MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Why are so few women here?

Why are so few women here?


It was the same on IMDb, and I find it curious. My female friends and relatives watch just as many films and TV as their male counterparts, yet women are by far in the minority on MC, as it was on IMDb.

It's not that they aren't into discussing, either, as that happens offline as much with woman as with men. So why do so few women come to a message board and discuss them?

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I have no answer for this query other than maybe woman are just too busy to participate?? Working full time and also taking care of the household, kids, etc??

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But men are busy too, so I doubt that's it. Weird, isn't it? Until today it hadn't occurred to me that it was the way it was on IMDb *and* here.

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It could be that they have other interests??

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Maybe, but men have a lot of other interests too. In RL I chat about movies and TV equally with both.

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They are all over at the cooking and sewing and mommy message boards. Where they belong.

Just kidding!

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If we're going with that theory, men should instead be over on gaming, hardware, and porn boards, where they belong 😄

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It's interesting because one of my hobbies is high-end home audio equipment, and it come up from time to time why there are so few women in the hobby. I mean, women like to listen to music as much as men....right?

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Women listen to the music. Men listen to the hardware. That’s a huge difference. I’ve spent 15 years designing and selling high-end 2-channel and multi-channel audio, and home theater, systems. The sale almost always begins with a guy walking into one of the showrooms. We talk and discover what will give him the experience he wants. Often, he’s ready to buy on the spot; and, often, the price is in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more. Then I ask if he doesn’t want to bring Her in, because I specialize in making presentations to women. He ALMOST ALWAYS says, “Oh, she doesn’t care about this stuff.” And I will stroke my chin and make myself look quizzical and ask, “So . . . she doesn’t like being drawn in to the beauty of the symphony, or swept away by the drama of the movie?” The the proverbial cartoon lightbulb is almost visible over the top of his head, and he says that he sees my point. I say, “Bring her in. I will love to meet her.” What I THINK is, “I just saved myself from a huge returned sale, and I saved your marriage, bozo.” When he brings his lady in, she not only loves my choices, she loves my up-sell suggestions even more, and the sale gets larger, because I showed her the experience, not the freaking hardware.

The short version: the hi-if industry is run by dorky guys who are uncomfortable with women, so they make no effort to discover how to sell to women, which means the industry does not create women customers for itself. The vast majority of high-end clients are not born. They are created by sales professionals.

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Thank you for a most interesting reply. "Men listen to the hardware"...ouch, but I do think we can be susceptible to the gadget aspect.

My current system (small apartment)
Totem Acoustic Arro speakers
Bel Canto C5i integrated amp
Bryston Pi digital music player (I'm slowly building a high-res collection)
Amazon Prime & Pandora via Roku

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Totem is a wonderful speaker company. Canada is home to some really good audio. So is England. Both nations have a passion for audio, especially for 2-channel audio. Music is a tougher test for sound than a movie, because music offers us an objective correlative. We KNOW what a pianoforte sounds like, we KNOW what a cello sounds like. We don’t know what a dinosaur roaring is supposed to sound like. If our system is accurate on acoustical music, it will be accurate on everything. Talon, PSB, Paradigm (one of my total favorites, particularly in the bookshelf category), wonderful Canadian loudspeaker companies.

You might want to consider adding an outboard DAC between your source component and your integrated amp. Also consider (and I know this is going to sound fringe-level lunatic) upgrading your power cables. Good aftermarket power cables give all the benefits of a power conditioner (except for surge protection) with none of the drawbacks (current attenuation). Take a look at aftermarket power cables from Audioquest and Siltek. You have a return period if you don’t hear a difference.

The better your system, the closer it gets you to the music. It’s that simple.

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R_Kane explained it pretty well. That's not a good analogy. Apples to apples would be women not being all that interested in all the specs of their home entertainment equipment, on which they watch film and TV.

Caring about having decent quality picture and sound, sure, but not about having in-depth info on all the specs and bragging rights. I like gadgetry, but not to that degree.

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There’s porn boards ?

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Maybe theyre less likely to reveal being female due to the problems that tend to follow from that.

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That's probably true of some. Offhand I can only come up with 9 regulars here that I know are women. There are probably a few who are, but haven't said anything I've seen to let me know for sure.

