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Thread awry - a question - why are there so few women here?


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No secret that recently I started a thread pointing out a 12 page letter from from a female college campus sexual assault victim addressed to her assailant. I chose to shut the thread down and then delete it because it went off the rails, The point of the thread which was to say parents could use the situation in an age appropriate way to teach kids about proper behavior was lost in whether drunkedness trumped actions that led to a conviction of sexual assault. Let's agree to say that there were dissenting opinions and leave it at that.

 

Let's take a step away from that particular thread as I wish to call out a puzzling situation about the board. Does anyone find it strange that very few women participate in this forum or community in a regular way? Is it that only men are Bills fans? Does this type of exchange only appeal to men?

 

Maybe, if nothing else the statistical probability of having so few women as regulars would say that there is something about the place that either fails to attract female participants or on the flip side of the same coin turns them away.

 

One can only make assumptions as to why this might be the case. This being so, why (mostly to all you men) do you think this to be so? Wouldn't raw statistics suggest that there should be closer to a 50/50 participation level here? After all, don't we now have equality of genders? If you attend Bills games is it so rare to see female fans?

 

Now back to the point of this new thread. Are the majority of men here doing something intentionally, or not, that causes very few women to participate? Do we make women uncomfortable here? Should we care? Would any of us have reason to wonder if our wives, daughters, girlfriends, sisters or female friends saw what we posted here as being objectionable from a purely gender perspective? Are we intentionally or unintentionally excluding women from participation?

 

This is an open forum. What do you think?

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I know plenty of women who are Bills fans, but not many of them are as interested in sports in general as are most men I know - apparently not enough to post on a message board. Having more ladies around here would liven up the place, though.

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There are myriads of women that like watching football, but there are FAR fewer that like to talk about it, especially in the minutia that you'll find on a website.

 

Listen to the sports call in shows, again, there are far fewer women calling in. Nothing sinister in it IMHO; just a difference in preferences.

 

My wife would never post here but is at least as big a football fan as I am. (She catches as many college games as possible.)

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seriously?

 

I know some women who are into their college teams, but if I made a list of the hundred biggest NFL fans I know there probably wouldn't be a single woman on the list.

 

And even for those who are fans, how many want to spend their time here, where it's overwhelmingly guys arguing about Rex's defense or Fitz's contract or commenting on Hot for Teacher threads? AiO, Cablelady and a few of our other past and present women posters are rare gems.

 

 

P.s. Why delete the other thread? Just because some differences of opinion crept in? Can't agree with that decision. Thats a topic worth discussing.

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seriously?

 

I know some women who are into their college teams, but if I made a list of the hundred biggest NFL fans I know there probably wouldn't be a single woman on the list.

 

And even for those who are fans, how many want to spend their time here, where it's overwhelmingly guys arguing about Rex's defense or Fitz's contract or commenting on Hot for Teacher threads? AiO, Cablelady and a few of our other past and present women posters are rare gems.

 

 

P.s. Why delete the other thread? Just because some differences of opinion crept in? Can't agree with that decision. Thats a topic worth discussing.

 

Totally agree with everything you said, especially the PS. I saw the thread earlier, heard a podcast on it, came back to find it and it was gone...........What was it - people disagreed about something? Why would you delete it?......OTW has gone down the tubes with ridiculous threads and when there's something interesting, it's not on here for long.

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not enough girls like football, or they see all the madness here and get out before they get in. :D


I know plenty of women who are Bills fans, but not many of them are as interested in sports in general as are most men I know - apparently not enough to post on a message board. Having more ladies around here would liven up the place, though.

 

no, then we would have to be nice and where is the fun in that.


How about a mandatory "Section F" space in every thread, to promote female participation?

 

Does this mean female and why would that make them post?

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seriously?

P.s. Why delete the other thread? Just because some differences of opinion crept in? Can't agree with that decision. Thats a topic worth discussing.

CA? Have you moved?

 

Anyway, differences of opinion especially on a very broadly debated issue or incident are fine. When the expression of those opinions turn into personal attacks and a series of stupid comments then what is the point? The mods have enough to do around here and babysitting a thread that had gone way off track is not one of them.

Totally agree with everything you said, especially the PS. I saw the thread earlier, heard a podcast on it, came back to find it and it was gone...........What was it - people disagreed about something? Why would you delete it?......OTW has gone down the tubes with ridiculous threads and when there's something interesting, it's not on here for long.

 

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Apparently women don't care to talk about football....shocking!

Have you been to a game lately? While not half of the people in attendance, there are a lot of women. They make up a significant percentage of the crowd.

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There's used to be plenty of women posting daily, but they got tired of certain people harassing them so they left. Some names I can remember off the top of my head.....

 

Cablelady

#89

Lana

Stephanie

Lori

Etc....

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There's used to be plenty of women posting daily, but they got tired of certain people harassing them so they left. Some names I can remember off the top of my head.....

 

Cablelady

#89

Lana

Stephanie

Lori

Etc....

 

I'd like to learn more about this alleged harassment. I've never frequented any other forum as much as I do here. But I've been on other forums for other topics when trying to get information (vehicles, pets, etc.) and busting balls seems to be the norm.

 

Here, the vast majority of the ball busting is in good fun. From what I've witnessed, the "not in good fun" variety has never been unprovoked, nor unwarranted.

 

My wife doesn't talk about football and barely watches it ... but she treats the home opener as if it's a national holiday. The majority of women in attendance at games, in my opinion, are likely spouses/significant others of male Bills fans. It's a party/social event as much as it is a game.

 

This content of discussion on this site is primarily football and news stories that men find interesting. Generally speaking, we're a bunch of immature idiots and most women are above our topics of discussion.

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Have you been to a game lately? While not half of the people in attendance, there are a lot of women. They make up a significant percentage of the crowd.

 

Like Gugny said, for women I think a lot of the appeal of a Bills game is the social/party atmosphere. I know a few women that are big fans of some NFL team but also don't care to talk about the details of football. Many of them won't go out of their way to watch a game that isn't on local cable (like going to a sports bar on Sunday or purchasing Sunday Ticket), but they'll spend lots of money going to 3-4 games a year. Nothing wrong with any of that (sometimes I think I'm insane when it comes to the Bills) but it just kind of is.

 

With regard to a female space here, or us somehow excluding, intentionally or otherwise, women from our discussions, the reality is that male spaces are vanishing to the point where there are almost none left. I have no issue with women posting here (Lori, for example, contributed quite a bit), but let's not pretend that having a place where guys like to chat with other guys about something that guys tend to enjoy more than women is a bad thing.

 

Also, "there are no girls on the internet."

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My girlfriend loves Bills games, loves going to them and being at the tailgate with everyone. But you wouldn't catch her watching an old game trying to figure out how Sammy got open or why the coverage rolled a certain way. Its just not her thing.

 

I tell her about stuff on the board, but she usually just nods and goes back to Pintrest.

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