February 24, 2002

6:11 AM

Is Metafilter a Boyzone? Was recommending MeFi to one of my girl-pals, and she came back to me with the following: "interesting...but it's a bit of a men's room, isn't it?" When pressed she cited postings like sex classes, gross-out cartoons, nerdish obsession, flimsy pretexts for nudity, and whiny self-pitying threads about failing manhood. Somewhat surprised, and in mild defense, I cited back postings on the horror of honour killings, drag queens talking about false breasts and male self-parody. Now she's actually v. pro-men, and no knee-jerk feminist, so she's got me wondering: Are we? And if so, does it matter?
posted by theplayethic (9 comments total)

"MetaTalk is a discussion area for topics specific to MetaFilter itself..."
posted by Carol Anne at 6:21 AM on February 24, 2002

I'd be very interested in seeing how membership breaks down by gender, but that's clearly not possible. Going on instinct alone, I'd have to reluctantly agree with your friend. Does it matter? Well, I'd certainly like to see more postings from a female perspective simply because it's a different POV. Hanging out in the locker room all the time gets boring.
posted by MrBaliHai at 6:22 AM on February 24, 2002

Doh! Sorry folks. Category error on my part. If you want to pursue this in the "proper" place, please go here. Although a wee bit of me wants to see this debate played out in public, just a little...
posted by theplayethic at 6:26 AM on February 24, 2002

Theplayethic: Congratulations on your well-constructed post. It does make one think and sort of feel guilty. On the other hand, the few female posters on MetaFilter are among the best and most persuasive. Take Carol Anne. She's right about MetaTalk being the better place for discussing this. Yet it's ironic that the liveliest thread there at the moment is all about who's the most attractive nekkid girl on suicidegirls.com... ;)
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:34 AM on February 24, 2002

This thread has been taken by the poster to MetaTalk.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 6:49 AM on February 24, 2002

You say Tomayto. I say Tomahto. You say MemayTa. I say MemahFi. Let's call the whole thing off.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:52 AM on February 24, 2002

It is for guys and let's keep it that way! Let the women have their own spot where they can exchange recipes and make girly talk about failed relationships and and how to tell if your boyfriend still loves you and should a girl screw on the first date and stuff like that! We can take care of Big Ideas here, that which guys do well. They can talk about home, office affairs, and rasing kids. Sexist and proud of it.
posted by Postroad at 8:09 AM on February 24, 2002 [1 favorite has favorites]

::raised, in disbelief, Vulcan eyebrow::
posted by y2karl at 8:17 AM on February 24, 2002 [1 favorite has favorites]

....fes has the counch, fes has the counch....
posted by clavdivs at 9:08 AM on February 24, 2002