It’s struck me that a lot of the debate over feminism these days, especially on the Internet, comes from the idea that women Just Aren’t Interested in various things:
“Women don’t like or really care about comic books, violent video games, or superhero movies — they like romance novels and Candy Crush and chick flicks. Therefore, their insistence on meddling in my comics and games and movies are just to take the fun out of things I enjoy. Oh, and fake geek girls.”
“Women just aren’t interested in STEM, so why should we worry about diversity in tech?”
“Girls want My Little Pony, not the Avengers, so why should we market merchandise for that property towards them?” (Though as a corporate, and not individual, stance, part of this apparently comes from a desire to not compete with one’s own products for sales.)
Certainly, there are lots of things that MORE men than women are interested in, and vice versa. But how far can we take these kinds of assumptions?
Not very far. I can’t think of anything that doesn’t have some interest from both genders, but yeah, some things are going to attract more men than women and vice versa.
But if we’re talking about diversity, you have to take stuff like that into account. If there are fewer women interested in STEM, then there will be fewer women in tech jobs.
Not directly, but as I said, it seems inherent in some of the discussions I see, such as the debates over representation in media, especially specific forms like video games, and in merchandising.
Every interest mentioned in the OP does, in fact, have a following of women attached to it. Women might not be the majority of the fans, but they do exist (in fact, I’m a woman interested in almost every “women aren’t interested in X” topic, and don’t care for “chick flicks”, Candy Crush, etc.)
A lot of the “debate” is just repackaged sexism, stereotyping, and resistance to change. It’s like saying “women aren’t interested in serving in the military”, which is contradicted by the women who serve in uniform in an all-volunteer military.
About 30 years ago, an Israeli politician got into trouble for responding to a question about why women at that time weren’t allowed to be Air Force pilots.
He said “Have you ever seen a man darn a pair of socks”?
He was , of course, wrong about the pilots.
But he was right about the socks.
I’m a bad woman if I’m not supposed to be interested in the things in the OP.
Professional programmer, buy a fair number of violent video games, have a shelf or two of comic books. Middling on superhero movies, more because I think most of the latest ones suck, not because I don’t like superheroes. I’ll take Avengers over My Little Pony any day.
Also not the only female I know who enjoys all those things.
It’s a bad stereotype, and we humans as a whole would do better if we’d just stop perpetuating it.
Men are just not interested in interior decorating. The most boring hours I ever spent were looking at draperies and paint samples with my wife. I just don’t care. Show of hands guys: you would still be using bricks and boards, and couches you found on the curb if it weren’t for your significant other, am I right?
Men love interior decorating! Hmmm, football logos, basketball logos, Star Wars, or our favorite drink? Such tough decisions to make. I know! I’ll just put them ALL over my house!
I feel impelled to also point out that much of what we think men like and women like is driven by heavy, persistent socialization. There’s also the fact that humans like to ‘belong’ to groups, so there’s a pressure to conform. “I’m a girl so I love shopping!” etc.
According to that particular line, if you, as a woman (can’t answer for men, of course), don’t follow that persistent socialization, there must be something “wrong” with you.
My SILs, for example, have never understood why I hate shopping. Their attitude is, “Well, what do you do with you spare time, then?” I’ve given up trying to explain.
That is true but only a very small fraction of men have ever tried. Once they get involved a very high percentage stay with it. We probably have about 50,000 bow makers around the world right now. I know of only one woman who does the primitive and she is not very active, I know of a couple others who play with making modern bows but they are not very active as well.
