Adamslim, absolutely no offence taken here - and I agree that the
underlying discussion in the thread is valid.  My point is a slightly
more subtle one, which is that it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle.  

Most audiophiles and computer geeks are men, so comments which have the
effect of reinforcing that women are general unable to engage with the
subject matter or are laddish are to be expected on occasions, which
has the effect of putting off people who might otherwise contribute,
which means that most of the contributing audiophiles and geeks remain
men and so on...

At one level it doesn't matter at all, because any self-confident
person will just go right on ahead and contribute.  However, would you
think the range of comments as acceptable if the OP had said "any
tricks to get my [white/coloured/blonde/gay/one-legged] flatmates to
use my SB"?  Those attributes aren't seen as a generally accepted
barrier, so why should being female?  

I also certainly don't doubt the reality of what some people experience
with their partners simply not being interested in technology.  What I
tend to think of as the interesting discussion is how we often end up
in quite fixed roles within our relationships - he "does" the
technology, she "remembers the birthdays", and so on, which kind of
excuse you from engaging too much in stuff that falls within the
other's purview.  And I think that women are as susceptible to this as
men.  I have a really good girlfriend who will come over to mine and
use the SB with impunity to set up all kinds of playlists just how she
wants it.  Yet I've seen her at home say to her husband that she can't
work out how to switch the TV onto AV input to play a DVD, when I know
she's perfectly capable of working it out.  

That was kind of behind my comment that perhaps the best thing for the
OP to do is let his signficant other run riot with the remote and the
web interface, free from any concern about looking stupid if she can't
immediately work something out or "breaks" it.


-- 
Siduhe
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Siduhe's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=723
View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=34495

_______________________________________________
discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss

Reply via email to