>[!question] question >if engagement is reproductive… culture-building is reproductive? how do we tie this into [[memetics]] and [[{3.1} algorithmic monoculture]]? is engagement / “reproduction” the same when it’s algorithmically driven? >[!note] [[2025-06-03]] *see also* >this is part of the [[cloud serfs]] argument; they don’t only extract value from the free labor of content creation, but of engagement. lurkers are cloud serfs too, if by no other means than the extraction of our data to create our machine-made doppelganger ([[{3.4a1} the machine-made doppelganger is our real digital doppelganger]]). Tara McMullin points out that, generally, men are expected to *create* while women are expected to *care*. This same dichotomy has recreated itself on social media. Male-coded social media accounts might be expected to "wow" their followers with tips, tricks, and insights. While female-coded social media accounts might be expected to demonstrate care and concern through their constant presence on the apps…. > >**Men are allowed to articulate a bold vision for the future—while women tend the hearth fires of social engagement.** This seems to be true in my experience… Social media accounts that seem to be for and by men tend to focus on status, self-development, wealth… Those for and by women are related to consumption, self-development *for the benefit of others*… Tara continues: >Some creators, predominantly men but not exclusively, align themselves with platform founders more than the common (feminized) user. Interestingly, Tara connects this to *reproductive labor*, which refers to: >All the tasks associated with supporting and servicing the current and future workforce — those who undertake or will undertake productive work.[^1] This is in comparison to *productive* labor, which produces value via goods and services. Tara McMullin uses broader definitions, but I think her argument still makes sense: content creation, like productive labor, is masculinized while content engagement, like reproductive labor, is femininized. There’s a longstanding “rule” that 99% of users online are consumers while only 1% are creators; Tara points out that a clear moral value is communicated here — that you would not want to be part of the 99%, a consumer, a feminized *user*. Of course all of this is way more complicated than these generalizations. Still, social media is a group project where we are actively part of the broader conversation. The real 1% here are the platforms — they aren’t platforms without users *or* creators. [^1]: [reproductive work | European Institute for Gender Equality (europa.eu)](https://eige.europa.eu/publications-resources/thesaurus/terms/1151?language_content_entity=en)