I have a bunch of hobbies, which range from female dominated to a solid mix of participants. However, for a hobby that has a good number of both men and women involved, there seems to be a gap in the participation and achievement levels in a way that mostly alings with gender. A friend of mine mentioned we would have to look at how men engage with hobbies.
Do you feel that the ways men and women engage with hobbies generally, but especially when they share the same hobby still differs?
It’s a type of partner dancing. For the most part, people don’t tend to participate longer than about 5 years, and the pandemic was a built in radical reset. Prior to the pandemic there was a (fairly successful push) to de-gender dance roles. We’re still seeing people choose dance roles that align with traditional gender norms. It’s just wild to me that even if you look at skills that both roles should be gaining (musicality, body control, solo dancing within the style) followers are significantly ahead.
dancing is overwhelming woman centric and has been since forever, especially in the USA. it’s also largely limited to more affluent people.
very very few young boys are encouraged in dance. so yes, women would basically have huge advantages because of gender and institutional pressures.
ever dancer i have ever known was a very affluent woman. I’ve never known any male dancers. the only guys i knew into dance were the super uber nerds into contra dance, and yeah, they were not people who were physically coordinated in any way.
but dance has so many styles etc. the ratio of female to male ballet dancers is like 20 to 1.
the reason men don’t dance is because it’s considered effeminate.
The ratio of competitive hip hop or breaking seems the opposite of ballet?
That’s interesting. Is it followers of all genders that get ahead, or women get ahead andthey are mostly following? What dance (if you don’t mind saying)?
I do mind saying.
So this is where it gets hard to talk about. The people who do the best best, generally end up doing both roles. Most of them are women who follow either primarily, or in majority but also lead. Some are men that primarily lead but also follow. I know some women who primarily/exclusively lead, only one (cis) man who primarily follows (but he has had competitive success in other dance styles following, so maybe yes)
I mean, as a general rule, you learn better in low pressure, reactive scenarios. High pressure scenarios where you must make descisions tend to be bad for learning intuitive skills. I wouldnt be surprised if mostly following is the best way to improve at dancing.
Anyway, to your point - as a guy, my desire to engage with partner dancing of any sort as a hobby would be driven by a desire to have fun and meet hot girls to sleep with. Competitive dancing might be kind of fun to watch sometime, but I simply don’t have any interest in competing myself. If I can dance well enough to have a good time and flirt with hot girls, my goal is accomplished and I’m not going to put huge amounts of effort into improving. I have rocks to climb and a motorcycle to fix instead.