Should Men be allowed in a Women's Forum?

[roadfix]

I'm a guy and I've been here for several months now. When I visit TE I usually limit myself to visiting and posting mainly in the maintenance and California subforums where my interest lies. I visit other cycling forums as well.....this one just happens to be specifically geared towards women.

[bcipam]

well there you go - who knows, maybe half of the TE crew has a Y chromosone - we just don't know.

Thanks Road for being honest.

[Aint Doody]

And what have the nice men here hurt? C'mon, y'all--get over it.

[donnambr]

Like a true Gemini, my opinions on this are conflicted and certainly not consistent. I am a regular BF participant also, perhaps more often there than here. That's because I love to argue the minutiae of traffic/safety issues. I admit I'm a bit strange/nerdy, so I would never think that would be a popular activity here. That said, there is something so welcoming and accepting about TE, that I keep coming back. Perhaps it's because while I enjoy having both women and men friends, I do love that mostly-girl-only time.

The other reason relates to what caligurl touched upon. Not to sound too much like a college textbook, but some of the "institutional sexism/misogyny" on that other list is way over the top for me - and I suspect that I have a somewhat higher tolerance for it than caligurl. (not meant to be offensive in any way, cg, we all have our limits) I think it prevents many women from participating, and the ones that do are often so thick-skinned, they are rather intolerant of women who are not. I don't think that's right, there many women who aren't particularly outspoken/assertive, and those of us who are can get downright exhausted holding our own constantly. So, I fully support the women-only rule of the women's forum there. It seems like any discussion of a women's health or clothing issue there turns into a thread to post pornographic images of women. There's also the more subtle issue of opinions posted by females from a female-specific perspective being totally dumped on. It even happens with the advocacy & safety topics - crazy! What century are we living in again? I think there are guys on BF who would be great additions to a mostly women discussion, but how to distinguish? You can't on a forum that large, so I think the best policy is to ban all men. Sad, but practical.

So, back to TE. Strangely enough, I am not in favor of limiting participation to women. The badly-behaving men either get bored fast, we women make quick work of them and they leave, or Susan (I presume) makes them leave. Of the men who stay, I have never read a post from them that I found offensive, even if I do not agree with what they are saying. I think Lisa's cat analogy is spot-on in this case: the guys are cautious and tread lightly. I can live with that. My cat certainly approves.