To answer the question, about whether it's my impression there are more males and females I origami. Keep in mind: I am going to generalize a lot here! So I hope I don't hurt anyones feelings...I wil overdo it to paint a picture.
I have met a lot of people in online zoom meetings. About up to half of them have their camera off so I have no idea. But the other half, I have noticed a lot of females, and also a lot of grey hair. So there are groups with a lot of older (retired?) females. Although this is more so in some groups then others. I have joined a few origami servers on discord, the population there is the opposite: a lot of males (boy's) still in school. They focus mostly on box pleating and fold a lot of dragons and warriers and such. The level of complexity of what they fold is very high. They fold because they are bored at school. One server did an age poll where people could disclose their age, there was only 1 person in the category 40+. And there where many teenagers/ beginning 20. And even though the origami servers are very helpful and open, they can also be very childish/ teenage like and I can imagine not all (young) girls feel comfortable there. I find a lot of young people in other discord servers too. There are often a few experts exchanging knowledge and a lot of beginners asking questions and getting help. One thing I like is, it's very hard to discriminate based on age/looks/gender/whatnot. As all I see are nicknames and profile pictures (that are not photo's). I find it a valuable thing because it's inclusive for everyone regardless of all those things. The message from yesterday about gender not being visible in origami databases: I never realized that before but I find it a very positive thing. As that reduces bias when forming an opinion on models. So please do not add that to lists. So origami (box pleating) is for teenage boys board in school that make very complex fantasy dragons. Zoom meetings are for old females and much more decorative. Almost no box pleating there. Tessellations: only a few in both places. I see a lot of folded tesellationst online, there are many folded by females (opposing the general idea women are not good at math). But I have not found a place where they meet or share knowledge. There is one discord server but it's very small. (If anyone knows a good place I am very interested to find it, please let me know!). Even so, I do see people of all ages mix. And there are always a few males or a few females present. And at least few people that are older/younger then most others. The way I see it: there are multiple places where people meet and share knowledge about origami. It depends very much what social media you use to connect with other people. And different age groups use different social media. There are many older people folder, but not if you only have discord. There are many young people folding, but not if you only look at websites for meetups (and skip social media). So you might want to consider what social media you use (this list is a very ancient way to connect in a way. Which is fine but that has an impact on who you will find here) when doing research on who does origami. None of this is scientific, I can't back anything up with numbers (I can't find the age poll back). But this is my general impression. I have never been to an offline conference, that might paint yet another picture. Kind regards, Francien.
