Critics, Patriarchy, Medium
Medium and Its Patriarchy
Some of you may relate to the topic above, some may not. It has been or is only 2 years since I first published my first article on medium. I really like the features and interface. Thank you for providing a platform for those of us who prefer to scream in writing over real life.
Everything looks perfect. Features, interface, and the quality of audience. I even dare to say that the medium audience is far more qualified than Instagram and Facebook. However, I regret one thing about Medium: how patriarchy it is. I don’t care about the capitalist side, but it’s patriarchy. However, it is not about “patriarchy” that discuss about gender. My point is, how Medium adopted patriarchy’s conception.
Honestly, I just want to pour my heart out to a platform that I feel has contributed a lot in the last 2 years in my life. I just want to discuss if it’s possible. Perhaps, this input from someone who lives in a developing country in Southeast Asia may be a reflection material, so that your platform is much better.
Social Media
First of all, I wanna ask a question, “Does Medium is the part of social media? And if it is a part of social media, can social media be value free?” We all know that social media is a digital platform that facilitates users to communicate with each other or share content in the form of writing, photos, videos, and is a digital platform that provides facilities to carry out social activities for each user. This indicates that social media has pretensions to be used by all groups, from the poor to the rich.
I’d argue that at least social media has value in it -it’s not value free. The values I mean in social media are social values and capitalist values. Social values is the values that live in our society. The examples of these values are justice and equality. This value is not part of the definition of social media as I mentioned previously, but this social value cannot be separated and is closely related to the social media.
While capitalist values are values that contain elements of capital in them, it could be business, economy and money. Influencers who post content on their social media, they aim to pursue engagement rate and hope that some company, brand or a person will use their services to promote something.
I envision a social media platform as a rational individual aiming for benefit or business — it could be both. Thus, the question is whether the Medium is included in the social media variables? Of course the answer is yes. I agree with the notion that Medium is a social media platform for mutual benefit as well as business. Medium is everyone’s reference source. It becomes a place for someone who wants to scream and pour out his heart. The interface is also very good. I dare say that the quality of Medium’s audience is much better than other social media platforms. We can earn money by writing through the Medium partner program. However, I am very sorry to know that the medium partner program is not for all. This is the entry point for my critique.
Patriarchy Marked by Medium Partner Program
Patriarchal culture does not only occur in the domestic sphere, but also in the public. Patriarchy itself occurs in almost all corners of the world. Etymologically, patriarchal culture is a social system in which the father controls all his family members, property, economic resources, and makes all important decisions, so that women are free to be exploited. Therefore, gaps and hierarchies are inseparable from patriarchal values.
I see that apart from Medium adopting social and capitalist values, it also adopts patriarchal values. Writing activities, for example. We all know that Medium is full of people with a talent for writing. Its usefulness is certainly not in doubt. The capitalist value is also really undoubted, seeing that we can apply to join the Medium partner program and make money from it.
To become part of the Medium partner program, they need several criteria. A person is declared eligible to join if he or she has followers over 100, is more than 18 years old, is in the specified geography and at least has published his article on the publisher. Through these criteria, it is very clear how patriarchal the medium is.
To become part of the Medium partner program, only a person that is more than 18 years old. Doesn’t this mean Medium is ageism? Because that mean those under the age of 18 are not qualified enough to write. I even know there is a 15 year old on Medium who has 1.5k followers. His writings are on par or even better than my 23-year-old self. Second, it must be in the geography defined by Medium. Doesn’t this mean Medium is geographically biased?
There are just 2 developing country (Romania and Mexico) as far as I know in geographical terms that can be part of the Medium partner program while the rest is developed country. Enrollment in the Partner Program is only available in the following countries:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal , Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States.
I wonder if they erased the developed country such as Russia and China due to politics issues (ups, it’s then become political values again motherfuckers). But yeah, never mind. Obviously, there are hierarchy and gap in Medium partner program where majority of the eligible country are dominated by the developed country. Indeed, it is similar to the patriarchy’s conception.
Conclusion
Human knowledge is only limited to space and time, but social media is not human. He can be limitless if he doesn’t limit his own potential. A person may be a very good writer in the UK, but his knowledge is limited to space and time in the UK only. He did not live in the heat of Africa, or in the midst of India’s economic turmoil. A person may be a genius writer in France, but he has never experienced the injustice and massive corruption in Indonesia or political crisis in Brazil.
I think we deserve to earn money from your partner program. We love to write on your platform and we like to gave you the information about our developing country. Indeed, it is potential to make your platform better. Implicitly, you can help a billion of people in developing country to earn money and help reduce their poverty rate. Indeed, it is social values. Otherwise, you tend to choose developed countries which in terms of GDP are far above developing countries to be your partner program.
I’m wondering why the hell Medium measure the quality of writing based on a country? I mean, a Tarzan in the middle of a jungle possibly a good writers despite his friends is a monkey, or a donkey, or so on you named it. He still possibly to write about equality, law, a life that we don’t know and so on. A monk on the top of Himalayan still possibly a good writers despite he never know about cryptocurrency, great reset, Metaverse, and so on. However, he still possibly write about virtues, morality, ethics and so on. They deserve to earn money from your platform. So, why did you rule out that possibility?
I’m sorry to write this, but I want your platform to be better.
