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Apr

1

[update] Techgrl.com debuts – written by…two men?


Even though one of the men is Steve Outing, whose work and columns (see here at Poynter) I admire, why not women? Outing has two daughters, so that’s cool. But there are no women listed on Techgrl.com either as contacts, partners, sponsors or otherwise contributors. (I learned about Techgrl’s debute from one of Outing’s tweets.)

I believe Outing to be a smart, savvy, aware guy from what I’ve read. I’m going to e-mail him to say, okay – I’m asking the obvious – where are all the, you know, techgrls?

Update: here’s Steve’s response (thanks, Steve):

Jill: Despite the name, the comic is not just about “techGRL.” “Lexi” is our 15-year-old main character (coincidentally the age of my oldest daughter), but her dad is a David Pogue-like tech reviewer who brings a lot of technology into the household, and he’s an equally important character. So we think it’s broader than being “just” a teen girl comic. We’ll have both teen and technology themes.

Soon we’ll be introducing a young woman as the Lexi character, so you’ll hear her voice periodically, and she’ll get added to the site. And of course we hope that the participatory nature of the strip and website (and social network components) will attract lots of girls.

Actually, there is precedent for comic creator “oddities” like this. The comic strip Luann, for example, is by a man. Girls & Sports is by 2 men. A few years ago I rented an office and my next-door neighbor was a guy in his late 20s who was doing a comic strip about seniors. Seems to be a long comics tradition. 8^)

As techGRL progresses, we hope to do some stuff that will encourage girls to become more interested in and skilled at technology. That conference sounds great.

Here’s the relevant part of my reply:

Hi Steve – thanks. You are definitely right about the precedent. The syndicated strip Flo & Friends is about seniors and I know the illustrator and co-writer, Jenny Campbell well – she’s far from senior-age and was much younger when the strip began several years ago. In fact, she did the cartoon icon I use around the ‘net from time to time. It’s on my Twitter account actually.

As part of a few different groups related to women, the media and tech, I probably notice this kind of oddity as you call it more than others might, but still – it does make me wonder, why didn’t two women with daughters come up with it!? :)

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:09 pm April 1st, 2008 in Blogging, Culture, Media, Tech, Women, Writing 

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