a different cultural sphere in terms of masculinity and most of the views of masculinity are in part directed by upbringing, curiosity and friendships. Personally I view the term masculinity as something every man must define for himself as every women must find her own “femininity” or not, if she chooses. Men and women can throw on and throw off cultural titles with less of a stress on gender and these sites dive into that notion of the evolution of manhood and are there for the purpose of exploration and self knowledge into an under-explored, cultural understanding of men.

Personal Website

One of the biggest parts of my “construction” that I would include on my web page would be my love of writing, writers that inspire me, and the website to my internship. All of these sites play into how I view the act of writing and they inform my own writing as well as how I choose to write.

http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/http://www.thebunnyblog.com/

http://www.lulu.com/

http://www.bancroftpress.com/

http://Thebunnyblog.com

Another love of mine that keeps me perky in the morning when I don’t want to get up and go to class is my love of kitten pictures. This why I would also include The Daily Kitten which offers daily pictures of the cutest kittens and cats that get sent into the webmaster. My own kitten currently lives with my boyfriend so I can’t see her everyday.

http://dailykitten.com/

One of the most influential creative streams in my life happens to be the singer Alanis Morrissette. I’ve included her personal website which also contains her lyrics and music, as well as her own personal diary and pictures.

http://alanis.com/

I love body mod and tattoo’s and I’m currently working on my personal collection. To fuse these loves I’m including a web page devoted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer tattoo’s. I’m working on getting my second tattoo which fuses Buffy and other genres.
http://www.nika-summers.com/Tattoos/fans.php

I collect random stuffed animals and unique one’s are a lot of fun for me. This is one of my favorite unique toy sites.

http://www.roadkilltoys.com/

All these sites lead to me being a playful, thoughtful, and emotional person. However, I don’t see any immedaite contradictions. If you happen to, feel free to note them.

Books Post

A personal intrigue of mine, is one that was dealt with in the first book reviewed, “The End of Books-Or Books Without End” by J. Yellowlees Douglas. The book chart’s the emergence of fiction through a hypertext environment and weighs the differences and how the two genre’s can merge. The change from books to hypertext lead to strong opposer’s of the movement based on possible loss of emotion through the physical sensations of a book in the hands and the different context that will come out of the sensation of reading. The change from screen to hands can change the play vs. work ideas that run through the subconscious while reading, which is what most hypertext opposer’s argue. The author uses personal accounts, the “displeasure of closure”–the act of closing a book lends to the act of closure in the story–and memories of reading.

The next book I perused was “Net Crimes and Misdemeanors: Outmaneuvering the Spammers, Swindlers, and Stalkers Who are Targeting You Online.” by J.A. Hitchcock. She leads into the book by writing a personal account of how she was internet stalked and spammed for months, and gives strategies and techniques on how to be safe on the internet. The basis of the book is safety throughout the unknown world of cyberspace and to diffuse the lie of privacy that a computer can create. The chapters go through various personal stories from other people, and the difference between urban internet legends and what is real. Also highlighted is special steps for children and how to stay safe in the workplace.

Web 2.0, The Aftermath

First off, I found all three of these websites both intriguing and well developed. I was mostly unaware of most of the social technology out in cyberspace and I even found myself subscribing to a few of these websites. All of these websites are used as a general search engine towards the “blogsphere”, however most of them specialize in different techniques for finding the information and the format of displaying it.

The most popular of the blogging sites I researched was Technorati:

www.technorati.com

Unlike the other site’s, Technorati brings about conversation through the distribution and organization of blog tags and other “citizen media”. It gives more leeway in terms of how you view chosen content as well as their fine-tuned relevance which links the information together.

IceRocket is in a similar format as Technorati, exploring the links of the blogsphere, but the links are in reference to commercialization. The links are generated on a customer to customer basis while staying devoid of advertisements from unwanted sites. The blog search engine is formatted similarly to Technorati but is a bit more on the simple side.

www.icerocket.com

By far my favorite site, Bloglines, comprises “news feeds, blogs and rich web content” while maintaining a user friendly database and a plethora of options for the viewer. Though IceRocket and Technorati discriminate against certain context types and files, Bloglines does it all and has no restrictions on web browsers. As so far as content, its much easier to find some on this sight if the reader doesn’t know what they are looking for, than if they do. Although straight to the source search options are given, you can tailor make pages as well. This seems to be the best site in terms of layout, style, organization and content. The no discrimination works in favor of a vast array of connections throughout the Internet that could be made through the blogsphere without limitations and prompts users to view content in different light based on conscious reading back to back of a variety of fine tuned sources. With today’s need for complete immersion in technology at all times, the web browser freedom makes people with an iphone or PDA rejoice. All Hail Bloglines.

www.bloglines.com