Re: And why. . .? (long)

Elizabeth Hubbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> [from Geof. Riggs; not Eliz. H., my better half]
> 
> Julie wrote:
> > mpresley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
> > 
> >  
> >>Finally, Newsgroups are historically male propagated.  The technology began
> >>as an offshoot of arpanet (the male dominated military) and was built by
> >>unix geeks for unix geeks--99.9% men.  It was only recently...umm...let's
> >>see...probably the ubiquitous rise of MS Outlook Express with it's
> >>dedicated newsreader that the masses were first able to easily navigate
> >>Usenet. 
> > 
> > Now, are women part of the masses or not? For the purposes of your
> > analysis, I mean.
> > 
> >>So, here we have a topic (Wagner) that may appeal mainly to men, discussed
> >>on a medium that, until recently, was used mainly by men.  If my analysis
> >>is correct then it's not surprising to me why there are few women on this
> >>group.
> > 
> > There may be few women posting, but there may be many reasons why.
> 
> Such as?

Geoff - 

I think it's oversimplifying a bit to extrapolate from the origins of
the internet a deficiency of
female Wagner-loving newsgroup posters. There have been a couple of
generalizations given in this
thread and the parallel thread as to "what women like/feel/approve of"
(my own quotes)
 v. "what men like/prefer/approve of" 
that I don't think are as reliable as Mr Presley thinks.  I don't
think that more men
than women love Wagner. But it is true that this forum is almost
exclusively men-only (until now).
Maybe it's just the nature of the threads. 

As I wrote before, whenever I have attended performances of Wagner's
works the audience
seems to be about 50/50. Maybe it depends on where we live. Other than
counting men v women
going into all the Wagner performances, how can it be established that
there's a gender gap
in Wagnerland?

> 
> No truly, I'm sincerely curious.
> 
> And please be frank if you believe that, in the final analysis, I and my 
> wife's painful experience with an offline group's hazing of a friend who 
> happened to be a woman should be judged as strictly anecdotal and of 
> minimal relevance to online discussions of Wagner.

I definitely don't think it's exclusively a Wagner-hazard, and that is
based on
my own experience and observations in life. When people are drawn
together by a passion
for an art form there are bound to be some bad apples in the bunch. On
the other hand there's no
doubt that some Wagnerites are fanatics and we know what fanatics are
capable (and incapable) of.

I will share an experience directly following "Gotterdammerung". We
were sitting, watching,
listening, and absorbing the final strains, along with everyone else.
As soon as the last chord died
away and the curtains had closed,
just as the house lights were coming up, a fellow in the row behind us
gave the loudest, most
offensive raspberry he could possibly muster. And then he ran out the
door.
Regardless of personal opinion as to the merit of the performance, the
hit & run aspect of the guy's
"statement", and the premeditation (maybe even hours of practice in
his lonely room), along
with being a  captive audience member, almost hijacked the pleasure of
those final performance moments.

Did someone really sit thru a 5-hour masterpiece getting ready to do
that? Did someone wait all week
(or however long was the interval between your group's get-togethers)
to inflict misery on someone
with a shared interest? It's enough to make one embarassed for such
pathetic personalities.

> 
> Respectful thanks,
> 
> Geoffrey Riggs
> www.operacast.com