h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I just thought I'd start this by suggesting that we could attract women by holding an annual wet boxer short contest.

AH, but my fellow researchers,

I think you mistakenly assume that there is a lack of women in this community, when you should notice that after a while it becomes clear that quite a few of the researchers actually are of female persuasion.
But then again, what does it matter? Looking for date, perhaps?
Why here, where the chances of someone living in your 'hood are about as small as the pope taking up breakdancing?

Perhaps it is simply that the men tend to give away their male identity by saying things that demonstrate their masculinity. Like talking about women. Women, on the other hand, perhaps tend not to spend all their time obsessing about men, so it isn't immediately clear that they are, in fact, women.

Good theory?

No, I'm totaly obsessed by men. I don't think that there is a lack of women round here at all. There are loads of us. I like the wet boxer shorts idea though.

Yah, me too.

I think that it seems like there are less women on the internet because the women are mostly the techies, and they're always the more outgoing androgynous types...you know the ones, we respond well to male sophomoric humour and such, thus camoflauging ourselves from the feminine image. The wet boxer shorts thing is an example Or something like that. I don't know I just saw an opportunity to use big words. .

In the supercallifragilistic expialidocious sense of the shite, you mean. I see.

Exactly. I'm happy to know someone understands.

About the women techies, the internet would give that impression but since I got involved with some parenting news groups I've found that there are lots of non-techie women who are hooked up to the internet. In fact, some of them are quite suprised about how techie they end up getting!

I agree that techie women are a different species of women and blend in a bit more.

And I'm still on the search for contestants in the wet boxer short competition

So, you'r esaying that the women on the internet are either techies or parents?

That seems like it. Or whereas lots of guys could be on the internet for years and just know moderate amounts of computer stuff, all the girls I know who have tried end up learning everything. Unless they have kids, for obvious reasons. you see?

I guess I'm in the techie classification. Oh well, at least I don't look like Bill Gates.

Hmm, don't think that's what I meant. I fall into both categories. I know lots of women who are in marketing that use the internet a lot. But using it for work purposes is pretty dull (at least I think so).

All the women I've come into contact with using the net on a regular basis are usually doing some serious research, usually on a topic they regard as their hobby (for example, my partners aunt who uses the net a lot for her hobby, geneology). Men on the other hand seem to be doing a lot more playing with no focus. (and I didn't mean any offence to any man, that's just the experience of the men I know)

And yes a suprising number of them seem to be mothers as well and they all seem to enjoy reading lots. Women seem as if they are using the net more as the learning tool that it is.

The good thing about the internet is that it has got lots of people interested in technical things who wouldn't be otherwise, males as well as females. If you ask me, that can only be a good thing.

Short, pithy, brilliant, wit and repartee. The girls can do what they like

Having read a few of the comments on "techie" etc. women, I am beginning to wonder what the point of the whole discussion is. The Internet is not designed to make people interested in "techie" stuff: it's merely a medium. Communication, rather than any sort of technical or research pursuit, is easier using the 'Net. Researchers only need the 'Net because it is used to broadcast information, and the information is easier to collect that way.

Incidentally, let me know when (and where) the wet boxer short contest is likely to start.

For some reason, women do seem to shy away from computers, that is just an unfortunate fact. As I said before, the net encourages people to get involved. But it is still perceived as something for techies, by both men and women.

And are you offering to be a contestant or judge for the wet boxer short comp?

Sorry, being male and heterosexual, I don't find the idea of judging a wet boxer short contest all that attractive.

Participating might be interesting, however. It might be cause to investigate live 'Net broadcasting for the first time, at least for myself, anyway!

I read that as another contestant...

And, okay, scratch "techie"...I was torn to pieces there, my fault... I really should have said well rounded. Or something of the sort. What I meant is I have never seen typical women truly interested in it.

There was a study showing that men's brains are more efficient in spacial/mathmatical/visual cognition, and women's brains are more for language and sounds. Maybe its that when people think of "computers" they think of math things, and women are truly, genetically not as into that stuff.

But that does not explain the inordinate amount of pleasure, and down right enjoyment, the average male gets out of the primal noisy sound of a good fart

Ewww. I decline to respond.

Okay, no I don't, I have a question I usually dare not ask- but alas, I must know.

Aside from pleasure and excitment...is there a factor of... *cringe*... pride?

*Fenchurch quickly hides her face and runs away in shame*

Sorry to butt in, Loonytunes, but I have to say that of course there's a factor of pride in the really loud expression of a really arresting fart - but only if the company you're in takes it the right way, and laughs. Otherwise, really good farts can be cringingly embarrassing.

The trick lies in making sure that the farts you do are not embarrassing, but funny. I only know a few people who pull this off really well, and remarkably enough probably a third of them are women. If the modus operandus of the Internet is a fart joke, this would imply that at least a few women are well-placed to take advantage of it! I don't know whether women who are earthy enough to fart in public would really need to communicate on that sort of level, however, and the fart (as the Internet itself) may be a male preserve simply because it allows them to explore what they want to say in really obvious ways.

There must be some deep and meaningful philosophy in there somewhere. I believe only young farts and women spend inordinate amounts of time on the Internet. Old male farts are down the pub.