Why is this hobby enjoyed mostly by the male population?
- Thread starter MuthaFunk
- Start date
AngelRa
Active Member
My wife is a collector, she got more purses than I have speakers, and more shoes than all the speakers me and my friends got together!
Sharpstik
Stuck in the 70's
Stop apologizing for saying the obvious. Anyone denying this is a liar unto themselves.
MuthaFunk
Vinyl Addict
LOL!! I posted this thread last night and tonight I had over 5 pages of men trying to figure women out. It's a testament to the people who frequent this forum to see how this thread has bloomed into a pretty interesting read. :thmbsp:
I agree with many of the statements made here, in particular about how women can be more about people and less about "things". I'd guess it stems from our society and the way we've raised our children. i.e. dolls for girls, cars for boys ect... I honestly believe our world is changing those stereotypical ways of bringing up our children and perhaps we'll see more women involved in Hi-Fi and Vinyl in the future.
Thanks for the contributions, I enjoyed each comment and look foward to reading more....
I agree with many of the statements made here, in particular about how women can be more about people and less about "things". I'd guess it stems from our society and the way we've raised our children. i.e. dolls for girls, cars for boys ect... I honestly believe our world is changing those stereotypical ways of bringing up our children and perhaps we'll see more women involved in Hi-Fi and Vinyl in the future.
Thanks for the contributions, I enjoyed each comment and look foward to reading more....
jkmcc
Active Member
My wife loves music, will sit down and listen to it seriously and has been completely supportive of the upgrades to our system which is, happily, in a really satisfying place right now. But she isn't terribly interested in the gear itself. To be honest, I wasn't either until a few years ago when I caught the bug. So maybe it is a gear thing. But something else comes to mind that I haven't really seen mentioned here; how many women have you seen working in the high end audio shops or writing for the audio magazines? (Actually I do remember a woman who was the lead sales person in whatever shop I bought a Dokodor (sp) cassette deck years ago.)
When my wife accompanied me to Brooks Berdan's place a few years ago to audition some speakers, (I wasn't going to drop the coin I ended up dropping without her being in on the decision!) she cracked up because the scene there was exactly what she expected; middle aged men straight from 1978 having quiet conversations about fiddly stuff. This epitomized of course by Brooks and his beard and his thick lensed glasses.
I guess what I'm saying here is that it seems, from what little I've seen, that the retail audio culture is an intimidating rather than a welcoming environment to women.
I know I'm indulging in generalities here, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
*** I just asked my wife, "Why do you think guys are more into high end audio than women?" She said she didn't know, but it's clear that with her kindergarten students the boys will go straight to the Legos and the girls will do verbal role playing games.
Maybe we are the shallower sex and simply want more cool stuff.
When my wife accompanied me to Brooks Berdan's place a few years ago to audition some speakers, (I wasn't going to drop the coin I ended up dropping without her being in on the decision!) she cracked up because the scene there was exactly what she expected; middle aged men straight from 1978 having quiet conversations about fiddly stuff. This epitomized of course by Brooks and his beard and his thick lensed glasses.
I guess what I'm saying here is that it seems, from what little I've seen, that the retail audio culture is an intimidating rather than a welcoming environment to women.
I know I'm indulging in generalities here, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
*** I just asked my wife, "Why do you think guys are more into high end audio than women?" She said she didn't know, but it's clear that with her kindergarten students the boys will go straight to the Legos and the girls will do verbal role playing games.
Maybe we are the shallower sex and simply want more cool stuff.
Big Bill
Summertime Rolls.....
Man up!
Women are for the most part different (thank god)! I’m glad my wife isn’t insisting the cartridge loading should be set at 400pF as opposed to 200pF, or fighting with me over the “sweet spot”.
By the way my wife says the shoe thing is just to baffle us men! :scratch2:
Bill.
Women are for the most part different (thank god)! I’m glad my wife isn’t insisting the cartridge loading should be set at 400pF as opposed to 200pF, or fighting with me over the “sweet spot”.
By the way my wife says the shoe thing is just to baffle us men! :scratch2:
Bill.
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slee104611
Active Member
I can't speak for all women, only myself but I never did this as a hobby, I just grew up with great sounding audio equipment so I wasn't going to settle for some 5th rate Bose system and pretend not to notice the degradation in quality. Besides, I enjoy the tinkering and tweaking - tube biasing is my particular favorite. However, men have not made it easy or welcoming. The arrogant, condescending attitude, not to mention outright offensive comments are annoying and tiresome. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm so used to all of it that it no longer registers. Let me give you a typical sampling of what I receive 90% of the time; most recently 4 days ago:
When selling audio equipment - "can I talk to your husband, father, boyfriend or someone who can answer questions?" "Does your husband know that you are selling his equipment?" "Did you get it in a divorce settlement - is that why you are selling it?"
At audio shows - "Oh honey, that's a big piece of equipment for a little gal like you" "That's called a PPPPPRRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAMMMMMPPPPPPLLLLLIIIIIIIFFFFFFFIIIIIIEEEEEEERRRRR. You can't just plug that in and play it." "Are you here with your husband?" "How much do you charge for a massage?"
With new dealers - "Did your boyfriend/husband ask you to buy this because you need to check with them 1st to make sure you're buying the right thing." "We don't carry Bang and Olufsen."
At CES - "How much extra if we go without a condom?" (I was a Wall Street analyst at the time) "I have a KT88 in my pants just waiting for you" (to which I replied "looks more like a EL84 to me" - the look on his face!)
