Should Men be allowed in a Women's Forum?

[Bluetree]

Thor Hushovd. Enuf said!! Danilo? Sounds like a brand of yogurt?

Oh sure... throw in that "God of Thunder" cr*p...

[Veronica]

I think I like the alliteration.

Jens Voigt - the former East German.

How old do you suppose he was when the wall came down?

V.

[maillotpois]

I think I like the alliteration.

Jens Voight - the former East German.

How old do you suppose he was when the wall came down?

V.

He's my personal favorite. And no, you're not going to trick me into doing math!

[Bluetree]

Voight's a honey. Oooh... I can't believe I said that.

I think he's one of the old school goombahs, like Vino, Ullrich, Ekimov...

[Veronica]

Okay - he was born in '71. He's older than I thought.

V.

[maillotpois]

Yeah, he's almost our age....

[colby]

Interesting question. I've seen this before in women in technology spaces. I am a member of one mailing list/chat community in particular that has faced many of these issues.

As the community was developed, it turned out it became a positive environment for beginners, advanced users, technophobes, and technophiles alike. Somewhere along the line, the community gained a reputation for positive, encouraging answers, that were also technically accurate and thoughtful. The community never excluded men, and over time, the male to female ratio on many of the mailing lists was debatable.

At several points in time, men on these mailing lists began to dominate conversation and answer many of the questions. A lot of the women on the lists fell back into "old habits" -- not answering questions, being afraid to be shot down, that kind of thing. Some of the men answered questions in very direct (not disrespectful necessarily, but matter-of-factly) tones, which served to turn a lot of the women off. One solution was to politely ask the men to respect the womens' space and the objectives of the community in general, which worked to an extent. Most of the men participating didn't even realise what they were doing, and were shocked to find out how it was received.

Another solution that was very accomodating to the "locker room" sort of mentality was to also create a womens-only sub-space for the community. This is a forum where only women are allowed. Of course it's difficult to enforce over the internet (as others have mentioned), but it did serve as an area where if a man was discovered ("outed") he was not welcome. Some women refused to participate, but it seemed to be a "best of both worlds" sort of thing. One issue faced here was transgendered/transexual people, and it was decided that gender identity (how a person identifies themselves) took precendence over biological identity (a person's physical sex). To me that's the only reasonable course of action, but it was debated -- some people see someone who is physically male but identified female as male, and no argument will change their mind.

I have participated in other strictly women-only communities where men are absolutely not allowed. While it is discriminatory, the argument for this is that most communities are male-dominated, and having a women-only community is to restore the balance by biasing heavily (exclusively) in the other direction. It would be awesome if we were able to discuss all issues in the presence of any gender without discrimination, but the unfortunate reality of our time is that we're just not there yet. Even when we do get there, it may still be nice to have gender/sex-centric issues (men don't have periods and women don't have prostates ), but the exclusion of other gender/sexes may just not be necessary or realistic.

I don't mind the male presence, but we should keep the charter of this forum in mind: womens cycling and related issues. If this forum becomes male-dominated, we will have to deal with it, but in the meantime, one or two polite and helpful men aren't going to kill us.

</soapbox>

[Kitsune06]

Gawd. Say it's not so!

[mary9761]

I'm a little uncomfortable now. I don't really have much in the way of boobs. Can I still post?

Sorry, I thought this thread needed a little comic relief.

I have PLENTY and then some and have often been asked to share, but unfortunately it don't happen that way

As far as the topic, I'm so far behind on the forums with computer problems, health problems and worry over my grandmother I don't know what happened on another thread, but I'll weigh in with as long as they are respectful and realize that this is indeed a forum discussing women's issues, I see no problem. My husband will be given my password etc and notes to possibly keep you guys up to date if I ever get in to see a surgeon and happen to need back surgery. I think Mr Silver has been great, I appreciated knowing about Silver's accident and her condition until she could get online and update us herself. It touched me deeply when I was offline recently and found when I came back that he'd inquired on my back. I hope he's feeling better too.
I don't like any form of discrimination either, as to the comment about why would a straight person go to a gay bar, I went to several with one of my friends for my birthday when I was single and had one of the best birthday's I can remember. It was great going, dancing having a blast and not being expected to "put out" for the priveledge LOL.... Seriously though, I've had many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered friends over the years and I'd hate for them to be excluded from something just because of their gender/preference etc.
just my 2 cents and some change

[snapdragen]

Thor Hushovd. Enuf said!! Danilo? Sounds like a brand of yogurt?

Thor will smash!

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

(men don't have periods and women don't have prostates )

Tell that to my brother (the dorky one, not the other one). We were talking health and doctors recently and he proudly told me he regularly gets his prostate checked to avoid prostate cancer. "And YOU should get YOURS checked TOO!" he advised me. "I should??" says I. Then I had to let him know, and afterwards he said "I sure feel dumb!".
I should have told him to get a PAP smear every year....

[emily_in_nc]

Oh and I forgot... you all must eat cookies!

NOW I'm on board.....

~Emily

[Bluetree]

I think you're a little late, Emily.
Lisa and Trek ate all the cookies.

But there might be some leftover pie on the other thread...

[emily_in_nc]

I think you're a little late, Emily.
Lisa and Trek ate all the cookies.
But there might be some leftover pie on the other thread...

SOLD! I've been reading that thread, and I am getting so hungry! And my DH just came upstairs and offered me some brownie-covered walnuts (have you ever heard of such a thing?! They were in his Christmas goodie basket from my mother). I've already brushed my teeth, so I was strong....
....but I did ask him to save me some for tomorrow night!

Emily

[jobob]

pops head up

Someone say Jens Voigt ?!?

He is simply beyond cool.
I fell in love with him all over again when I watched Overcoming.

Which I forgot to give back to you this weekend, sorry MP !