In a poll on hexbear (see link), it was observed that there are very few cis women on Lemmy. I think this is the intersection of several problems:
- engagement of women on Reddit was always low
- fewer women in computer science
- I’m hesitant to recommend anything fediversy to people who don’t tinker with computers like I do and thus might need a more handholdy UX.
I gather that transgender people tend to be more into CS, though I don’t see why that explains entirely such an astonishing presence of the transgender community on Hexbear.
Anyway, I just thought I’d open the floor to brainstorming.
There was another poll that showed that there were virtually no transmen here. Would be interesting if someone researched that.
I think the trans community tends towards privacy oriented tools due to the political climate.
Let me tell you one of the reasons that I’m here. When I was eight I got a pc on my birthday. My sister was on that thing for two weeks using dos and acing grand prix motor. She was given a baby doll which could cry and eat and pee. That goes to show how deeply ingrained these norms are in our culture. How would my sister ever have a chance without a pc? She received the message and didn’t touch it again.
Another thing I can bring to the table is that I had game history and we learned that marketing of games used to be to boys and girls. And in the 80s or so it was figured out that marketing only to one gender group is more successful. That’s when games started focusing solely on boys.
Further, all the game authors were men, which further cements it.
For example I’ve been playing Oblivion lately and it’s almost impossible to find some proper pants. Any pants that I pick up magically transform into skirts and dresses:
Make of that what you will.