Unsubscribe from a man, you won’t regret it

If you work in an office, summer is often a time of deadly boredom. This is perhaps what motivates Katie Notopoulos, then a journalist for the American media BuzzFeed Newstweeting the following message on July 27, 2014: “ today is #UnfollowAMan day. Choose a man you’re tired of seeing in your newsfeed, and unfollow him.”

In an article published a few days later, she gives more details on her approach, revealing that she has completely removed all men from her list of Twitter subscriptions. She was inspired by another experiment, this time led by entrepreneur Anil Dash, who had decided to retweet only messages written by women for a year. ” Anil wanted to change the kind of things he amplified”she says. “Me, I want to change the kind of things I listen to. »

The operation was typical of a time when 1) Twitter was an influential social network and 2) real intentions and trolling were mixed (” Unfollowing a man is like eating Pringles, you can’t settle for just one!“, writes Katie Notopoulos). However, she touched on a truth that relieved a lot of women, and annoyed a lot of men. Social networks, sometimes referred to as new media »are as much the realm of guys as traditional media.

Since 2014, I scrupulously respect the #UnfollowAMan day on all the social networks I frequent. This year, I unfollow a man on Mastodon for the first time! This is obviously more of a symbol than a radical change. I’ve never removed all the men from my online subscriptions, if only because it would take me too long (and because I like some of you, I promise).

But I see similarities there with the statements of Alice Coffin who, in her essay The Lesbian Genius (Grasset, 2020), encouraged favoring works by female artists. I had taken the test myself, completely stopping reading books written by men for a year. The idea was not to affirm my sudden disinterest in all authors. On the contrary, before that, I read more than authors. This experience has forced me to think about the reasons for this imbalance.

Unfollowing just one man won’t change your world, or his.

In literature, we can (among other things) point the finger at the functioning of the publishing industry to explain the overrepresentation of men in bookstores and on our bedside tables. The big platforms refuse to define themselves as media. On the other hand, they do do a job of editorialization: they decide who has the right to use their megaphone (sometimes for excellent reasons, as in the fight against hatred), and who will be put forward more by their recommendation algorithms.

Added to these politico-technical issues are other aspects beyond the control of social networks, which still influence our experiences (for example, we value thin bodies more than fat bodies). Not everyone has the same chance of writing a book and being published. Not everyone has the same chance of becoming popular online either, depending on their gender, economic capital, skin color, etc.

That’s why I love #UnfollowAMan day. Of course it’s a bit silly. But, is that really any more absurd than seeing only men on your news feeds? In a web where algorithms are increasingly replacing our choices, I like to remind myself that I still have some control. On the YouTube channels I follow, the podcasts I listen to, the Twitch streams I watch, the newsletters I read (ahem), the toots and the tweets and the snaps and the Insta posts that I scroll through without too much to reflect on. I too have a power of editorialization, and above all a duty of curiosity. If books make my imagination, social networks are my entertainment and my daily information. Unfollowing one man won’t change your world, or his. So what’s stopping you from doing it?

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