In a message dated 10/22/2006 8:43:53 AM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: it is a truism* that historically most artists, sculptors etc. are also men, and men are supposedly more visually-oriented than women. So a non-gearhead explanation could be that men are more likely to want to go out and take pictures. ====== Phsaw, phooey, and crap. Double crap.
Culturally over the centuries women were held back from becoming artists, etc. Had to have babies and feed the male hordes, including male artists and sculptors, etc. Their place was in the home, they had smaller brains, they were illogical, all emotional, couldn't manage complicated tasks, understand technical things, etc. For instance, I grew up when there were no women news anchors on TV, and the most available jobs for women were: teacher, teller, stewardress, nurse, and social worker -- the helper fields. It hasn't been all that long since gender prejudices were socially acceptable and active. And in some instances still are, although women have made a lot of progress since the 1960's. And I am still only talking about Western cultures, since those prejudices are still quite active, barring women from jobs, in other cultures. So now that Western women are supposedly "liberated" and supposedly can hold any job, get back to me in another 200-1,000 years and see if those artist/photographer percentages haven't changed. If you want you daughters to grow up enjoying photography, hand them a camera young. As a female programmer, a very small minority in that field in my age group, I am pretty familiar with gender stereotypes and unconscious assumptions and prejudices. Arts and Crafts, quilting, needlepoint, lace making, sewing, etc. were socially acceptable visual fields for women for centuries. They couldn't lift a brush, not appropriate for most past eras and places, but, boy, they were allowed to lift a needle. Have a Nice Day!, Marnie aka Doe -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