Near the beginning I said I was a man once, but that was just to throw Ben and Juror8/Harry/Whatever off when he teamed up with Ben, charading as Wilson. Predictably, he was chagrined ;)

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I've been thought to be male, but I imagine it's the Glen thing that throws people off. No offense taken.

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I don't know why but early on I assumed you were female, but remember? I thought Glen was your husband. The dearly departed Mr Glen!

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I recall way back when the gender question was asked, along with where your screen name came from.

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I don't think I posted on the gender question because I felt self-conscious about it, having once said I was male. A few posters assumed I was male because I talked about BBQing. Hey, us womens can BBQ with the best of them.

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I have been "accused" of being a female masquerading as male before. But just once.

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Some folks just have to rable-rouse.

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What's hilarious is that it happened again, from the same twerp, right around when you posted this.

It's all from the insecure little boys bashing Rey for being a Star Wars heroine, they can't defeat my multilayered destruction of their rants and exposing them, so they think calling me a "girl" is supposed to be insulting or something.

And apparently that proves they're not insecure sexist misogynistic little twerps, lol! The worst is a troll who's been banned once, and simply replicated his username again with all letters instead of letters+numbers. You may have seen triplea, or tr1plea (maybe 3 instead of e) which was the banned version.

They don't understand, and never can, that "accusing" me of being a female is actually quite a compliment to me, as it means I don't come across as a "gender."

Not to mention, I am secure in my masculinity, I am secure in my femininity, and I absolutely love seeing these twerps writhe and attack and insult simply because they lack the brainpower to comprehend my counterargument and don't see the faults in their whining and complaining.

As for your quote... I wanna be the rabble-rouser!

=D

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PS they also hated how I linked and showed that all the Rey bashing Mary Sue B.S. was started by an admitted misogynist who actually apologized for starting that and wished he could take it back!

Why did he regret it? Probably because he's a screenwriter and now the arguments are belittling the very concept of powerful characters in scripts.

KARMA!

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I don't know. A lot of posters assume I'm a guy when they first encounter me. Maybe others have the same problem?

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We do see a lot of "mistaken identity" here. It seems like posters are assumed to be male until informed otherwise. I wonder why that is?

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You? 😄

Ok, I guess I can see that when they first come across you. It's that I associate you so much with 👠s and 💋. Plus 💕🐰🐰🐰💕!

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I guess my username isn't very feminine.🤷‍♀️

They changed the emoji's!

❤🐰🐰🐰❤

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Interpreted literally, your username is so feminine its actually a gender stereotype, and an unfair one

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I'm so sexist!😜

(Lol, I'm not sure what you mean, though!😄)

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Its a tricky puzzle... I'll tell you BUT I also dropped a clue before the ellipsis.

After that clue, do you still want me to clarify what I was getting at?

I admit to making this a riddle! Fyi

Lol

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Now that's mysterious! So something to do with tricky or puzzle?🤔 You need to know I'm pretty stupid, though!

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You're not stupid, but we all have those moments when things don't click right away.

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Still no clicking, though.🤷‍♀️

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Yeah, I don't always click, either. It can be maddening.

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Lol.... the stereotype is that women play games (in romance etc).

Its unfair because men do too, in fact men tend to call it "game" and theyre the ones calling themselves "players."

They just dont like competition!

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I literally stratego all the time, especially when the weather's nice. I did it today and I'm going to do it again tomorrow.

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It strikes me as neither feminine nor masculine.

Which emojis did they change? I can see the buns and hearts, but the first one (?) all I see is an empty square, a female symbol, and a square with an X in the centre 🙃

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The bunnies look different!

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I find there are less women on most chat sites, no matter what the subject - politics, history, books, music, sports and so on.

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Not on the message boards I've been on. Book boards are chock full of women, for instance. Sports, meh.

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How do you know who is a man or woman???

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Because many have divulged their gender.

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I am a Woman. Hi!

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Hi Woman LauraGrace! You're one of the 9 here I counted.

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You are a mystery to me. Sometimes I think you're a man, other times a woman. I've also never been able to work out if your name is Slim One, or Simone with an L tossed in there for fun.

