Younger women and their lack of conversation about certain issues

Boskowski · 30-03-2011 11:53AM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

There's certainly that. Men are certainly less prone to let an opinion be affected by actual substance. Must be this constant competition they deem themselves to be in.

Having said that I don't think women consciously stay away from such subjects for those very reasons. They just don't care mostly.

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 12:14PM

Eve_Dublin wrote: »

It's an opinion but difficult to agree when it hasn't been my experience, so the debate will be some people in here stating your wrong because of their experiences. Your not stating a widely held opinion here, just your own opinion. And yes, your demographic IS small and is not at all representative.

Your are contradicting yourself. You say one doesn't know the facts from personal experience yet you seem to know from your personal experience if his opinion is representative, unless of course you have access to studies I'm not aware of.

30-03-2011 12:17PM

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

Your are contradicting yourself. You say one doesn't know the facts from personal experience yet you seem to know from your personal experience if his opinion is representative, unless of course you have access to studies I'm not aware of.

She said it's going to end up opinion vs opinion argument and that his sample size is too small i.e. "my friends and family" to really be representative of the population. I don't see the contradiction.

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 12:19PM

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

Your are contradicting yourself. You say one doesn't know the facts from personal experience yet you seem to know from your personal experience if his opinion is representative, unless of course you have access to studies I'm not aware of.

I actually think women's favourite topic of conversation is politics, local politics that is. I think they are a lot more interested in the politics and social ranking of the people they directly know or can relate to.

I think men are more likely to be interested in "quirky" topics, topics that might not have any direct effect on their life.

Disclaimer: Men are not superior to women, my opinion anyway.

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 12:23PM

bluewolf wrote: »

She said it's going to end up opinion vs opinion argument and that his sample size is too small i.e. "my friends and family" to really be representative of the population. I don't see the contradiction.

His opinion could be representative of the entire population though. Eve Dublin said it wasn't representative when no one really knows how representative it is.

30-03-2011 12:27PM

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

His opinion could be representative of the entire population though. Eve Dublin said it wasn't representative when know one really knows how representative it is.

your demographic IS small and is not at all representative.

His opinion could be. His small demographic couldn't be, which is what she said.

It's probably obvious enough that the whole thing is going to be based on personal experiences.
I'm interested in the comments about men putting down women when they express their opinions, I'm curious how common that is. I haven't come across it myself for the most part.

irishh_bob · 30-03-2011 01:25PM

fatmammycat wrote: »

What might have been nicer still was if you had responded to Wonderfulname's response without using 'clawing' or 'shrieking' in your reply.

OP, as someone else said, find more interesting female friends. Most of the women I know are interested in a whole slew of topics, as are most of the men.

so bull**** ( by wonderfullname ) is ok but clawing and shrieking are out of order:rolleyes:

irishh_bob · 30-03-2011 01:30PM

Permabear wrote: »

This post had been deleted.

i admire your ability to juggle two such contrasting cultures , north east ( most likely new england ) american academic types and north west ireland turf cutting country types

, cant imagine your the pub type however , more country club perhaps

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 01:33PM

bluewolf wrote: »

His opinion could be. His small demographic couldn't be, which is what she said.

It's probably obvious enough that the whole thing is going to be based on personal experiences.
I'm interested in the comments about men putting down women when they express their opinions, I'm curious how common that is. I haven't come across it myself for the most part.

The demographic could be representative too, no one knows.

Corkblowin · 30-03-2011 01:47PM

There is also the possibility that men,women & children posting in the humanities forum would be those who are interested in the world around them and do not confine themselves to the world according to the soaps & the news of the world. There appears to be a large cohort of men out there who have no interest in life other than the pub & sport, just as there is a similar number of women who only want to talk about 'celebrities', Eastenders & X Factor.

There's nothing wrong with these things in themselves, but when it's all people know it can become a bit mind-numbing. Unfortunately when you're dating these things only become obvious after a period of time - although I accept that all this is my opinion and my sample size is in no way representative:pac:

Apolloyon · 30-03-2011 01:53PM

I think at the end of the day, this is going to boil down to differing individual experiences. I would also say that we are not discussing intellectual abilities or lack of knowledge but simply the disinclination to discuss issues like politics, current events, philosophy and so on. I have found that when I lived abroad, women there were more willing to talk about those subjects from the get go but seem reluctant to discuss them here.

