Why I changed my LinkedIn profile from Andrea to Andrew
After receiving one too many misguided messages from men on LinkedIn, Andrea Myles made the unusual decision to become one herself.
It was a morning much like any other when I decided to change my gender and become a man on LinkedIn. I woke, bleary eyed, and automatically reached for my mobile, mindlessly scrolling while waking up. I checked my DMs and there it was.
“Hey beautiful, I hope you don’t mind but I just had to say……”
I was pissed. Probably disproportionately to the small transgression of this LinkedIn second connection, who had decided to bust a move.
“I felt my voice in innovation conversations was also more out of place now I’d lost my shiny millennial label.” So you also experienced a whiff of ageism. Imagine being a female professional and over 50, with 15 years more experience of sexism and less pay. Not imaginary at all in my world unfortunately.
Multigenerational discrimination is also a growing problem, especially to over 50’s who have been displaced, trying to renter the workforce. This is particularly prevalent in the marketing, advertising and media sector. Calling someone “old” who is aged 55, I’d also consider a form of micro-agression.
That´s perfect. I was about to make the same comment, as I´m 47 and I don´t feel old at all. 55 is old? where?
Casual ageism. That’s big of you.
Whilst I totally agree there is sexism and ageism in our industry, it would be interesting for you to share the photo that you had published on your LinkedIn profile beforehand to see if there was anything in there that might have attracted so much unwanted attention. I’m not suggesting their is – just curious. I’ve heard a lot of women on LinkedIn complain about unwanted attention, but their photos look like they belong on a dating site. Personal brand may be the issue, not gender, for a lot of woman.
To ask this question is to misunderstand the issue of unwanted advances on social media.
linkedin is a professional networking site and you can generally presume that people are on there to network and connect with people in their industry.
This is the equivalent argument of “she was asking for it” or akin to a woman posting a photo of friends on the beach on facebook and getting unsolicited d**k pics.
Attitudes like this are also the same that tell women to ‘just ignore it and block it’ when they shouldn’t have to put up with this behaviour because some idiot thinks their profile picture suggests they are trying to score a date.
Sexual harassment is not isolated to just women. I’m male IRL and on LinkedIn and I have received messages from both men and women of inappropriate content. Best thing to do is toughen up, draw the boundaries, and move on.
“I didn’t notice the massive radical change I thought I would, with people applauding and making me cups of tea wherever I went. But what I did notice were subtle encouragements, which I’m going to call “micro-affections”.”
It must have been bitterly disappointing not to have a pre-conceived and grossly unfair prejudice – that life is ever so easy and breezy for any and all white middle-aged men – confirmed through this bizarre experiment.
Forget about the 1% for a second and you’d see that millions of white, middle-aged men are battling it out with everyone else in the workforce on equal terms. There are 1% that have the privileges you are hung up about; the vast majority don’t have any. You created a profile of the 1% and it still didn’t validate the pre-conceived prejudices – that’s amusing.
I sympathize with certain sections of this fantasy, but in reality, what is it all about? It appears to serve no other function but to support a long held and rather tired political view, about a world which is changing too slowly for a certain group, consisting of idealistic women and a number of men who wish to show themselves as enlightened and progressive, as they affect to struggle for a utopia which may never be realized.
You missed an option from the third last paragraph.
…. or why not try NOT using LinkedIn for three weeks and see what you can achieve, professionally, and socially with all the saved hours that you’ve been wasting using it.
When you say you were ‘pissed’. Do you mean annoyed or drunk?
@ Andrea : As “an old white male” (3 isms !) I find your suggestion to try an opposite Linkedin persona- presumably a “young black female” creepy in the extreme. I’m fairly sure if I tried that I would be risking a visit from Mr Plod and would be banned from Linkedin. Have you given this any thought ?
Another woman complaining about how tough life is!
So you changed your gender, and also your age. Your comment “now in my 30s” indicates to me you’re in you’re early-mid 30s(?), which went to 55.
How confident are you that your being taken more seriously, and LinkedIn suddenly connecting you with more senior connections is solely down to your gender, and not the extra 20-25 years of experience in the workforce you suddenly acquired?
So you violated the Linked In terms of service to make a rather confused, shallow point about gender diversity?
The most glaring contradiction here is that as a result of this trite experiment, you can understand how men have it easier but at the same time they don’t truly understand the scale of the gender problem.
Frankly I find your comment about a 55 year old person as being “old” as ludicrous and discriminatory. From an “old” female.
Late to the conversation, but have to say, I love the disruption. I’m astonished by some of the comments from folk who have conspicuously missed the point. It’s as if you posted an invitation for the mansplainers to trot out the standard objections to the bull elephant in the room being named.
Top job. Both entertaining and arresting. So much work to do.
In a way, David, I reckon some of the comments ended up helping Andrea make a point. 😉
Dear Emilia,
As a Linkedin frequent user, I enjoy reading your studies on the techno-moral change issue of this platform!
You mentioned that “LinkedIn is becoming partially treated as a medium to “hang out”, rather than just present yourself to recruiters”, which also reminds me of the sexual harassment issue on Linkedin. I believe it would also be a topic worth discussing when it comes to the social interaction on Linkedin. (https://mumbrella.com.au/why-i-changed-my-linkedin-profile-from-andrea-to-andrew-494969)