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Where are all the Girls??

Do you have a FooFoo or a PeePee?

  • I have a PeePee because im male

    Votes: 46 83.6%
  • I have a FooFoo because im a lady...well female anyway.

    Votes: 9 16.4%

  • Total voters
    55

sanj

Member
Joined
10 Apr 2008
Messages
1,531
Location
Coventry, UK
Why is the planted and wider fishkeeping hobby so dominated by males? I would have thought ladies might be into a bit of gardening. :D

I have a few planted rainbowfish vids on youtube with approx 7,500 hits between them, 85% are blokeys of varous ages.

I know of one lady on here and even then I couldnt be sure, I mean ive never met her and well maybe she is only a "she" on the weekends...

So I was just wondering how squewered is the sex ratio on UKAPs??
 
Re: Where is all the Girls??

I'm a girl! I think planted tanks are quiet techy and that's why there are more blokes. I've noticed there seems to be a lot of scientists too.
 
I've just realised I've been very jealous looking at your tank on youtube before without realising you were on UKAPS. If I every get a house of my own I would like a big rainbowfish tank just like that!
 
Most gardeners and plants men are male too. I think it's the equipment side of it, It's intimidating and expensive. That and a cultural thing, it's not in fashion or vogue so it doesn't get a look in, look at tanks aimed at women, "low maintenance" "stylish" are always the watch words, A lot of terrariums are marketed towards women via craft blogs and fashion blogs because they're twee victoriana and you don't have to look after them especially. And especially with the younger generations, any sort of obsession or "hobby" as everyone else calls them, is deeply uncool, fanaticism outside of the mainstream is often sneered at, something I think woman, young women in particular are much more likely to want to avoid. I'm faintly embarrassed when ever I tell anyone what any of my hobbies are, especially when they see fish tanks with no fish and then you have to explain which only makes it worse.
 
Unless you're talking about fixed gear bikes... That seems to attract both sexes and mostly a young crowd ;)

It's different in other European countries I think. At the vivarium show there were a lot of ladies :)
 
Yeah, Leed's fixie scene is about 60% male, a lot more girls are getting into it, I've noticed it be featured in more than one of the Gf's magazines and in the ever popular stylist, (which also had a terrarium in the other week).
 
Hi
You will probably find that it is the outdoor type of male who did a touch of fishing/camping when they were younger which started their interest in fish.
Most will have had aquariums at some point in their lives.......I would guess.
Just my thoughts.
hoggie
 
idris said:
Is it the hobbie that's male dominated, or the online community (YouTube, UKAPA etc)?

Having spent 3 years working in the aquatics trade, I would say that the vast majority of aquarists are male from what I observed
 
I think the real reason girls don't keep fish is handcream. Lol
 
^^^ That's funny, I'm keen to get some in the future when I've done travelling.

My boyfriend had a theory that dads tend to do more practical activities with their sons than daughters. Which is the same as hogan's theory really. I was surprised because I used to do all the practical stuff like woodwork and model building and my brother wasn't interested as he preferred sport. But I suppose that supports the theory.

My boyfriends dad took him speed boating whilst his mum and sister went shopping. If the same thing happened to me I'd have been so furious!
 
Depends if it was shopping round some really nice fish shops :D
 
*puts hand up* I'm female and been in the hobby since I was 11, but I'm an outdoorsy nerd. When I lived in America, I noticed quite a few more women in the hobby, but not so much in the UK. I don't think the techy/science side of the hobby necessarily scares off the ladies, but more men seem to already be involved in hobbies/whatnot that lead to fishkeeping.

Personally, my obsession with fish started 10 years ago when my neighbour's house burnt down, and I was offered their fish tank. Couldn't say no to a freebie, and I was already an ecology/botany nutter :D. Most of the females I've known in the hobby also had interests in biology and ecology, but you'd think anyone keeping fish might be :p.
 
Conservation biologist here! Working in aviation and killing the planet one plane at a time. :( I agree I love the ecology side of our tanks ;)
 
I'm a girl! I get cross it's so male dominated, but what can you do? Maybe because there is so much science tech stuff involved (which makes my mind boggle, so I wing it instead) and gooey stinky things too, girls don't want to get their hands dirty? My mum and auntie are fanatic terrestrial gardeners, it's my aunt's full time job, and I was always in the garden getting muddy, so that side of it is fun for me!! The tech stuff makes my head hurt though.
 
catxx said:
Maybe because there is so much science tech stuff involved (which makes my mind boggle, so I wing it instead)

believe me, i dont get half the science in this hobby, and dont care much for it either. :lol:
 
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