I appreciate the fact that my own experience might be completely opposite to others. I'm looking for perspective not controversy! Suggestions to 'get new friends' doesn't work. Because this covers female friends, relatives and co workers from different times and places in Ireland. Of course...I might be the problem here! But I'm a listener as well as a talker and always like to get another person's point of view to fully understand their side as well as my own. It may be a case that I just need to get out more! Enlighten me!

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 01:53PM

bluewolf wrote: »

Well, I guess I'm gonna have to take that one back

I'm not putting you down if that is what you are suggesting.

mystique150 · 30-03-2011 02:15PM

I agree with the OP to a point. I have some female third level educated women in their early to mid 20’s who haven’t a clue what’s going on around them politically, nationally or internationally. They couldn’t converse about those issues let alone form an opinion on them. However, I also have a number of male friends and colleagues who I could say the very same about. All of these people do have other interests which they are passionate about, be it an area of research, sport or literature. I think the OP forgets that people have different interests and I also think women are less likely to bull**** a topic they know nothing about whereas men may be more tempted to engage for the sake of debate.

K-9 · 30-03-2011 02:16PM

irishh_bob wrote: »

i admire your ability to juggle two such contrasting cultures , north east ( most likely new england ) american academic types and north west ireland turf cutting country types , cant imagine your the pub type however , more country club perhaps

I thought it was an odd comparison too, I would have though Trinity or UCD would have been more valid.

SugarHigh · 30-03-2011 02:36PM

bluewolf wrote: »

I'm interested in the comments about men putting down women when they express their opinions, I'm curious how common that is. I haven't come across it myself for the most part.

I think something like that is going to be impossible to judge. If someone putting you down how are you going to know it's because you're a woman. It simply be a case of someone not being listened and then deciding it was because they were a woman to protect their ego.

Apolloyon wrote: »

I appreciate the fact that my own experience might be completely opposite to others. I'm looking for perspective not controversy! Suggestions to 'get new friends' doesn't work. Because this covers female friends, relatives and co workers from different times and places in Ireland. Of course...I might be the problem here! But I'm a listener as well as a talker and always like to get another person's point of view to fully understand their side as well as my own. It may be a case that I just need to get out more! Enlighten me!

I agree that the suggestion to "get new friends" was pretty silly. It's basically saying you shouldn't be friends with people who aren't interested in politics.:D

No one said they weren't nice people.

SugarHigh · 30-03-2011 02:38PM

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

I'm not putting you down if that is what you are suggesting.

I'm not sure what she meant by that either.

Was she also suggesting you were only doing it because she was a woman?

Could you clarify what you meant bluewolf?

30-03-2011 02:50PM

SugarHigh wrote: »

I think something like that is going to be impossible to judge. If someone putting you down how are you going to know it's because you're a woman. It simply be a case of someone not being listened and then deciding it was because they were a woman to protect their ego.

Probably as difficult to judge as whether women always talk about inane subjects or not, really. It could be as you said, it could also be genuine 'she doesn't know any better' put downs.

I agree that the suggestion to "get new friends" was pretty silly. It's basically saying you shouldn't be friends with people who aren't interested in politics.:D

No, it's saying if you're concerned that none of your female friends talk about current affairs and are starting to believe that no women do, then you should find some women who do have an interest in it.

Could you clarify what you meant bluewolf?

It was a flippant remark based on eve clearly saying that while the opinion might indeed be held by the majority, the sample size OP mentioned can't cover the majority of types of people, and someone arguing with that apparently just for the sake of it. Since it's caused so much confusion I've deleted it so let's just move on because I'm not arguing it any more.

munchkin_utd · 30-03-2011 02:57PM

i can only think of :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjxY9rZwNGU

liah · 30-03-2011 03:01PM

I think there's enough people on the thread saying that yes, there's plenty of young women floating about out there who talk about these subjects, to prove the generalization incorrect and this argument pretty much pointless..

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 03:02PM

bluewolf wrote: »

Probably as difficult to judge as whether women always talk about inane subjects or not, really. It could be as you said, it could also be genuine 'she doesn't know any better' put downs.

No, it's saying if you're concerned that none of your female friends talk about current affairs and are starting to believe that no women do, then you should find some women who do have an interest in it.

It was a flippant remark based on eve clearly saying that while the opinion might indeed be held by the majority, the sample size OP mentioned can't cover the majority of types of people, and someone arguing with that apparently just for the sake of it. Since it's caused so much confusion I've deleted it so let's just move on because I'm not arguing it any more.

Discussing, not arguing.

30-03-2011 03:05PM

Scanlas The 2nd wrote: »

Discussing, not arguing.

