An entirely undvidehced perspectiv/ssweping generalisation but perhaps illustrative of why women may not feel welcome in audio.
Rewrite it as “Many people like music but most are not interested in the means of production” and you begin to see an issue around good old fashioned stereotyping and sexism.
My experience, which absolutely may not be that of others, is that all my female friends love music - it has often been the starting point for our various friendships - and the majority of them are very much interested in the means of production. Less than half of them have dealt with a dealer; been to a show and, on those rare occasions when we have discussed this, it’s apparent that men are the barrier and not electronics or complexity.
This is certainly in conversation referring to someone else. I don’t think I have ever said to another face to face “hello bloke” or “look out bloke”
I have used “hello fella” and “alright geezer”
I agree. It’s just stating the obvious truth (but not exclusively absolute truth) of the matter. It’s not unpacking the social, psychological, or other reasons why that may be true, which therin may lie prejudices and assumptions. It’s just stating something any dealer knows to be true. That shouldn’t be controversial.
I think in several years, I can count the number of women who walked into the shop and asked for a dem for themselves on one hand with fingers to spare.
The reasons why that was true I won’t touch with a barge pole. Doesn’t make it any less true.
Bloke does seem in my mind to suggest an aggressor.
A bullish minded protagonist.
Whereas chap, fella, guy, dude and gentleman of course suggests a somewhat quieter and introverted character that still contributes but on a more passive positive nature.
But, I think I might be getting carried away here,.
It’s was been a Brit thing where I grew up, whereas “Fella” is a relatively new term - as in “All right, fella?” And ‘bloke’ never implied anupything aggressive, it was just an alternative word to men. But here goes the rubbish talk!
Alf Stewart from Home and Away of course.
He used to run the surf and bait shop and cafe, but presently runs everything in SummerBay.
He has a few catchphrases. “Flamin Galah”. “Stone the flamin crows” “Heaps”, “strike me roan” and “strewth”
Often has a stooge part but he has his moments.
Does it matter? So what if it’s ‘blokey’, who cares? Unless you’re a self-loathing bourgeois identitarian, of course.
Nobody complains that Mumsnet or Female First are too ‘womanly’ or that The Lady and Cosmopolitan write too much about ‘lady stuff’. Men and women can and do develop their own spaces where they talk, write or read about what interests them. Many women may enjoy the music a good hi-fi makes, but among the fairer sex the equipment itself is probably a minority interest. So what?
On the whole this forum is a welcoming and inclusive place, and the few female members, especially long-serving ones like Debs, are treated (as far as I can tell, anyway) with respect and as equals by the paunchy, grizzled old men who make up most of this place.
What is most important is that a wide variety of viewpoints and opinions are held and aired.
