Norman86 wrote
knitting and crochet make up HOW many internet forums? ?
I dunno, but I know they're there and if we're going to start trying to evaluate who does what on the 'net then we have to try to consider all of it. I know women who post on all sorts of forums.
shoulld be begin counting just the guitar forums alone?
Then there are pc, gaming for all types of consoles, bands etc etc etc!
Gaming forums have beeb the subject of some controversy as regards the sexism, homophobia and general intolerance that, reportedly, is a characteristic of that part of the on-line world. And, of course, the guys purveying the chauvinistic attitudes professed that it was all just joshing AND got irate when some "bitches" raised the matter in the wider media. You can't carry on like that and wonder where the ladies are.
I participate in an F1 forum which is notable for the way the posters (all men, as far as I can figure out) speak about women and especially women who have any aspirations towards a presence in F1 (not just driving, but any role in the hallowed inner circle of the paddock and the pits other than being a Foster's Girl or somebody's sexual partner). You see, "they" just don't understand F1 and it's traditions, "they" don't get it, and if somebody mentions periods or how women lack spatial awareness then that's just a joke and if you don't like it then you should know that we don't hold with any PC nonsense here. I know women who like F1, who do get it, who know it's history and so on but I can understand why they don't wouldn't anything to do with that particular forum. Saying "women don't like forums" might well be true, but it's more enlightening to consider WHY that might be.
It doesn't HAVE to be that way. We men can behave like reasonable human beings. There's a Richard Thompson discussion forum (closed, not readable by non-members) and that's notable for the substantial (percentage wise) presence of women members, their active participation, the respect their views are given and the general absence of sexist banter.
