Pointless- a feminist issue?

[Hakluyt]

I am addicted to Pointless- and many other quiz shows. It struck me yesterday that many of the questions seem biased towards traditionally male interests.

Now obviously there are many women who are interested in Champions League Football and Formula 1, but I do think it's safe to assume that it is more likely that men will be able to answer on these and similar topics and they come up a lot.

For the life of me, I can't think of any topics that women would be more likely to answer on- Chick Lit, I suppose? Anything else?

I do genuinely think that in a group of six random men and six random women that it is equally likely that men and women would be able to give a correct answer or not.

My best ever round was pastry items. Aced it. DHs is always the movie rounds, no matter the genre (his secret favourite film is Pretty Woman).

I think the main topic where this happens is definitely sport and men will, on balance, get more of those questions right. But this is down to the situation that men's sport is 'the norm' and women's marginalised. I don't have stats but i'd guess that more adult men play team/competitive sports than women - again due to men's being the norm but also going back to boys being very much encouraged to be robust and sporty and girls encouraged into more 'gentle' activities.

The problem is that we can trade anecdotes about individuals- but I honestly think that men in general know more bout football than women in general. And that women in general know more about Strictly than men in general. And football is higher status knowledge than Strictly.

Agree with Hakluyt. Sport has higher status (including nonsense sports as long as they are men's sports like darts) than the equivalent typically non-male pursuit.

I'm sorry, I'm not normally one to complain about this sort of thing, but I think saying certain categories are 'male' is really unacceptable. Is this the sort of message you are passing onto your children?

Personally, I'm trying to understand the underlying assumptions people make when they say x is for men and y is for women. If I understand, I can challenge and try to counteract in the hope that this message doesn't get passed onto my children.

I don't object as much to people saying football is a male category. I would be very surprised if more women went to football matches/held season tickets or however we would define being a football fan. I do know individual women who like football of course but I don't believe that 6 random women would perform better at sports questions than 6 random men. It seems unlikely to me.

It's harder to pin down what women are interested in. Is it not recordered and monitored in the same way? As I mentioned earlier, do women read more than men? Is that information available? If a study concluded that women read more, would that put men off literature?

I was on Pointless, toast. We got through to the final but didn't win the jackpot. We got 6, 14 and 2 in the last question.

If you got DH, his mate 1, his mate 2, me and my 2 mates the women in the group would be far more likely to be able to answer questions on football, rugby, cricket, F1 and tennis.

2

Where do you apply?

I knew Jennifer Capriati ina sports question this week.

That's not exactly random, icklboo.

Did you get to hug xander and Richard? Hugging is a femist issue.

Apply here BTW:

www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/beonashow/

"If you got DH, his mate 1, his mate 2, me and my 2 mates the women in the group would be far more likely to be able to answer questions on football, rugby, cricket, F1 and tennis."

Yeah, totally random group. I am now completely convinced. Women in general know more about football than men in general. How could I have ever though otherwise?

Thankyou.

True - but you can't make a generalised statement that in any random group men will know more about sport.

Not hug Xander & Richard but shake hands and LOADS of banter that didn't make the edit

You need to go to BBC website & 'Be On A Show'. Fill in the application. Then there's a phone interview / random general knowledge bit then an audition.

(We totally didn't get vair drunk after our audition with the other applicants. Oh no, not us).

I think I have used the expression "in general" so often on this thread..........!

And actually, I am prepared to stick to my statement that any random group of men is more likely to know about football than any random group of women. Citing your particular group of friends does not negate this.

As I agreed, true with my particular group of friends.

Right, let's see what happens today. First round - cities in the UK so that's genderless.

So...why are men generally more interested in football than women? If it's in the press & media both sexes have equal access.

Is it perhaps that at school it's the boys who play football in PE? Plus the huge marketing of it at males (clothing, apparel, collectibles etc) and there is no equivalent for female sports, no specific garnering of the female 'market' in these areas?

(Musing question, not an inquisition!)

Tolkien movies is for men, but one of the answers is Benedict Cumberbatch who is for women. Now I don't know what to think!

Yes, I thought that, but the questions turned out to be fairly generic so I think that round's ok with me

Tolkien movies isn't just for men. There's LOADS of us female movie geeks - Tolkien, Marvel & DC etc.

I also have no Cumberlove (sorry) except as an actor.

Hmm... All men tennis coaches.... Don't famous women coach?

Insects - good. But I hate anagram rounds, they are a cop-out.

Another entertainment round.

Is it possible that women have fewer interests and hobbies on which they can be quizzed because their lifestyle does not allow them the time/energy to pursue them? Or that both sexes are institutionalised to think that:

men should spend timing watching sport and be able to chat about it; and
women should facilitate that by looking after the kids while their DP is acquiring that knowledge?