There is more than one meaning of arguing particularly in a debate so I'm fine with my term, thanks.

liah wrote:

I think there's enough people on the thread saying that yes, there's plenty of young women floating about out there who talk about these subjects, to prove the generalization incorrect and this argument pretty much pointless..

But of course we may not suggest they find these women :pac:

Scanlas The 2nd · 30-03-2011 03:07PM

liah wrote: »

I think there's enough people on the thread saying that yes, there's plenty of young women floating about out there who talk about these subjects, to prove the generalization incorrect and this argument pretty much pointless..

I don't think anyone is saying every woman has a narrow set of interests. Some people are pointing out that it seems to them men are more likely to have a wider set of interests, which is nothing to be offended by, people can't help what they are interested in. I know plenty of women with all sorts of interests but I've noticed men tend to be more likely to have all sorts of interests in my experience.

It could be interesting if we knew the number of male and female posts in the various obscure forums on boards.

SugarHigh · 30-03-2011 03:11PM

liah wrote: »

I think there's enough people on the thread saying that yes, there's plenty of young women floating about out there who talk about these subjects, to prove the generalization incorrect and this argument pretty much pointless..

You are ignoring the selection bias of being in the humanities forum on boards.

SugarHigh · 30-03-2011 03:14PM

bluewolf wrote: »

But of course we may not suggest they find these women :pac:

Who said they wanted to find these women or that they wanted women to have interest in politics? The op was simply pointing out that he noticed women tended to be less interested in these subjects based on his own experience.

K-9 · 30-03-2011 03:14PM

liah wrote: »

I think there's enough people on the thread saying that yes, there's plenty of young women floating about out there who talk about these subjects, to prove the generalization incorrect and this argument pretty much pointless..

Funnily enough I think younger people just don't have a knowledge or interest in politics near the levels of the 80's. I think there was more involvement and awareness then because things were so bad. Maybe tough times ahead may awaken more.

this is arse · 30-03-2011 03:16PM

the average person farts 12 times a day

liah · 30-03-2011 03:16PM

First of all, it could equally be a selection bias for you.

Second of all, my point is that all we have is anecdotal evidence for both sides of the argument. The original post was a generalization, which has been proven untrue (as all generalizations tend to be) by the amount of male and female posters disagreeing with the generalization. Until there's actual statistics, it's purely speculation, rendering the argument largely pointless, other than arguing for the sake of arguing.

I'd say you would find higher correlation with age, background, intelligence, etc. than with gender alone.

30-03-2011 03:20PM

liah wrote: »

Find different female friends.

bluewolf wrote: »

Maybe you should find different female friends?

Apolloyon wrote: »

Suggestions to 'get new friends' doesn't work.

SugarHigh wrote:

I agree that the suggestion to "get new friends" was pretty silly. It's basically saying you shouldn't be friends with people who aren't interested in politics.

SugarHigh wrote: »

Who said they wanted to find these women .

Is that clear enough?

SugarHigh · 30-03-2011 03:23PM

liah wrote: »

First of all, it could equally be a selection bias for you.

Second of all, my point is that all we have is anecdotal evidence for both sides of the argument. The original post was a generalization, which has been proven untrue (as all generalizations tend to be) by the amount of male and female posters disagreeing with the generalization. Until there's actual statistics, it's purely speculation, rendering the argument largely pointless, other than arguing for the sake of arguing.

I'd say you would find higher correlation with age, background, intelligence, etc. than with gender alone.

It's a discussion based on opinions gained from experience. I don't see why we need statistics to back up our experience. If one person experience differs from another it doesn't prove either of them wrong. People bucking a the trend of a generalisation don't disprove the generalisation. Just because a thread is started on what may turn out to be a false argument doesn't mean it should be locked.

Do you demand statistics in everyday conversation?

It's a little odd to ignore on opinion which wasn't stated as a fact on the basis it doesn't have empirical evidence. It would be a little boring if every conversation was just a google competition.

I also don't see how I could part of the selection bias. Are men who post in the humanities forum more likely to encounter women who don't have interest in politics? I don't see how. However I do think a woman who post on the humanities forum is going to be more likely to have interest in politics as it is a forum for debate which often include political issues.

SugarHigh · 30-03-2011 03:26PM

bluewolf wrote: »

Is that clear enough?

No?

Who said they wanted to find women with an interest in politics? What you've quoted just shows people telling the OP to find people he never said he wanted. The OP was simply discussing the lack of females interested in politics.

Younger women and their lack of conversation about certain issues

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