‘Husband Wanted’ blog—out of Asheville, North Carolina
No e-book angle here. But certainly an interactivity one. The award for the most honestly titled blog goes to Husband Wanted—apparently written in Asheville, North Carolina, a city most notable to me as the hometown of Thomas Wolfe.
The TeleBlog makes no guarantees about Ms. HW, or those who would respond.
Still, on a slow e-book news day, the do-gooder in me couldn’t resist, especially since the TeleBlog’s readership is mostly male (we’d prefer more of a 50-50 ratio).
“I’m definitely in the market for a man,” Ms. HW tells the blogosphere, adding later that she has girlfriends in New York and LA in search of the same.
“But I’m not just looking for someone to take out the trash, carry the groceries up the stairs, assemble household items, or tell me what that mysterious noise is coming from the front of my car. I’ve long since mastered the power drill and plumbing problems, though I used to think I couldn’t get by without a man to do these things. I cried the whole way through putting my daughter’s crib together—seven months pregnant and not a man in sight.”
Ms. HW doesn’t mention what she enjoys reading, but comes as as introspective and intelligent despite the mistake to which she confesses in her first paragraph. Already her blog has drawn seven comments from people rooting for her. Furthermore, she writes: “I know so many amazing women across the country with everything to offer and no one to offer it to…Uh… if you’re a single guy in NYC or LA, let me know.”
Wait. Perhaps the e-book angle is the possibility of forums and other fun within interactive books, one way to help people with common interests meet. For now, I’ll wish Ms. HW luck. A DRMless household with his and her e-reader gizmos someday? And another for the kid?
August 17th, 2008 at 8:56 am
the readership really is mostly male? That shocks me - but thats because I thought librarians would be a large portion of the readership, and its still tilted towards having more women than men (though not as badly as in the past or as stereotypes would suggest)… odd
August 17th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Yes, OOYFR, and I’ll welcome your suggestions. I’m going by some metrics from Quantcast.com for TeleRead—69 percent male and 31 percent female. For MobileRead, the figure is 70 percent male and 30 percent female.
Some female librarians are awesome geeks, but the technology still scares many. As the tech becomes easier to use, I’d hope this not-so-great ratio would change.
Some weeks ago I tried to do something about the ratio with tips on how male geeks could get their girlfriends into e-books. I wasn’t stereotyping. I was just trying to correct the deplorable imbalance. Instead I got royally attacked. I can’t help it that the parents and the school systems have pushed many gifted young women away from technology.
Anyway if you want to offer your own ideas on how more women could take up e-books, I’ll be most interested.
Meanwhile keep in mind that the the actual male-female ratio is probably closer to 50-50 among actual users. It’s TeleRead’s tech stuff that could be scaring some women off.
I’d love to see more content-related post in this blog but, for me personally, it’s enough of a challenge just to cover the technology. Nontech or less techish posts are very welcome from you and others! E-mail them to drNOSPAMteleread.org.
Thanks for the feedback, and hang around to help us improve the ratio!
David
August 17th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
[...] they write their books about love and happy ever after, know the answer to the why question. Via Teleread.org. Tagged as: Dating, Library, Romance, [...]
August 17th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
re: husband wanted - She forgot to put one thing in her qualifications - a man with common sense. I always look for that. Most men do not have common sense it is so important.
June 26th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I expect a growing number of USA females to remain single, unable to find a male willing to wed them, live with them or even tolerate them on a social level.
For the male it is simply too dangerous to allow females to enter our lives, for many reasons.
As evidenced by a growing number of pro-male anti-female Web sites, many with message boards where many males express their views, I perceive a fast-growing number of males deciding to ignore USA females.
The reasons for shunning USA females are too many to discuss here but a Web search would assuredly sate the curiosity of anyone curious as to why American males increasingly perceive females as toxic, along with many governmental bureaucracies and non-governmental organizations that have “empowered” females while demonstrating anti-male attitudes and actions.