Nancy Bunin wrote:

>Second- Since joining the list a couple of weeks ago, I have observed that
>98% of communication is by men.  I'm puzzled- are there many more men than
>women who like classical music?  iS it just that men have grabbed onto
>another electronic toy, the internet, with more joyful vigor? (Doubt it, I
>belong to a dog breed list, and most respondents are women, and there are
>more on the early music list).  Something to think about.

Welcome to the list, Nancy.  The over-representation of men you note has
made me think quite a bit, recently, also.  Having been on the list for
a while, my impression is that a year or so, say, there were more women
posting messages than there are these days.  Whether this means that more
women than men have recently dropped off, or whether the women are going
through a lurking phase, I can't say.

It certainly used to be true that many more men than women were computer
users, but I don't think that's so true now.  I have a feeling that it
has more to do with the fact that we boys, especially, tend now and then
to get a bit rough in our exchanges of opinions (and that's mostly all
they are, despite our tendency to fling them down as though they were
absolute truths).  Perhaps this style tends to put off the other half of
the species.  On the other hand, there are also female posters who can fend
for themselves quite expertly, too!  In any case, I also miss the presence
of some of the women who used to visit quite often.

>Third- I'm amazed at the breadth of some respondents' collections.  How do
>they finance this?? And after financing their collections, how do they have
>the time to really listen to it all? Surely not all can be independently
>wealthy- or made a killing in the market.  Please let me in on the secret,
>if only regarding time management for music listening!

I think they will tell you that they do it by not spending money on other
things.  As for getting time to listen to all their recordings, we have
discussed this before, and the answer seems to be -- they don't actually
listen to more than a fraction of them.  As to why they buy so much stuff
they don't have time to listen to -- I haven't yet gotten an answer to that
question, either.  I guess it's just the mysterious nature of collectors of
all kinds: some people have a drive to collect things, and others don't.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]