Talk:Boyzone

Look, it's the discussion page. Hit the "+" icon above to start a new heading.

Older boyzone page content

This content was on the main page under the title "Former Boyzone Page". Some MeFites have objected to its content (for instance), so I'm taking it off the main page and copying it here - it doesn't totally seem to fit anyways, since it's kind of some opinions about boyzone stuff that no longer belong to any particular person. -- Whir 05:03, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Former Boyzone Page

'boyzone' (generally uncapitalized and run together) is the sense that some women have that a forum is a place where:

• the male view is seen as the default, and sometimes only, view
• female topics are denigrated
• gender stereotyping
• males exhibit conversational behaviors such as bullying or or confrontation argumentation

are tolerated or approved. It's not entirely about feminism, but that's the main idea. In short, it describes a locker-room atmosphere that makes either actively or passively fails to take in the general female point of view, which discourages women from participating in the site. To an extreme generalization, it can be said that the male reaction to a boyzone discussion mainly reinforces the allegation.

Women react to the boyzone mentality in different ways:

• concealing identity
  • gender-neutral online name
  • faking male identity
• avoiding topics perceived as a boyzone or could potentially turn into a boyzone
• leaving forums entirely

The question at hand, unanswerable because it's a personal experience, is whether MetaFilter is a boyzone. It's come up in MetaTalk more than once: boyzone thread. The general consensus is that MetaFilter can seem that way at times but mainly reflects the internet as a whole.