Lack of Women on AJB
Barry Nelson
ChicagoPosts: 1,508MI6 Agent
It has been my pleasure to be a member of AJB for about two years now. My thanks to Si for letting me hang around and providing a first rate site. However, in my two years on AJB I have noticed a change in the make up of the members. Mainly the site is becoming devoid of women. MBE has left and I always thought she was one of the smartest posters on the site. Sure she put up tough arguments, but she backed her talk up with facts. Mo has now left, hopefully she will rethink her decision, but I would miss her posts and her good humor if she is in fact gone. Alessandra has disappeared, she was young, but her posts were full of life and smiley faces. Lady Rose still posts, but I haven't seen her around much lately. Several other female members have come and gone.
So my question is, why are their so few women on AKB and why have the long time female posters left?
One of the things I enjoy about AJB is getting the perspective of others from all walks of life and different parts of the globe. Yanks, Brits, Aussies, Dutch, Scots, etc all talking Bond. Really an interesting mixs and one I am thankful to be part of. I think it would be nice to see a mixs of male and female perspectives, more so then we do now. I think female members should be sought out and welcomed, not chased away. They view the world different then men and it is a view I would like to hear.
So my question is, why are their so few women on AKB and why have the long time female posters left?
One of the things I enjoy about AJB is getting the perspective of others from all walks of life and different parts of the globe. Yanks, Brits, Aussies, Dutch, Scots, etc all talking Bond. Really an interesting mixs and one I am thankful to be part of. I think it would be nice to see a mixs of male and female perspectives, more so then we do now. I think female members should be sought out and welcomed, not chased away. They view the world different then men and it is a view I would like to hear.
Comments
~Pen -{
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Lady Rose is still around, not a lot but I always see her pro-Dalton posts, and while I don't agree, I find them intelligent and a joy to read.
The loss of MBE was indeed tragic. She was extremely knowledgeable and contributed much to our discussion. Monique has also been one of this site's treasures. I don't recall her leaving us officially, but if she has I hope that she reconsiders. Thankfully we still have Lady Rose, who pops in from time to time.
Why are there so few female members on AJB? Well, I don't think it can be denied that the Bond films appeal primarily to the male audience. Fast cars, beautiful women, and action violence certainly appeal to our masculine nature. Although I cannot speak for them personally, could it be possible that they (women) consider the Bond films (particularly the early ones) to be somewhat sexist?
Why have some of our long-term female posters left us? Perhaps we scared them away with the Izabella thread.
Like Barry Nelson, one of this site's qualities that really appeals to me is the diversity. We are an international community of Bond fans in which all perspectives are accounted for. Here, what one Bond fan may consider as junk is oftentimes another Bond fan's treasure. It makes for great discussion and oftentimes provides us with new insight into the world of Bond. It may even change our outlook. AJB truly is a great community of which I am also thankful to be a part! {[]
It would really be nice to get some more female voices on the board, but although our female members are few in quantity, they certainly can be described as quality!
-Roger Moore
And also, if everyone HAS to and diversity needs to be kept up, people can go back to thinking I'm a girl again
MBE and I weren't friends---in fact, we rarely got along---but the site is undeniably the poorer for her absence, and I know she is missed by many. My biggest regret is that we never had the opportunity to smoke the 'peace pipe' together
If Monique is gone...that one strikes much closer to home, because she's a dear friend---and, significantly, it is a friendship which resulted from an argument.*
I hope Mo comes back, and have told her as much.
As for the rest---Lady Rose, Mrs Dalloway, Pendragon, Christmas, Alessandra and the rest: Please don't go :x
* I have a few friends around here like that...you people know who you are :v
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
Absolutely. Your enlightenment is my personal mission... :v
"I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
"Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
On the subject of female posters, I can add that Mrs Dalloway is still a regular here.
It's good to have some female perspective's on Bond here, just as it is for the male posters too!
As for the general lack of female posters, I would assume this is due to more Bond fans being male than female, and this being particularly apparent in the core fanbase (i.e., those who care enough to post their thoughts on an internet website).
I do agree Barry, as I think diversity is something to be valued in itself. However, where a disagreement occurs I do not see this as being anything to do with the gender issue on AJB; disagreements are based on what has been written regardless of gender. I only speak for myself, of course, although I should have thought this was the same for everyone.
Surely this is all just ebb and flow; though some of the better-known female members seem to have drifted away, new ones will have joined. I'm not at all convinced that the male/female ratio is any different, and if it is, should that matter? But if someone is sufficiently interested I'm sure it wouldn't be difficult to find the numbers from the member list.
And boys do love their numbers...
I would guess that the typical demographic of both James Bond (and internet chatters in general?) skews male, so a relative lack of women is probably not surprising. I'd say we do pretty well here -- Fish, Tracy, Pen, Mrs. D, Mo, MBE, Lady Rose (even Vesperkitten -- best not to go there
Cheers, ladies! {[]
Weren't you doing a load of calculations about how much Bond earns?
It is a shame MBE stopped posting. Like Loeffs, I hardly ever agreed with her but her posts were all informative amd well presented. A strong character who has left a big hole.
I agree with Mrs D. I dont think there has been any lack of females here at AJB, infact we probably have more female members posting than we usually do. I just think that we are more selective with posting than you guys, who can talk gismos and gadgets till the cows come home. Quality not quantity
Ha ha! And so it did!
See fellas? Straight from the horse's mouth. Size doesn't matter!
@merseytart
Make that gizmos, gadgets and guns.
I also miss Jaelle. Her posts were indeed thought provoking, literate, informative, and often very long (but never boring). She once posted details of her background, I can't remember if it was here or over at CBn. Regardless, I was so impressed I jotted some of it down on paper.
Jaelle spoke Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, some Arabic, Hebrew and Persian. She was a teacher of Drama and Portuguese literature. She taught in the US, France, Beirut, Mexico, Nicaragua and Brazil. She was also a freelance journalist and human rights researcher.
I am not sure if she left because of the heated discussion of The Passion of the Christ. I do recall her mentioning that she was going to be moving abroad with her teenage daughter.
Yes, that was quite a thread, MNL. I miss Jaelle too, who did keep her heart on her sleeve and posted from sheer joy about our shared following; her posts were passionate, yet tempered with a good dose of sincerity and intelligence.
Did seem that right after CR was released, there was a spike in female membership, that was cool.
~Pen -{
mountainburdphotography.wordpress.com
Hahhahaha thats sounds about as true as "your cheque is in the mail" and "its not you, its me"
@merseytart
Makes perfect sense, being a Bond forum and all. But let's remember that's what this is, at the end of the day, and not a "my Bond actor is hotter than yours is" forum. That can stay in the playground, where it belongs.
Interesting. Yet not surprising (and I think I said that, in like the very next sentence?). I'm not a fan of old Brosnan myself, would've thought post-GE or TND, there'd be those threads then. Guess for some, he still had it. Cool.
??? There's post/threads about stuff like that all the time. In the Bond Films forum there's current threads on Brosnan, Dalton, Moore, Lazenby as Bond, those kinda comparisons get made by lots of folks. There's even an elimination thread(!). Not quite getting the "playground" reference in that context, I think it's a fair thing to say and a valid opinion that CR Craig was hotter than DAD Brosnan. Some might agree, some disagree, okay. And for this particular thread, contrasting degrees of hotness would seem to factor in there somewhere.