Shine Launches: Where Is a REAL Women’s Site?
03/31/2008, 5 months 1 week ago
On the off chance you haven't already been inundated with women's sites, Yahoo has launched their new site geared toward women today. Sticking with the name Shine that was originally rumored, the site follows the same mold as previous entries into this space.
Right from the first article you see, you know that Yahoo has gone as far as women's magazines in researching what women want. The headline article? A treatise on “The 100 Unsexiest Men 2008″ originated by the Boston Phoenix. And while it lacks a “hair day” status for weather, I'm sure they felt they were making up for it by adding my horoscope next to the current conditions.
Right along the top bar, I'm shown my interests as a woman: Fashion + Beauty, Healthy Living, Entertainment, Parenting, Love + Sex… all it's missing is a video of a talking Barbie doll saying “Math is hard” to complete the site. Astrology really deserves its own topic?
While I admit I had no hopes whatsoever for Shine, I'm disappointed nonetheless. Where are the women out there building these sites? Are they sticking to the demographics they are told to look at or are they actually out there asking real women what they want to see in a site geared toward them? I refuse to believe that in 2008 horoscopes are still a huge talking point for women.
It's depressing to look at the topics on Shine. There is no tech news. No business section or science topics, unless you count dieting tips and an article concerning whether chocolate is good for you. No political conversations or world news or global issues. But two clicks bring me to “10 ways to attract women, according to guys.”
Yahoo has also added tools to “Join the conversation” by giving me my very own blog! Since it's too hard to go out and sign up for a free blogging service, and then I'd be out there with all the big, scary men and all. Shine will even suggest posts I might like once I start subscribing to channels, and in case I wanted to know how to find these recommendations, all I have to do is click “My stuff.”
I'm sure that many women will come flocking to Shine, and delight in one more site “just for women.” As for me, I can't help but feel insulted that my interests are apparently relegated to a man's world. We have a woman running for President of the United States, and I'm supposed to spend my time reading about fashion and debate whether or not I'd report a co-worker for watching porn at work? There are bigger issues out there, Shine, and I don't think I need to be a man to care about them.
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I couldn’t agree with you more. I am sick of these “sites for women” that are so totally inane and brainless. I live my life in the real world, not with my head stuck in a fashion magazine. Where are the sites for women like me who want to discuss technology, politics and current affairs with other women? Or is the discussion of “high-brow” topics like this not considered feminine?
Riayn, I have no idea why this seems to be the case, but it’s driving me absolutely insane. What’s worse is the women who are involved with these sites; they really are okay with the topics that are being included?
I’m sick of sites for specific genders, period, but this does seem even more terrible than most. Nice post.
Its site search needs replacement, for sure
I can’t believe there isn’t even a tech section. It IS a website, afterall. I just posted to my blog about them, too… http://webpoet.wordpress.com/2008/03/31/superfluous/
Let me know what you think.
I disagree. What I’ve read on Shine so far is much more thoughtful than most of the fluff I read on so-called women’s sites.
They’ve only been going for one day! And though some of us work in industries where we follow tech and business, not all women do.
@Sally I’ll try to check it out.
@Nathania If the argument is that they are only covering what “all” women are interested in, they seriously missed the mark anyway. Horoscopes are more thoughful? The 100 Unsexiest Men is thoughtful? “Is Kate Moss too old to model?” is more thoughtul?
This mentality assumes that women, or the majority of them, have no interest in world news or politics, which everyone SHOULD follow. And this is Yahoo, not some start-up, and the majority of what they are doing is aggregating existing content, not reinventing the wheel. Starting the site out with a category for my horoscope but NOTHING about politics or business or world news is an epic fail in my book. You only have one chance to make a first impression, and Shine missed by a mile. If I wanted fashion and beauty and dieting tips, there are already 100 sites out there doing it with original content. As it launched, I find it demeaning, insipid, and just downright insulting.
This is not a woman-only problem. Think “men’s magazine” and you think FHM, Maxim, Nuts - soft porn, short reviews of movies in which things blow up, and interviews with participants in the above. You don’t think about magazines about PC Gamer or Motorbikes Weekly, which men also generally read, because magazines like that are generally called “games magazines” or “motorbike magazines”. They’re not called “men’s magazines” because they actually have some intelligent subject matter, and the purpose of a definition is to describe the subject matter. A description like “men’s magazine” or “women’s magazine” essentially tells you nothing. Taken literally, it is a magazine that men or women would enjoy, which could be, well, everything - and this in turn indicates that there is nothing to describe.
Quite frankly, I don’t believe there’s any such thing as “woman’s tech coverage” or for that matter “man’s tech coverage”. There is no such thing as a man’s iPod and a woman’s iPod - we both have the same kinds of auditory organs and the software and hardware in our iPods is identical (even if the paint job is different). There’s no such thing as a man’s dual-core processor or a woman’s solar panel either. Tech is about, well, technology, and possibly finance. Chromosomes only come into it if it’s an article about genetic testing.
Sam, you really think tech isn’t marketed differently depending on gender?? Take a look at Apple’s iPod line, which is the most glaring example. The cutesy little iPods (Shuffle and Nano) come in colors, and most of them a guy wouldn’t be caught dead carrying. Lavender? Pink? Those are the girlie iPods, and if you want a Classic, you are choosing between white and black. I don’t see Alienware offering a pink case, but Dell offers a pink laptop.
The problem that I have is that anything called “women’s” dumbs it down, assuming that’s what the masses of women need and want. Rolling Stone is a music magazine with a mostly male reader base, and it includes political commentary as well as articles on current events and issues. Same with Playboy (and yes, I’ve actually read it). Meanwhile, Vogue scuttled a Hillary Clinton cover because they wanted to dress HRC up like a model in a foofy dress and Hillary wasn’t having it; she wanted her trademark suit.
I’ve written about women in tech before (http://profy.com/2008/03/22/girl-tech/). There’s a madonna/whore pigeonholing in effect that you don’t see with men. Shine is just one more example of it. Why on earth would they leave out current events and politics, yet expect me to use it as a portal complete with blog and email? It’s a glaring omission that is only seen when you get into a gender-themed site.
I liked the old Yahoo horoscope format much better.
This format takes me more time and it sucks bad!