Quote:
Originally Posted by ross hamilton hill
But the Sphere has a deserved reputation for tough criticism and a lot of women are put off by that approach. There are many poetry forums dominated by women, Neopoet is one. These are self-congratulatory forums with little serious criticism.
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Hi Ross,
I started out, and still post, on another forum. I believe there are more women posting there then men, and in my opinion the crit there is significantly tougher than here.This makes me wonder how easy it is to attribute the gender imbalance at the Sphere to toughness of crits.
Presumably there are a lot of other possibilities? Maybe more men than women like to write in form? There's certainly less metrical poetry on the other forum. Alternatively, if you look at the recurring spats and public unpleasantness that occurs here, it does seem to almost always be between men. Maybe that what's puts women off? There aren't any spats at the other forum because the mods don't allow it. In fact, the mods there are very strict, and every rule is policed, and no one argues with the mods, except very, very politely, defensiveness in the face of critique is not tolerated, and critters are not to allowed to argue with other critters opinions. Maybe men's egos are less well adapted to that level of constraint. I'm sure I could come with other possibilities if I tried.
I guess one can generalise from any observed difference but, I am reluctant to accept that women don't like straightforward, honest critique because a) the women I know on poetry forums welcome it, and b) I also tend to assume that anyone looking to improve welcomes it (once they've gotten their ego out the way), and I don't see any a priori reason why women should be any different in this respect.
But what do I know? I would be interested to hear the views of women on the Sphere. Why are there less women here?
best,
Matt