Mrtennis, you write:
what is the evidence and/or basis of all the geneder-specific analysis of "female" behavior ?
C'mon, tell me you're joking. You really can't see something this obvious? It's not JUST socialization, it's both genetic and socialization - the same way that people who try to keep their kids from guns are stunned when the kid picks up a stick, aims it and yells, "POW! POW!"
I have concluded that it's not that men cannot see these differences, but that many of them choose to ignore or discount them. The men sit smug in their isolated music, and the women, who don't realize how important such things are to men, are smug in their perception of it as childish. Thus it goes at many audiophile's homes. Why else would men lie to their wives about equipment purchased, etc. There's a lot of abnormal, unhealthy relationships because men don't understand (or respect) women very well, and because women discount men's needs. It does go both ways, but the topic of the thread was why women aren't as into audio.
Futher, I would suggest that women would likely advance faster as audiophiles, because they connect mentally with both the intellectual and aesthetic more wholistically. Frankly, I think many women have already assessed the sound of their partner's systems and judged it "nice" but boring. They can hear the differences, but to them those differences are not significant enough to spend tons of time assessing those differences. In their scheme of what's important in life, overdoses of music rates low.
This shouldn't be rocket science to men! It should be obvious, but as I said, many guys look at women with a slight degree of arrogance and superiorety. They'll actually harbor a low level contempt for the woman because she "Doesn't get it" etc. No, they get it, they just don't care as passionately as we do. Many guys just can't accept that possibility. Women know when men do this (the arrogance and superiorety attitude), and they despise it. Causes untold friction between them. etc.
They guys who say their wives are fine with the audio - they are most likely the ones who respect their wives desires and attitudes more. In return, they get more respect toward the audio hobby.
