Mimi:

>Yeah.  Women just hate classical music.  They'd rather watch football >and
>drink beer.

Doris:

>Well Mimi, yes, I spent this afternoon watching The Gunners-Arsenal
>Football Club-beat Chelsea in the F.A.  Cup Final, and yes, with a small
>bottle of Shepherd Neame's "Spitfire" A.K.A.  The Bottle of Britain.  (As
>it said in the now-banned Ad.  on the Underground in London, "Downed all
>over East Kent-Like the Luftwaffe).  I expect the Archbishop of my home
>(and much blitzed) City-Canterbury - was watching too; Dr.Carey is a
>supporter.  And yes- I sang in the Cathedral's Sunday Evening Choir for a
>few years, and love Baroque Music..  Appreciation of the one does not
>necessarily forbid appreciation of the other.  Why, after all was the
>"Three Tenors' Concert" arranged in Rome in 1990? Because these singers
>were there- for the football!

When I read Doris' post, I thought that she may have missed the point
Mimi was making.  Thinking about it, I wonder if I'm getting the point.

What I think Mimi is doing in her response is making fun, in her subtle
way, of stereotypes by reversing them:  Instead of men as loud, drunken
football fans and women as gentler, more refined appreciators of Culture
with a capital C, she is turning things around by describing women as the
beer drinking, sports fanatics and, by implication, men as the more refined
and intellectual.  Of course stereotypes are generalizations that should
be used with care.  There's nothing about a woman that would automatically
stop her from appreciating football, just as there is nothing in a man that
automatically stop him from appreciating Culture.

Now, what I think Mimi is saying is that being a woman has nothing to do
with the fact that there are less women critics.

Help me out, here, Mimi, will ya?

Ron