Demographics

[Leo]

Why? Are you afraid of them? Do you think they are going to somehow corrupt you or sexually assault you? Are you so insecure in your own masculinity that you have to make fun of them?

 

Are you a racist? Would you publicly express your worries if the two respondents were black or Asian, etc? Or are you prejudiced against disabled people? I hope not.

 

So why pick on people who do not fit in with your safe, 'normal' ideas of binary gender?

 

Grrr.

 

And yes - in case you are wondering, I am one of those respondents. Bigoted comments like yours make me so angry.

Oh Goody

 

A flame war in the beginning stages. So many wonderful meaningless ad hominum cliches in so small a space!

 

You've got them mostly covered, but you missed religion, whales, global warming, and gas guzzling references. They are also important diversions in the obfuscation of the argument. You've done an admirable job otherwise in your all inclusive angry by segregating yourself with the infamous "Them" and not used the more personal admission of "me".

 

Keep up the good work!

Leo

Edited November 1, 2008 by Leo

[chiton1]

What worries me about the results are the two respondents who are "Gender: Other"

Why? Are you afraid of them? Do you think they are going to somehow corrupt you or sexually assault you? Are you so insecure in your own masculinity that you have to make fun of them?

 

Are you a racist? Would you publicly express your worries if the two respondents were black or Asian, etc? Or are you prejudiced against disabled people? I hope not.

 

So why pick on people who do not fit in with your safe, 'normal' ideas of binary gender?

 

Grrr.

 

And yes - in case you are wondering, I am one of those respondents. Bigoted comments like yours make me so angry.

 

Sorry I am a little confused here... Is there another gender besides female or male (not counting hermaphrodites which are both)?

Does the word gender in English imply more than on the continent of Europe? Or is someone confusing gender with sexual preference? Or are we talking about biological males that would prefer to be females (or vice versa)? Oh what do I care, lets talk about concertina's (mine's female - oops that was another thread I think).

[Fiddlehead Fern]

Hmm, this thread looks like it'll get quite interesting.

So, who was the other 11-16 year old?

As far as "other" for a gender choice, perhaps we should ask Ms. LDT about that one.........

 

Hmm, I'm seeing another poll asking age, gender and what gender you believe you concertina to be......or perhaps we shouldn't go there.

[wntrmute]

There are XY females. A defect on the X gene interferes with testosterone development starting in utero. However, normally these people grow up completely female (albeit sterile) in both their physical gender and self-identity. There's another X chromosome defect that causes XX females to be more sensitive to testosterone than estrogen, they have a less clear cut self-identity, and are sometimes called hermaphrodites.

Then there are cases where there's no physical issue(or known physical issue, at least), but the person more strongly self-identifies with the opposite genetic/physical gender. And this isn't always in conjunction with homosexuality.

 

So, yeah. There is 'other.' It isn't exactly common, but it's not completely off the wall. I also don't think there's much choice involved in it -- in some cases there can be a great deal of psychological trauma involved, and I can't see someone signing up for that just for grins.

 

I don't think humans (or any primates) have true hermaphrodism -- the only animals I know of that do are reptiles. Physical gender issues are frequently (but not always) linked to sterility.

[Anglo-Irishman]

What worries me about the results are the two respondents who are "Gender: Other"

 

Are you a racist? Would you publicly express your worries if the two respondents were black or Asian, etc? Or are you prejudiced against disabled people? I hope not.

 

 

Oh, no, of course not.

But if there was a choice between European, Asian, African, American and Oceanian type AND "Other", I would smile at the question. And if someone ticked "Other" I would wonder ...

Ticking two alternatives I could understand!

 

Cheers,

John

[bushlass]

[

Maybe the under 50 females are working and not spending as much time on the net as we over 50 males are.

mike

 

 

Why would under 50 females bother with over 50 concertina playing males....

 

I play the concertina and it would very much deoend on the concertina they played...have to be top end and well played!

[Dirge]

Why would under 50 females bother with over 50 concertina playing males....

 

I play the concertina and it would very much deoend on the concertina they played...have to be top end and well played!

 

Maccan duet anyone???

[Jack Bradshaw]

Why would under 50 females bother with over 50 concertina playing males....

 

I play the concertina and it would very much deoend on the concertina they played...have to be top end and well played!

 

Maccan duet anyone???

 

Now you're talkin' some sense !

[PeterT]

After reading some coments on another thread wondered the average demographic of this forum.

Well, it looks like most of the votes have been counted. Is it time to draw some conclusions?

[LDT]

After reading some coments on another thread wondered the average demographic of this forum.

Well, it looks like most of the votes have been counted. Is it time to draw some conclusions?