If you want women to become interested, men should start by treating them with a little respect and courtesy. And for the record, I also like handbags and jewelry too. Just bought THE MOST gorgeous gunmetal colored crocodile satchel to match my new Avid Acutus turntable.
When selling audio equipment - "can I talk to your husband, father, boyfriend or someone who can answer questions?" "Does your husband know that you are selling his equipment?" "Did you get it in a divorce settlement - is that why you are selling it?"
At audio shows - "Oh honey, that's a big piece of equipment for a little gal like you" "That's called a PPPPPRRRRRRREEEEEEEAAAAAMMMMMPPPPPPLLLLLIIIIIIIFFFFFFFIIIIIIEEEEEEERRRRR. You can't just plug that in and play it." "Are you here with your husband?" "How much do you charge for a massage?"
With new dealers - "Did your boyfriend/husband ask you to buy this because you need to check with them 1st to make sure you're buying the right thing." "We don't carry Bang and Olufsen."
At CES - "How much extra if we go without a condom?" (I was a Wall Street analyst at the time) "I have a KT88 in my pants just waiting for you" (to which I replied "looks more like a EL84 to me" - the look on his face!)
If you want women to become interested, men should start by treating them with a little respect and courtesy. And for the record, I also like handbags and jewelry too. Just bought THE MOST gorgeous gunmetal colored crocodile satchel to match my new Avid Acutus turntable.
shimniok
Super Member
It boggles my mind that men actually still say condescending crap like that to women in this day and age.
My jaw dropped reading that stuff. I thought we left that kind of rude pathetic junk back in the 40's. (About the time women were handily filling the shoes of men gone off to war, come to think of it...)Michael
Duffinator
Spin The Black Circle
I agree with this and have an example. I have boy/girl twins and have treated them pretty equally since birth. I invite both kids to help me around the house when making repairs or building something. At almost eight my daughter shows no interest in what tools are or what they can do for you. My daughter is far from being a fragile little girl, she's tougher than her brother. But as hard as I try she shows no interest in using tools or learning how to fix things. The Venus Mars thing starts at a very young age. :yes:
Delawheredad
Active Member
My current girlfriend is content to listen to music on a pair of crappy headphones and a portable CD Player! She only appreciates my stereo speakers when we are watching a DVD and the surround sound kicks in. My ex has an extensive music collection on tape and CD but is content to listen to it on cheap all in one boom boxes. Both of my sons are musicians and audio nuts with good to great systems. I think that women are just wired differently. For example lots of women like to sing along with their music while far fewer guys do that.
Say it again....
Susurus
Resolution:6.62×10^-34
Although the interest in music is a prevalent human characteristic, interest in finding out how to clearly reproduce it is not.
Since we're off topic... the distributions for m/f intelligence test results are different. f's tend to cluster in the middle; there are more at the extreme tail ends of the bell curve for m's.
There are more geniuses, and more idiots, among males.
The AK population here is self-selected for computer access & ability, technical interest, education, and leisure time. Some of us can get away with hanging a surfboard, moose, or penguin on the wall at work because they need our programming skills...
Since we're off topic... the distributions for m/f intelligence test results are different. f's tend to cluster in the middle; there are more at the extreme tail ends of the bell curve for m's.
There are more geniuses, and more idiots, among males.
The AK population here is self-selected for computer access & ability, technical interest, education, and leisure time. Some of us can get away with hanging a surfboard, moose, or penguin on the wall at work because they need our programming skills...
Pretty much true. Its analogous to cars. Its usually a guy who likes to modify and tinker with a car. A women, and this is to their credit, just wants something reliable to drive.
Whether it was in the Silver Age of classic gear or now, having a decent setup requires lots of accumulating and tweaking, much as a 66 Mustang does. As for music, locating bootlegs, outtakes, mono versions or alternate takes of classics appeals to the guys' hunter/gatherer instinct. A girl just wants to hear the basic version (i.e. something reliable to drive).
Most of my male friends are rather fashionable - we tend to critique each other if we're going out on the town...
JonL
Lunatic Member
I suspect that says more about the tests than the subjects.
leepal
Active Member
I haven't read through the whole thread so this has very probably been said many times already - obsessives of any kind are nearly always men. Well, obsessions orientated towards "things" rather than people.
Women are obsessed by relationships with other people, why do you think they watch soap operas and the like? Programs which are as mind numbing to us as technical things are to them.
Women are obsessed by relationships with other people, why do you think they watch soap operas and the like? Programs which are as mind numbing to us as technical things are to them.
There are a lot of women with OCD - the type who clean the house three times a day, for instance.
Quite frankly, I don't think any of those mindsets are built-in to a huge degree. There may be some tendencies here and there, but a lot of it is culturally ingrained.
I do. I have some awesome pairs of shoes. Just a couple weeks ago I was showing off my vintage 1970's platform heels to a guy I work with. He thought there were a sweet pair of shoes.
Enough of this "be a man" crap. Like I said before, I'm sick of hearing about how you if you're a man you must automatically like "manly" things, and if you don't, you're not a "man." I have every right to be interested in anything I please, or not interested in things. I don't know a thing about sports, I can barely understand what's happening in a football game, but people seem to think that I should be interested in and know all about sports just because I'm a man. I never liked sports when I was growing up because for one thing, I didn't have the constitution for sports, and for another, nobody was willing to teach me sports, they just assumed I would know because I was male.