that's what the site was born around, then it attracted some women, and though way out of balance still, the women helped make this ET more colourful, more human, more connected, more feeling, more soulful.
i see ET as reflecting the world as it is, mostly male-dominated, mostly bent on solving problems women would probably not have allowed to occur in the first place.
i'm also guessing that there are way more men online than women at any point in time or space. internet probably existent more because of males than females, who are more connected to the real world, rather than the cybersphere, with its somewhat virtualised realities.
i think the males are probably more interesting in real life than we allow ourselves to be on the net, speaking as one currently inhabiting a body of the male gender(!).
i wish there were more women here, as i'm not alone in this, i expect ET will attract more females in time, though i don't expect it to be a particularly swift evolution, for some reason.
while the main subjects and issues raised and debated here remain those that are traditionally male-oriented, then the disparity will reflect that reality.
it would have been amusing if it had been inverted. say the blog originated with a woman, and the subjects around which it rotated had been more traditionally 'female', maybe shoe-shopping, maternity leave, child-raising, fashion, whatever, and to every 50-or-so women there was a man, throwing in comments and diaries about global oil prices, currency exchanges, windmills, and the latest political machinations...
when i think of ET reversed, it gives me greater understanding of how i'm intuiting fran feels, and i am even amazed there are any women on the blog at all.
as Jung says, we are all both and we need to fully experience both sides of our natures to be completely human.
i'm physically male, but my soul is female. to understand that, studying how women are (the feminine principle) is fundamental to balancing the apparent contradictions between the genders, within me, and reflected into the greater world around my little sack of skin.
ET's best attributes transcend gender, imo, but after periods of transcendence, it's wonderful to have the female input here. i can appreciate that if i were female, i would probably notice much more how 'male' this site is.
ET is a public sphere, and we after all are private people, there's only so much of myself i'm happy to put online for all to see, because i am not that much of an exhibitionist, at least in this medium anyway lol.
women are shyer than men, and intellectualise less than men, in my experience. they also take less conversational risks, and tend to more conservative mindsets. before you flame this transparently sexist comment, i want to add that this site would be FAR less interesting if it were all-male, and i wish for more female input as much as anyone, maybe more.
in the interests of balance...
the women here at ET contribute mightily, and i suspect are as unconventional and progressive in real life as their contributions, which make be numerically less, but make up for that in many subtle, delightful ways.
gender anonymity adds to the mystery also... i like not knowing, and guessing!
:) ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
If the expectations are that small and that rigid, it is not surprising that males feel so threatened when any woman cannot fit into them. It doesn't take much. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
Just.write.more.diaries
on different topics. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
I gave it a go and it went ok so I stayed and I'm very glad I did, but it is much easier to not get involved with a site like this. What I and others are interested in is attracting newcomers and keeping them interested and active, and that involves identifying what keeps people from contributing in the first place. Ad astra per aspera
I'm sorry but just because people don't find something interesting they don't descend into the comment thread and attack the diary and this site is terribly civil in its debate standards so I don't know why people need to feel intimidated by "what may come their way". As for not thinking their subject will be interesting to others a diary is like somebody's personal blog and they have wide latitude in the choice of topics, and in fact there is a quite broad selection of topics covered on the site. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
And Migeru, I can see metavisions point in challenging melo and I also think melo can handle it - I even have a hunch that he might enjoy this kind of "fight"/Challenge. What is more it might lead to another interesting discussion, which I would be very much interested in. :-)
Write.more.diaries.
Look, the traffic on this site is not that high - it tekes less than 5 recommendations for a diary to make the recommended diary list. Sometimes we have diaries where the discussion in the comments is basically carried on by two or three people and the writers don't complain.
You can attract different people just by writing different diaries. A vivid image of what should exist acts as a surrogate for reality. Pursuit of the image then prevents pursuit of the reality -- John K. Galbraith
that's how you perceive my comment?
obviously i shold post less, or not on this topic, if i am
a. that densely chauvinistic
b. that inarticulate
c. that insultingly suffocating without realising it.
back to square one.... :)
er, thanks for the feedback, meta-v, i am less reconstructed than i had fondly hoped, obviously. thanks for the gentle judgement, points duly taken on board! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
I don´t know, but the parts about the ´gender dominated´ and the ´gender subjects´ and women´s qualities just don´t fit for me at all. I don´t want to be classified by those, I have had roles and molds all my life and I don´t want any more.
This doesn´t have to stop you from writing anything, or disagreeing with me, you know that, so don´t give me the abc´s. You know your square is fine with me, even if this time I don´t agree because I don´t fit. Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.
i think it's just that the progressive blogosphere, like most techy things, is presently male-dominated.
as the net becomes more 'normal', and as more women become progressive bloggers, i expect things will even out, to common benefit.
i'm very interested in the psychology of gender, which is why i take the high risk of misunderstanding in participating, and worse, being misunderstood, in these dragon-infested realms!
sorry if my thinking is still boxy, i'm working on it, thanks again for the educational feedback... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
