FSM # 39: Why is film music a predominantly MALE interest?
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Time for another meta topic, and another take on a topic we’ve had a few times on this board.
Why do you think it is that film music is a predominantly male interest and that this board is populated mostly by males? And do you think this board is representative?
Hm. I don’t think, that there is a special affinity by men for soundtracks.
What I experienced is a typical male way of being a music fan in general and a dedication to their musical idols and the tendency to collect all the albums.
Apart from film music, people in my circle of acquaintances who have excessively huge CD or LP collections are men. This has nothing to do with film music.
But when I look at the film soundtracks in male and female collections I see a difference.
The film music taste often reflects the movie taste in general. At the album collections of female friends I found less music of action blockbusters but rather for social dramas, less Hollywood, more european cinema. In the 90s the soundtracks for Emir Kusturica were quite popular amoung the women I knew. In general more folk infused soundtracks found their ways in female CD collections. I got to know Craig Armstrong’s score for THE QUIET AMERICAN through the CD collection of a former girl friend of mine. A month ago I chatted with a female colleague who is a big Hans Zimmer fan. My wife brought Howard Shore’s score for THE CELL and some Michael Nyman stuff into our household and loves Djawadi’s GAME OF THRONES. But she is not a big fan of that nervous bombastic Hollywood action sound, that I like. When big orchestral she prefers Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms or Vivaldi.Hm. I don’t think, that there is a special affinity by men for soundtracks.
I think it was more pronounced in 2007, when the original thread was created, than it is today. You’re probably right that the difference is more in the TYPE of score today. But it’s still a predominantly male interest or hobby, at least if you judge by participants on social media. I’ve always wondered what it is that makes especially the collecting and super niche thing more common among males than females.
Yes, from personal experience I can confirm that collecting items as a hobby is more a male thing. It might be a social thing. Some substitute for social interaction. At a high age my grandmother started collecting puppets when all her friends had passed away and she had to spend a lot of time on her own.
As men are generally known as being more socially disconnected than women this collecting could be some compensation activity. Looking at myself I wouldn’t completely deny that possibly.I hadn’t thought about it in quite that way Gerate, but it that does make sense…that women are naturally more social, so may naturally gravitate towards more social activities. Though perhaps, it could also just be more of a unique hobby interest – the film music thing. I know a lot of people read fiction books, and that’s not very social unless it’s tied to a book club or something at the end. I don’t read much fiction at all, and tend to use my time for listening to film music instead. So maybe if we picked a score to all listen to during the same period, then created a film music club to get together and discuss it in person, then we’d close the gender gap? Haha, I don’t know.
“Mummy, what will I be when I grow up?”
“Oh, don’t be silly, darling. You’re a bloke. You’ll never grow up”
I hadn’t thought about it in quite that way Gerate, but it that does make sense…that women are naturally more social, so may naturally gravitate towards more social activities.
By the way. I read an article in a psychology magazine which explained quite well why the majority of girls develop in a more social oriented way than boys.
After birth the baby is closely connected to the mother. When there is a point in the child’s life when it realizes its gender then the boy realizes he’s different from the femal mother and disconnects in a way. The break of that connection leads to be more on his own and figure out things for himself and being more self-oriented while the girl stays in the safety of that connection with the mother and can use her energy more in orienting to the social environment, care for others etc.
That made sense to me.Why boys then rather start collecting stuff? I don’t know.
That’s sounds like a very traditional family where the father is not really present.
“Oh, don’t be silly, darling. You’re a bloke. You’ll never grow up”
Probably some truth in that. Just recently on my birthday I thought again I am nowhere feeling as oldas I am now 😉
Maybe we just still carry the c avemenhunters and gatherers within us 😉
But in the pre-historic age, women were traditionally gatherers and men hunters. But men have become gatherers, it seems.
That’s sounds like a very traditional family where the father is not really present.
I don’t think so. I believe, I was very present in the early days of my boys as a father. But still I understand that from birth on there is a close bond between mother and child that plays a special role in the development of the child. And like all of these patters there are variants and exceptions for everything. It is just a way to explain a statistically significant characteristic.
I don’t think this has anything to do with “film music”. Men and women are very similar, but certainly no the same, there are quite a few differences. Men tend to be more into “things” and stuff… HiFi settings, floor standing loudspeakers, stereo shops, they are all populated by men. Music collectors of all kind tend to be far more frequently men then women. And not just music, but also books or keychains or model trains or whatever.
Women tend to be more centered around social things and interactions, whereas men tend to focus more on things and stuff. There’s this famous Bechdel Test for movies, how characters are written, but a few years ago, I compared that to an interesting study, that featured random conversations of people in the foyer of a large theater (or something, not sure), and it was actually easy to determine blind (just written transcripts) whether the conversations were between males or females, because male conversation where almost exclusively about “stuff” (the play itself, football, news, fishing… whatever), whereas the female only conversations tended to be around social issues (work, relationships, children, neighbors, other people in the room) etc.
Note, these are of course tendencies, not absolutes. They are not fixed or immutable. Of course men talk about work, relationships, children, neighbors, other people in the room, and women talk about stuff like football, news, fishing, but statistically, and that’s what’s relevant, they statistically always skew in certain directions. Men and women tend to have different insterests and put their focus there. That’s even true for primates. I have read some interesting books by Frans de Waal, and one thing of note was that even chimpanzee children favored different toys depending on their sex, with male ape kids preferring trucks and female ape kids preferring dolls. So it’s not just “humans”.And I think that’s obvious in all forums, not just film music forums. Obviously, women are just as invited and welcome to participate in these conversations, probably even more so (since they are comparatively rare), but obviously, the male/female ration in these forums are heavily skewed towards male. That’s true for classical music forums as well, and it’s also true for forums like ROON Community or HiFi community… it does change, however, when the forum tend to be more around social issue, health care, beauty, etc, you will see higher female participation there.
That is incidentally true cross culturally, you find these statistics in USA, Europe, Scandinavia, etc.But in the pre-historic age, women were traditionally gatherers and men hunters. But men have become gatherers, it seems.
True, maybe because collecting involves often quite some “hunting” of rare or bargain items 😉
That’s certainly true but does not really explain these difference to me.
And not just music, but also books or keychains or model trains or whatever.
But interestingly women generally seem to read more than men. If I remember right there is science investigation to to find out why still so few women lead the big companies although they could. It may be something between the still old traditions being very present to actually not caring for it. For sure it’s not the education itself as women at least over here tend to have the far better grades that men.
In general this collecting thing is surely something of the modern times. Maybe the Aristocrats could but “normal people” never had time or even resources to do any kind of collecting.
t may be something between the still old traditions being very present to actually not caring for it. For sure it’s not the education itself as women at least over here tend to have the far better grades that men.
It does not have anything to do with “tradition” per se. I remember a US law firm in Los Angeles, I knew a lot of people there personally. They hire both men and women. And they had both men and women working there. But all the partners were men (not sure if that’s still the case). Why? Because women didn’t get the opportunity? Because the established partners were sexist and didn’t want women in power positions? No, quite the contrary. They’s have loved for a women to go up all the way to the highest ranks, if anything, they’d have favored women, not the other way around. But they just could not hold the women. High-end salary and luxury sedans and whatnot did not compensate women enough to put in the 80-100 hours of work (including weekends) in a highly competitive field that were just needed to become a “partner”. Not because women couldn’t. They just didn’t want to. Far more men were readily willing to jump at the chance to trade off their spare time for prestigious positions then women were.
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