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Seems to be more males than females, but can't say anything specifically as to why in one "particular" reason.

But back on IMDb females would populate certain boards more than others. Although most seem to be about 5 or so guys for every ~1 woman (just a completely random guess of mine which could be very much wrong), some boards back on IMDb seemed to have a larger share of women/girls/etc. (like on the boards for Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, maybe iZombie, some "chick flicks" or etc.).

I could usually tell which users are female either based on their names (not always possible to tell though) or if they had linked social media, certain signatures or etc. This isn't always foolproof, but it can work sometimes. Also, certain shows/media/etc. have a larger female viewing/interest, so it occurs to me that they would have a higher density of female users.

But overall, yeah, it seems to be mostly males, as is true in lots of places on the net with discussion boards/forums.

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True some boards/films/shows do tend to target and attract one gender or the other, but yes, it's that overall there are more men here and were on IMDb than women.

It's puzzling to me because movies/TV is a gender neutral interest, so you'd think on a message board about them it'd be a fairly even split, but it's not.

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the internet is a bastion of misogyny.

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This is an older article but you are so correct. https://bodyforwife.com/the-peril-of-being-an-opinionated-woman-on-the-internet/

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I'm still reading the article, but had to pause after Molly Galbraith's Girl's Gone Strong.
Check out Amy Schumer's MC page, so much hate.

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I just finished it. There is a lot of truth in it, and it is disturbing.

I've seen the posts on Amy Schumer's board, and many others. It's gotten to the point where I hate looking to see what's been posted if I see a woman's face on Trending. Unless it's Marilyn Monroe or someone similar.

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Very interesting article. Maybe I’m old school, but as long as women parade around in Victoria’s Secret attire on tv; bare most of what they have on the Sports Illustrated cover, men are going to look upon them as a piece of meat. Then these same women complain of misogyny. They’ve presented themselves as nothing but sex, when truth be told they could be quite intelligent!

So, what is the result? A damn prick sitting anonymously behind a monitor typing furiously vile responses to a woman who challenges him. “What the hell does that c*** know? She’s only good for one thing...a roll in the sack!” To him women are oxymorons. They throw sex in his face then dare to opine with rational thought.

I was called a c*** by a current member on this board. For what, I’m in the dark? So, he receives no replies from me. I have no use for him, but due to MC’s format I don’t have him on Ignore. I just ignore what he writes.

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No, they usually are *not* the same women.

For that matter it's usually the same men who complain about women not being or dressing sexy enough who then call the same women whores and sluts when they do dress that way.

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You don’t think the bare all, see all women complain about misogyny? 🤔 You nailed it the next thought! 👏🏻

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Nah, not usually.

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Miss Cat, you very well could be on point!

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I don't have a problem with women making bank for being sexy.
The men are the fools in that scenario.

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You are a woman so it’s natural for you to think it’s ok for women to be sexy. There is a difference in being sexy, which is great, and leaving nothing to the imagination. The men aren’t fools...they don’t know how to treat a woman nowadays. Men used to be the chasers, but now women have taken over the roll. They hop in bed on the first date then cry rape!

Women in the last 30 years have brought a lot of this on themselves. My husband didn’t dare compliment a woman at work for fear she would accuse him of stalking her! Good Grief! I am so damn sick of the Me Too movement I could scream!

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Your husband should only be giving complements on work performance.
It's that simple.

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Oh, come on. There’s nothing wrong with a man complimenting a woman once in a while especially if they’ve worked together for quite some time. She knows he’s not hitting on her. This feminist crap has gone too far. Who do you think women dress for...it’s not for other women, as a rule. I was the only female working for 30 engineers as a lab assistant. I did my best to look the best I could and if one or more complimented me I would say “Why thank you.”, and go about my work.

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that's messed up.

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Say what? 🤔 No pheromones there!

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I don't want to be chased, nor do I want to chase anyone. It's simple, what I like is forming a mutual connection and then everything falling into place from there. No one's prey and no one's predator.

If anyone, male or female, wants to sleep with another on the first date, that's their business. Rape is rape. Doesn't matter if it's on the first date or the 20th.

