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Why Aren't There Female Audiophiles?

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Yorkshire Mouth

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Whatever the answer is, I don't think it's any thing to do with hi-fi in particular.

I tend to find women aren't as prevalent in gear-based discussion in general.

You don't get many women in the TV forums (which I appreciate is close to home), or cars, or coffee machines.

In areas where women tend to buy/choose/use more kit than men (and I'm not being sexist here and saying this is how it should be, just how it appears to be), there aren't similar communities for other domestic appliances, be it hoovers, washing machines, or ovens. And BTW, I do all the cooking in our house.

If it were just about what you spend a significant amount of your time doing, there should be versions of ASR for dishwashers. And there aren't.

But those are chores. What about 'hobbies'?

I don't think women have as many hobbies. Seriously, I like hi-fi, AV, cooking, wine, whilst SWMBO likes...erm...gardening. A bit.

Sorry, that's my own, poor contribution.
 

Bob-23

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The notion that any disparity of 'representation' in any field (e.g. audio) is an indication for discrimination is ideology - and a very fashionable one, at the moment. 'Reality' is typically multidimensional, thus, usually determined by a bundle of factors, not by a single one. Monocausal thinking is misleading and mostly wrong.

If there's any disparity, discrimination may be one factor (among many others), or it may not, and if it plays a role, the question always has to be, what's its share among the bundle of factors: 90 %. 50 %. 20 %, 5 %. Or: high, middle, low.

Couldn't it be that 'audiophilia', as heavily related to technical objects, is more attractive to males; couldn't it be that males - in general and in average - have a stronger affinity to dealing with 'objects', while females have a stronger affinity to dealing with 'persons'. And that could well have to do not only with a ('software'-) cultural heritage but with a cultural heritage: traditional division of labor between males and females, over thousands of years, that has left traces in our psyche, in our physiology. There's a coevolution of culture and physiology.

Why should men an women be equal? (In theirs preferences, in their interests, in their specific capabilites.)
 

daftcombo

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Female can't audiophile because of a lack of an equivalent for "WAF".
 
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SimpleTheater

SimpleTheater

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While the multiple jokes in the video, starting from the emails in the first 15 seconds, were too subtle (though @cistercian got it), and the whole video is a joke, down to the berating of a woman texting for audio advice, I think the premise is fascinating. Sure women and men like different things, but I can watch a football game with female fans and female commentators. I can go to a car show and find women all over. I can go to a Star Trek convention (but I haven’t, I swear) and see women. But if the female participation rate in audio is above the distortion of a Class A amplifier at 1 watt at 1 KHz I’d be shocked.
 

rdenney

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...When the stakes get really low, the gloves come off...

Sounds like faculty meetings.

In my experience, I have not noticed that the vigor by which arguments are pursued is particularly gender-specific. Culturally, men are more likely to enjoy good-natured insults, where I don't notice that as much with women. But men can really screw up with that, because what they assume is good-natured isn't always received that way. But I think both will argue to the ends of the earth if they think the other person isn't understanding what they are saying, because if they truly understood, they would simply agree.

In terms of ruthlessness, I have not noticed any particular difference.

Rick "whose musician nieces are not interested in hi-fi, but that makes them like most musicians" Denney
 

amper42

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The people I know who really enjoy audio typically have a love for music, technology or both. Musicians, electrical engineers and those with a elevated passion for music/sound tend to be good candidates for the hobby. It doesn't hurt if you have lots of time on your hands and more money than you know what to do with it. :D

With that said, I can imagine females with a passion for music and/or technology could just as easily be an audiophile too. I know lots of guys who think the music from their phone is good enough and couldn't imagine needing more than that. You take them into the home theatre and shake the house with a movie rocket launch and they have fun but it's not something they desire. Or you play some beautiful passages on the stereo and the adrenaline doesn't rush through their bones. Most musicians know the feeling I'm talking about but it's not a mainstream experience.

So go girls! I'm happy to see you loving the science of music reproduction!
 

Koeitje

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garbulky

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While I appreciate @ayane 's viewpoint and willingness to talk, I think it's sad that @ayane is being called upon to explore women at large just because she's the only one here.
I think she has a point about culture. It's not just about the culture of audiophiles. It's the culture around technology and gadgets in general. Historically, it's been a substantially male dominated field. I felt more comfortable exploring this stuff because there was nothing unusual about it. My dad was interested in cars. The men I saw used tools. My male friends were interested in gadgets and stuff. My guy friends liked bragging about having bigger better or the latest stuff and so I was conditioned in to thinking having bigger and better stuff was important and totally normal to do.

Audiophiles however are a tiny niche in the gadget field so truly there was nobody like me around that explored it in my area. The only reason I did was because I was conditioned with my comfort in messing around with other gear and technology. If you go way back, when I grew up, the science books, the history books talk about technology. Whether it's building ships. Or the building of the wheel or discovering electricity. Even though it's true that tons of women definitely contributed to this, when I was growing up, all I saw were male role models doing the tech or nerdy stuff in the text book. Newton discovering gravity, einstein and the atom, Armstrong in a moon craft. I never heard of the likes of Tereshkova, Curie, until I was older. Nowadays, the culture is slightly better at celebrating women in tech and stem, but I think there is still a long way to go.
 

Spkrdctr

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I call these two pages of comments very ignorant. I would have thought that it would have been answered quite easily in the first page. Here it is. Women are not stupid enough to believe the unscientific garbage that audiophiles love. Men are just a lot dumber in this regard. If you think you are not that dumb, that proves that you are. There, Answered.
 

audio2design

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I call these two pages of comments very ignorant. I would have thought that it would have been answered quite easily in the first page. Here it is. Women are not stupid enough to believe the unscientific garbage that audiophiles love. Men are just a lot dumber in this regard. If you think you are not that dumb, that proves that you are. There, Answered.


It was answered, pretty much exactly a you said, in the first page, but maybe not listening (or reading) is another male trait ;-) ...
 

MakeMineVinyl

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Given the dysfunctional nature of most male audiophiles, its no wonder women are smart enough to not want to be like that. ;)
 

AdamG

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I’m just hanging around, waiting for the Train wreck I expected to have happened already?
 

Wes

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I think there's a lot to be said about the fact that audiophilia is a sharply solo endeavor and that females tend to prefer activities that involve groups--particularly groups with other females--doing things together. As an example, my daughter likes sound quality and likes to listen critically with me, but she doesn't care to listen critically by herself.

a blind listening group! women have better hearing anyway
 
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