Male or female gender-polarised YouTube videos are less viewed

Abstract

As one of the world’s most visited websites, YouTube is potentially influential for learning gendered attitudes. Nevertheless, despite evidence of gender influences within the site for some topics, the extent to which YouTube reflects or promotes male/female or other gender divides is unknown. This article analyses 10,211 YouTube videos published in 12 months from 2014-15 using commenter-portrayed genders (inferred from usernames) and view counts from the end of 2019. Nonbinary genders are omitted for methodological reasons. Although there were highly male and female topics or themes (e.g., vehicles or beauty) and male or female gendering is the norm, videos with topics attracting both males and females tended to attract more viewers (after approximately five years) than videos in male or female gendered topics. Similarly, within each topic, videos with gender balanced sets of commenters tend to attract more viewers. Thus, YouTube does not seem to be driving male-female gender differences.