I posted a photo of myself with a line from my current novel as the caption last night. Within hours, it had 8,221 views. At first, I felt encouraged. I thought my words resonated, and people were enjoying my writing. But then I noticed…
All of the reactions were from men. I looked at the analytics, and 92% of the 8,221 were men. I then compared it to some of my other posts that had a similar number of views.
My writing posts usually have the same photo each time, with text over it; the title and an excerpt from the writing piece I am posting.
Here are the numbers:
59,614 views, 94% women
12,399 views, 92% women
10,439 views, 87% women
6,109 views, 86% women
4,475 views, 80% women
This trend is also consistent with my bird videos.
My followers who are interested in my words and my birds are mostly women.
The photo I chose to represent the lines from my novel did not serve my intention. I was looking for people who care about my words. It appears that my words got lost because of the photo.
The photo is nothing special. I chose one that I felt best represented the line, “Today the mirror feels kind and lends a hand in helping her out of bed.”
No makeup, fading hair color, retainers in, but still…7,563 of the 8,221 viewers were men. Compared to every other post I’ve shared, something about the image changed who stopped to look.
I set out to share something I’d written. Instead, I was reminded how easily a woman’s image can become louder than her voice.
It reminds me of the lines from my poem: Women Before Me
“Was it the first heart broken, the first tearing apart?
When your body became a spectacle, and you learned to play its part?”
Is that when I learned my power, or when I started to lose it?
