Strike a Pose: Gender and the Public and Private Performance of Magazine Reading

The study of reading has a long history in the digital library community, but one issue that has been largely ignored is gender. Gender is known to play a significant role in the acquisition, reading and use of print material. However, there it is unknown to what degree the influence of reading norms carries into digital reading. In this paper we examine the differences in the readership of a variety of magazines, between their print and electronic editions. The results reveal that digital reading is, in general, less gender-conforming than print reading. However, it also appears that consumption of digital editions on mobile phones reverts towards the gender stereotypes found in print. Together, this data serves to demonstrate that digital library services, including search engines, should consider the risk of reinforcing gender stereotypes that occur when reading is a public performance, and entrenching those biases when reading is done privately