A few comments ... first, the alleged renaming of the Cornell tournament struck me as a joke post from someone not in any way officially speaking for the organization. I could, of course, be wrong. But this might be the proverbial tempest in a teapot. > > However, most of the > > women I know who have turned away from the game have done so less > for > > reasons like this and more because they have experienced some > direct, > > overt sexism, like male captains who won't take them seriously, > won't > > consult them on bonuses but _will_ defer to all the males on the > team . . . The captain of a team that includes Felicia Wu, who doesn't defer to her early and often, is a MORON. > I think the overarching problem isn't that it's dominated by men, but > that there's a disproportionate number of quiz bowl people (of both > genders) with poor social skills, or people who are just jerks. I've posted about this before ... there's no excuse for being a jerk, and I have encountered a fair number of them in QB. But be careful on the "poor social skills" angle. Poor social skills can be due to things like Asperger's Syndrome / high-functioning autism (I resemble this remark) and other psychological abnormalities. These also can make people more likely to be interested in the kind of nerdy fun that quiz bowl offers. I love going to practices and tournaments (even though I don't play anymore) because of the discussions I get into on all things academic and/or nerdy with some really interesting people. It's the social milieu in which I'm most comfortable (barring not even my corner of academia, though astronomy / physics departments approach it). In most circles, it would totally fall flat to try to make a joke about Chester Arthur or Belgium. We're here in part because our social interests and preferences are very dissimilar to those of most of the population. If that can be equated with "poor social skills", then so be it, I fully admit to that! Doug
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