Subject:
|
Re: Men vs. Women
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.off-topic.debate
|
Date:
|
Thu, 6 Feb 2003 23:25:24 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
201 times
|
| |
|
|
Something important, even if it does seem off topic:
My wife did a study of children's greeting cards. She found that girl's cards
emphasized beauty/prettiness, being sweet and nice, and used pastel colors like
pink and other light colors. boy's cards emphasized being smart, creative, and
adventurous and used bolder colors.
Her study was fairly limited, but it does say alot about the socialization of
our children and its subsequent impact on their future behavior. Men go into
sciences and engineering ten times more than women. Women go into english and
language studies more than men.
I'm NOT saying that greeting cards make boy kids into scientists and lego
builders and girls into stay-at-home moms. What I AM saying is that it is
indicative of similiar symptoms that allude to the continued gendered education
in our country. Society as whole puts enormous pressure on both girls and boys
to behave in certain ways and tends to exclude those that don't follow the
norm. Since feminism in the 1970's, things have change a little, but barely
noticable at all.
And since Lego is a company and driven by the bottom line, they aren't really
concerned in trying to reform society into something less sexist and more equal
- they'd rather make jet planes and race cars knowing boys WILL buy it than
neutral building sets HOPING girls will buy it.
Not attempting to be a definative answer, but hopefully a piece of an extremely
complicated puzzle.
-lenny
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Scott Costello writes:
> As I roam through the vast halls of this community that is Lugnet, I am
> continually struck with the fact that males members and participants tend to
> out number females by a very high margin. This is also reflected in the
> ratio of people that in our local Lug, and train club; even Brickswest had a
> ratio of at least 4 to 1. So I have been wondering why this is, what is it
> about the brick that seems more attractive to males than females.
>
> My first thought is to examine the core differences between what each gender
> enjoys more. Last night upon looking for new storage techniques, I came
> across several scrap booking sites. This is a hobby that my several women
> in my family including my wife enjoy very much, and there is an expo coming
> up locally soon. In these expos the ratio is inversely weighted towards
> females. In college I majored in English, and was almost always outnumbered
> by my female colleges, while my best friend was a history major who saw few
> women in his classes. Why do they call romantic comedies “Chick Flicks”? All
> these things simply point out that sometimes interests are driven somewhat
> by gender.
>
> What bothered me mostly about this though is the fact that during my stint
> as a Kay Bee Toys employee, we considered Lego toys to be gender neutral,
> and they were kept in the aisle next to the games and puzzles. Hardcore
> feminists may disagree with me, but it is commonly considered that G.I. Joe,
> He-Man, and toy guns are boys toys, and Barbie, baby dolls, and dress up
> stuff are more girls toys. Cars, trains and video games existed in a sort of
> gray area, but leaned more toward males than females. Why then would a toy,
> which is in most stores retailed as gender neutral, seem to be enjoyed more
> by boys than girls?
>
> TLC has made several “outreach” attempts to attract female consumers, but
> never really have captured that demographic. I always thought it was a
> little insulting that a company would believe that in order to attract girls
> you must color everything pink. So I look to all of you to help answer the
> question that I cannot, why do are there more male AFOL’s than female.
> Please don’t respond with the “I’m a girl and I like Lego” line, I know
> there are female fans, I do not discredit your existence, I merely question
> why there are not more like you out there in the world.
>
> Scott
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Men vs. Women
|
| <mucho snippo> I do find your wife's research very interesting, but I would come to a very different conclusion. I have always fallen on the nature side of the nature/nurture arguement. I would argue that your wife's findings indicate what boys and (...) (22 years ago, 6-Feb-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Men vs. Women
|
| As I roam through the vast halls of this community that is Lugnet, I am continually struck with the fact that males members and participants tend to out number females by a very high margin. This is also reflected in the ratio of people that in our (...) (22 years ago, 6-Feb-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
|
12 Messages in This Thread:
 
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