I always hated writing conclusions and evaluations in science. Suprised how I got two 'B's' for gcse.

 

Well looking at the poll out of the poeple on this forum who voted the majority appear to be over 50, male and play the anglo....although not a combination of all three...as you can't see who voted for what and so tie it up.

 

So it looks like it supports Peter's statement.

 

Although its really inconclusive as not every member has voted....and as more people join the balance may shift.

[JimLucas]

...I'm not sure I'd be able to pull off the beard though. ;P

Shouldn't be too hard... as long as you use a water-soluble glue to put it on.

[JimLucas]

What worries me about the results are the two respondents who are "Gender: Other"

Hmm. LDT is a Dr. Who fan. Are daleks male and female? I know viruses aren't. (Is there a computer virus which is capable of registering itself as a C.net member? )

 

Sorry I am a little confused here... Is there another gender besides female or male (not counting hermaphrodites which are both)?

Does the word gender in English imply more than on the continent of Europe?

As a brief exchange which I'm not quoting indicates, the word "gender" (like so many others) can mean different things in different contexts. In several European languages, e.g., the grammatical gender of the word for "child" is neuter. Do we have any Russian, German or Danish children among our members?

 

LDT didn't specify her context, and others appear to have assumed particular meanings, rather than asking. My guess was that she meant the "Other" category as a joke, maybe even to suggest that some members of non-human species might be members of Concertina.net. Similarly for Anglo-Irishman's "worries", which seemd to me a tongue-in-cheek response to a tongue-in-cheek poll option, not any actual fear of who or what might be able to honestly claim such a classification. But I didn't ask, or even think much about it, because I simply didn't expect that any sort of derision or other offense was intended.

 

It's a pretty good bet that if you feel that someone has said something offensive here in these Forums, your own interpretation should be called into question, and before responding publicly you should try to determine (PM's can be good for that) whether the original poster's understanding of what he/she(/it?) said was different from your own. I'm reminded of one exchange in which a poster was seriously offended by the use of the word "nonce". It seems that among a subset of the population of Engand, that's a slang term for a particular kind of criminal, and he was unaware of the usage -- in truth, far older and more widespread -- in which it simply means "moment" (as in "for the nonce").

 

Back to gender: Even for "biological" gender, different definitions are used -- and useful -- in different contexts. But as with "concertina" vs. "accordion", it's common to neglect the possibility of classifications such as "neither" and "a mixture".

• A particular set of physiological characteristics. (The fact that it's a set, and not a single characteristic, can cause problems.)
  
• A particular set of chromosomes. (But XX and XY aren't the only options. Though exceptions are rare, I have known personally at least one adult XXY individual.)
  
• A particular set of hormonal responses. (This one can get really complicated.)
  
• And there are probably others, as well.
  

[JimLucas]

Well, I've finally responded to this poll. (I missed it when it was first posted, because I was heading off to Sweden, into what turned out to be an internet black hole.)

 

I'm pleased to note that it allowed me to indicate that I play more than one kind of concertina. The flip side of that is that when I do so, it gives equal weight to all three of English, anglo, and duet, though I really play the English much more than the other two. (More than two, actually, since I have three duet systems at my disposal... not counting the Jeffries duet which is currently with a friend.)

 

I also own a Chemnitzer, but the poll question says "play", and it needs some work before I can try that.

[tzirtzi]

Well looking at the poll out of the poeple on this forum who voted the majority appear to be over 50, male and play the anglo....although not a combination of all three...as you can't see who voted for what and so tie it up.

 

Perhaps we should create a more complex survey of the forums which would allow us to make such links and create some more analysable results than just bar charts . We'd have to put it on another server and link to it but that wouldn't be hard. However, people might be bored of answering demographics surveys by now and just ignore another one...

[LDT]

Well looking at the poll out of the poeple on this forum who voted the majority appear to be over 50, male and play the anglo....although not a combination of all three...as you can't see who voted for what and so tie it up.

 

Perhaps we should create a more complex survey of the forums which would allow us to make such links and create some more analysable results than just bar charts . We'd have to put it on another server and link to it but that wouldn't be hard.

 

I think that would bore everyone. lol!

[PeterT]

After reading some coments on another thread wondered the average demographic of this forum.

I've re-discovered the attached link, and I'm sure Allan Atlas will not mind me posting it here.

 

http://74.125.77.132/search?q=cache:fWW2rB...tm+%22concertin

[LDT]

This might relate to this topic

http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=...&messages=4

[Dave Rogers]

I thought the business about the Anglo being mainly an instrument for the ladies in Ireland (used to be called "The Ladies' Accordion) was a bit out-dated now? I'm sure the gender balance amongst Anglo players must be very different to what is was 30 or more years ago.