HT – From the blog cabin

From the Blog Cabin, a column about what’s happening in the blogosphere, will appear on the ‘Comment’ page of The Hindustan Times, every Thursday

June 19, 2008

Boys will be bloke bloggers

Myth-buster # 1: Men are
blogging away and most of
them aren’t tapping away
about sports and electronics,
but about health, fashion
and – of my god! –
home improvement

From the
blog cabin

HERE ARE two of the greatest myths about men: one, men don’t blog much; two, men think about sex every seven seconds. A quick search reveals that not only do men blog, they do so on topics other than HTML codes or battery-operated devices. Relationship author John Gray and company have long blamed men for being ‘non-communicative’. Not in cyberspace at least. The boys blog it all: weight, fashion, relationships, sex – and even – babies. Sample this: “The gym is a place that used to silently mock me whenever I walked by: Hey fatty, you enjoying that fifth slice of pizza?” blogs Arjewtwino. While he discusses weight issues and fashion – “I just don’t know what to wear, I’m packing for my trip to NYC” – he also writes on ‘men’ subjects like his favourite soccer team, food (a favourite with boy bloggers) and being kicked in the gonads. “…I always wondered from the worst moment of my life: what was the science of getting hit in the nutsack?” he writes, not something you’ll find on a woman’s blog.

Despite blogging on similar issues, humour differentiates ‘bloke’ blogs from the ‘babe’ ones. If ‘I am woman, hear me roar’ is the underlying tone in babe blogs, the boys do it in a more self-deprecatory manner. Even home-maintenance sounds funny. The Home Improvement Ninja blogs: “I had hoped that by killing all of them (mice)… it would forever deter others from ever trying to come back. Unfortunately, mice have a short memory.”

While ‘tags’ (blog lingo for topics) include hitherto ‘chick’ issues – no moisturizers yet, but grooming figures – don’t think that bloke bloggers are any less ‘men’ than the boys who only blog on tech or electronics. However, they do seem more open in challenging so-far accepted-male-behaviour. Tearing apart the much-man-loved movie Fight Club, the Ninja blogs: “Some guys think this movie is great… (they) hide their insecurities by fawning over this homo-erotic ritualized violence and faux philosophy about why it’s okay to be a underachiever with no direction.”

While he declares “all men are liars”, 2006 Best Weblog Awards-winning blogger, Sam deBrito too does his bit in accepting men might not always be right and takes on the how-to-be-man concept. “I had also unknowingly bought into the gender propaganda that insists a guy must be A, B and C and done my part to propagate it to other men and women,” he writes. An insight into the mind of men is what bloke bloggers have to offer, peppered with sports statistics and humour. And it seems, at times, honesty.

jhoomurbose@gmail.com

From the BIog Cabin, a column about what’s happening in the blogosphere, will appear every Thursday

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June 12, 2008

www.ho’s better, who’s best.com?

Now that Bollywood celebrities have found a new, much more direct medium to reach their legions of fans, will we get to unlock those deep secrets?

MOVIES, ADS, talk shows, game shows… and now as bloggers. Celebrity Inc. is taking over our lives. While big money is being dished out to rope in celebrities as bloggers, are their blogs really worth your money? Hmm.

Take Salman Khan‘s blog. On the blog post – that eerily coincides with his debut as game show host on Sony’s 10 ka Dum, Sallu’s logic of why the show will work with the audience reads as follows: “The title of the film or show is the first that reaches an audience”. He adds that the ‘Dus’ and ‘Dum’ pithily express the zeitgeist. Um, let’s hope that non-impeccable logic works given two earlier movies by the names of Dus and Dum were major duds at the box-office. Beyond pushing his show, the blog doesn’t have much of the ‘real’ Salman. Except if you take his acceptance of the fact that he doesn’t “prepare for any role” as a statement of gospel truth.

From one Khan to the other. Shah Rukh Khan‘s Nokia sponsored blog makes no pretence about being ‘his’ blog. It’s SRK’s blog on his Kolkata IPL team and that’s what you get. A whole lot of cricket but, alas, no quirkiness, no connect and definitely no cheek. If the sprawling desert stretch of life after the IPL doesn’t kill the blog, the need for readers to register before you read it should definitely drive the nail through the coffin.

Compared to SRK or Salman, Aamir Khan’s blog is hosted on his website and is much like him: few posts at a time, talking about his work, and has the definite propensity to take himself too seriously Consider Aamir’s post about watching the IPL finals with Sachin Tendulkar: “He [Tendulkar] told me his logic for each prediction which I won’t share with you as I don’t want to reveal how his mind works.” Er, if the world’s best cricketers haven’t yet been able to figure out how Sachin’s mind works, fat chance that a mere blog will uncover that secret. What it could do though is make Aamir look less of a ‘full-of-himself ‘ guy Taking a few tips off Amitabh Bachchan’s blog might also help.

Despite his numerous interviews, Amitji seems to have saved the best for his blog. What anger! What anguish! What theatrics in prose from the angry not-even-middleaged man. The Big B shows how he is the baap of other celeb bloggers and gives a sense of just getting started as he uses the media – that is a new medium – to take on the media. Till now, journos have used him with total abandon. Now, it’s his chance to show how it’s really done. From the looks of it, the bloodbath will be worth the word count.

jhoomurbose@gmail.com

From the BIog Cabin, a column about what’s happening in the blogosphere, will appear every Thursday