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I didn’t mean literally. There’s an old ‘50’s tune “A Man Chases A Woman Until She Catches Him”. At the time I couldn’t understand the meaning. When we old timers use the word chase we really mean courting.

It may be their business until she decides to call it rape when it was consensual. There’s too many cases where young men’s lives are ruined because young girls are so damn free in giving it away. Then they have second thoughts. Hells bells, we didn’t even kiss on the first date!

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Courting is different from chasing. Why do you think they used to call men wolves? Hefner dressed women at his clubs up as bunnies for a reason, and not just because of rabbits' reputation of reproducing. People used to say women "catch" or "trap" a man. These are all predator/prey verbiage.

The truth is while there is unfortunately a small percentage of women who falsely accuse men of rape, it's a very small percentage. The much bigger percentage is of rapists who go unreported because there's so much shame around reporting it, not to mention how difficult sex crimes are to prove in court. Easy to say it was consensual when it wasn't. I'm not just talking about women as rape victims either. It's even worse with men who are rape victims; the shame is deeper, so it rarely gets reported.

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‘Morn all,

OMGosh how the vernacular has changed! Actually I erred when I wrote “Woman” instead of “Girl”. Women cease being “girls” when reaching their teens. To call someone after that age a “girl” demeans her. I think men conjure up a thought of vulnerability, short skirts, etc., someone to dominate sexually when referring to a young woman as a girl.

Anyhow, here are the lyrics to Irving Berlin’s tune:

A man chases a girl until she catches him
He runs after a girl until he's caught

He fishes for a girl until she's landed him
It all comes out exactly the way she thought

Uncertain, he tags along behind
Uncertain, till she makes up his mind

A man chases a girl until she catches him
But don't run too fast while you are saying "No"
And once you've caught him don't ever let him go

To further expound on the topic, I always felt uncomfortable walking by a construction crew wearing hard hats. All the while being undressed in their minds! I did not appreciate the cat calls! A wolf pack!

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I had to shelve Waze until maybe tomorrow sometime. I’m getting beautified...hair cut and color! Yay! And husband having more cancer surgery. But, I’ll meet up with Waze again. Night for now. It’s almost 2 and have to rise early for Miss Molly.

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Good for you, taking some time for self-care and beautification :)

Hope your husband's surgery goes well. Thanks for all the help with Waze. I Googled my car and Android Auto and no dice. Oh well.

Buena noche. (One of my temporary neighbours is Italian and speaks little English. She's teaching me a few things to say in Italiano. Tonight she taught me this :)

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Interesting response.

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This^; and also, not surprisingly, lack of social skills and self-confidence. It’s probably not an environment that many women find comfortable and attractive. I think a woman needs to be very strong to make her way online.

Maybe women should start making more topics deriding the, uh, shortcomings of male celebs’ sexual attributes, and topics offering manifestly immature and nitwitted advice about how to catch a man, the guys might see the point and grow up. Might.

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I think I disagree with you on this. Women can be just as cruel as men are, especially when it comes to shaming other women. I'd just like to see either those posts go completely ignored, or more and more people just saying there is no need to talk about anyone in this way.

I don't see either happening.

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"I'd just like to see either those posts go completely ignored, or more and more people just saying there is no need to talk about anyone in this way.

I don't see either happening."

Yep and yep. It would be amazing to see either of those things happened.

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Oh, yes, sslssg, certainly, when it comes to shaming and criticizing other women. Most men have literally no idea how competitive and vicious women can be with other women. Men only learn the extent of female ferocity in divorce proceedings! I’m talking about the give and take of the internet, though, where men-wannabes assess boobies and give each other advice about how to get a girl when they, the males, clearly have no clue. Women, wanting the very best genetic mate to father her children, are, like, a million times more competitive for that mate than a male who, almost always, just wants sexual release. The internet environment might be made more hospitable to women if women turned the boys’ tactics against them and mocked their sex-cue deficiencies and otherwise undercut the infantile, clearly intimidated and clueless misogynistic topics and posts that inundate cyberspace.

For all of this to stop happening would require that boys become men, and that’s not going to happen anytime soon on the ‘net or in real life, much as the Proud Feminist in me wishes it would.

Bluntly, most members of my gender greatly disappoint me.

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