Gender, CF and Brython

[potia]

I've been musing on and off for some time now about gender representation here and in Brython.

In Brython it is noticeable that men folk are more numerous, there are roughly twice as many men as women. When you look at the heavier posters (and I know that's not a very good indication of engagement) then from one third women it drops to one fifth. But that is a very small group of people.

CF has 96 members currently listed. Of those that have listed gender we have 49 male to 39 female so a much closer balance in terms of membership. But of the top 30 posters we have 19 male to 11 female.

Yet in most pagan face to face gatherings I’ve ever been to women seem to dominate. Although I don't have any expereince of larger Heathen gatherings.

So any thoughts on why we seem to have so few women as heavy posters here? Am I mistaken in my impression that women dominate the numbers in most face to face pagan gatherings?

Do you think the dominance of male interactions here is a feature of the type of path or the type of communication or possibly a combination of both of those?

Is this something others have noticed or thought about?

Before anyone gets hot under the collar (or anywhere else) I am not raising these questions to accuse anyone of anything I am simply interested in opinions and possible reasons as to why I seem to be one of the women bucking the trend around here

[redraven]

I remember reading elsewhere, the opinion that CF was a "bearpit"! I think the approach taken here, with people taking responsibility for their posts by actually doing some research before posting, thus presenting some sort of basis in external data, is not an approach easily taken by some pagans out there. Their posts are driven by the experiential and whilst this is a perfectly reasonable method of relating, it lends itself to the originator adopting a defensive position because of this lack of external data needed to better develop their position.

RR

[megli]

A bearpit!!

My place of employment was once memorably described by a former prime minister as a 'snakepit'---I'll take cuddly bears any day!

[dreamguardian]

The beauty of this forum is that its objectives & goals are very specific & clear. As members we do our best to stick to them and not waste time on unrelated subjects. Those that this doesn't appeal to leave.

Whether this has anything to do with gender, I'm not really sure.

[Tegernacus]

Our approach weeds out the new-agers, the reincarnations of Cleopatras, the "the earth is our mother" types who DO tend to take over at gatherings. Why the gender imbalance though, I'm not sure. Perhaps men tend to (and like to) over-analyse, whereas women can take belief on intuition?

I have a theory, but how to say it so as not to offend anyone... erm... women like the "fairy tale". They don't want to discuss the why's and wherefores, as that will lessen the magic somehow. GENERALISATION!! - don't all attack me at once! I know people who believe, without question, the horoscopes in the newspaper. No amount of discussion, even sympathetic discussion, will pursuade them otherwise - mainly because they don't actually KNOW why they believe it, but they do and thats that, not open for discussion.

Jeez that sounds like an anti-female rant, but it's not, honestly! We all know people like that. Glad to say they are few and far between on here. We have a better class of women. And men too

[potia]

I must admit I do wonder whether the more logical, analytical and challenging approach is more inclined towards the male mind. A similar thing occurs in the hard sciences (e.g. physics) - or at least it used to I'm not so sure if it still does.

But I know there used to be a theory that computer mediated communication generally favoured masculine approaches to communication and wondered if there might be some of that at work too? I'm not sure if that theory is still as valid. I think the theoretical information on such things (e.g. S Herring's Gender and power in online communication chapter in The Handbook of Language and Gender scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/1024/WP01-05B.html) has moved on a bit.

Saying that it might be that things have changed more in the student populations that most academics will be studying as more people come to University already familiar and comfortable with a wide range of online communications. Here on CF there seems to be tendency towards a slightly older member than the average undergrad

Teg, I think you are right in that women do tend to like the fairy tale sometimes - it's often called escapism In my somewhat limited experience men tend to prefer more violent or competitive forms of escapism like many sports and video games.

Personally I've never found this forum to be a bearpit. I like it here because it makes me think about all sorts of things.

[megli]

Can't say I have either (found it to be a bear pit). I think it's true that we do have directed discussions---we focus on a topic and quite often reach a conclusion. A lot of pagan boards get weighed down by smutty remarks (bosoms! todgers!) or by that kind of terrible, terrible Pagan Person who reduces every discussion to a quotation from Terry Pratchett, as though beyond referring to the Discworld nothing useful could possibly be said. Also we don't shy away from disputation and dialectic. It's not the usual 'this is my truth, tell me yours' thing you get on OBOD or TDN, in which you have to respect (or pay lip service to the idea of respecting) Willowdancer or Tiny Vole's beliefs simply because they hold them, and regardless of whether their beliefs actually hold water or make sense. In other words, I think we're open to the idea of actually arriving at some metaphysical truth rather than just being a soapy mutual admiration and manipura-chakra-gazing club.

Whether this has anything to do with gender, I'm not sure.

[Midori]

I too have noticed that CF has more male regular posters than female, and I agree with Tefernacus' resoning as to why.

I have a possible reason why this might be, Brython and CF concern themselves more with 'Evidence' rather than 'popularly perceived' subject matter, Bushcraft Forums, too, seem male dominated (in the nicest way!), possibly because men feel more comfortable with the 'back to the mud and blood' discussions, whereas many females would shy away from the less pretty aspects of the remote past and its reconstruction.

Women seem to go more for the 'lighter weight' Pagan subjects, with the sort of subjects they can 'pretty up' with crystals, ribbons and velvet.

Cheers, Midori

[Heron]

I like the fairy tale, or rather the faery path that leads, mayhap

To that elusive place at the n^th degree of liminality;

I also want to ask how did I get there, can I make a map?

Though I know to some this is crass and reeks of criminality.

[Adam]

i *so* like that ;D

[megli]

me too!

[robinherne]

"I must admit I do wonder whether the more logical, analytical and challenging approach is more inclined towards the male mind."


There is research to suggest that, in general, women are better at reading body language than men and so may favour face-to-face communication rather than the fleshless Void. Much of the shrieking histrionics on message boards and the like seems to be due to people projecting their own interpretation on words bereft of tone, inflection, facial expressions etc.

If, as suggested, men are less adept at reading such things anyway then they may be less disconcerted by the lack of them in computer communications. There have even been some psychologists that allege that all men are a little autistic.


regards, Robin

[Adam]

Feb 25, 2010 18:03:44 GMT -1 robinherne said:

Much of the shrieking histrionics on message boards and the like seems to be due to people projecting their own interpretation on words bereft of tone, inflection, facial expressions etc.

www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/02/70179

[megli]

Hello Robin!!

[robinherne]

Hello Bo... I must be a bad penny, the way I keep turning up!