I do wonder sometimes why most of the history nerds I know are men. Not that I know no female history nerds at all, but men appear to be more drawn to history, or more encouraged to be casually interested?
I’m not sure, this could be all exclusively anecdotal and the actual numbers may not reflect my experience.
Most of the male history nerds, especially the ones who are dicks about it, are into war history. Talk to women who are into history and they’re out there building historical recreations of clothes, making historical food(there are some men doing great here, too), talking about niche histories of human rights, and all manner of crafts.
Most importantly, the history men learn is called “history” and the history women learned is called “traditional techniques” or “neat little facts” or basically anything that tries to not count it in the same way. They “don’t know history” and their “traditional techniques” are considered to be just crafting hobbies.
Thank you for writing the comment for me so I didn’t have to. Every history nerd I know in my life is a woman except one. The women know all sorts of interesting contextual things ,the origins of traditions, crafts, foods, the local area, and social development. The guy I know knows all about wars and battles amongst other classic History things. Both are valid and count!
I think there is likely a more even gender distribution of history nerds who are truly interested in history when it comes to topics outside of politics and military. A lot of men tend to use it for ego stroking and fantasizing about being the great men of history, while there is no similar avenue for women in that regard.
Exactly this. You’ll notice that some men like this only know history from a certain racial or geographical background so it’s not so much a general interest in history as it is feeling great vicariously through a historical figure.
oh! That is such a great point! To be fair, a lot of the male history nerds I know use it for practical purposes like writing TTRPGs, which were predominantly played by guys for a long time, but I feel like even that is evening out gender-wise lately as they grow in popularity.
That being said, I have definitely seen examples of the fantasizing and ego-stroking on the internet.
in fact, now that you mention it, I do know a fair few of women with a very deep interest in philosophy, and you can’t exactly get deep into philosophy without historical context, ergo, female history nerds. Women are also a lot more interested in history when they are represented, and I don’t think I need to soapbox to you about the lack of feminine representation in history texts.
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed the same thing, but I think it might have something to do with the type of gatekeeping and “well akshually” apparent in the original post.
I do wonder sometimes why most of the history nerds I know are men. Not that I know no female history nerds at all, but men appear to be more drawn to history, or more encouraged to be casually interested?
I’m not sure, this could be all exclusively anecdotal and the actual numbers may not reflect my experience.
Most of the male history nerds, especially the ones who are dicks about it, are into war history. Talk to women who are into history and they’re out there building historical recreations of clothes, making historical food(there are some men doing great here, too), talking about niche histories of human rights, and all manner of crafts.
Most importantly, the history men learn is called “history” and the history women learned is called “traditional techniques” or “neat little facts” or basically anything that tries to not count it in the same way. They “don’t know history” and their “traditional techniques” are considered to be just crafting hobbies.
Thank you for writing the comment for me so I didn’t have to. Every history nerd I know in my life is a woman except one. The women know all sorts of interesting contextual things ,the origins of traditions, crafts, foods, the local area, and social development. The guy I know knows all about wars and battles amongst other classic History things. Both are valid and count!
I think there is likely a more even gender distribution of history nerds who are truly interested in history when it comes to topics outside of politics and military. A lot of men tend to use it for ego stroking and fantasizing about being the great men of history, while there is no similar avenue for women in that regard.
Exactly this. You’ll notice that some men like this only know history from a certain racial or geographical background so it’s not so much a general interest in history as it is feeling great vicariously through a historical figure.
oh! That is such a great point! To be fair, a lot of the male history nerds I know use it for practical purposes like writing TTRPGs, which were predominantly played by guys for a long time, but I feel like even that is evening out gender-wise lately as they grow in popularity.
That being said, I have definitely seen examples of the fantasizing and ego-stroking on the internet.
in fact, now that you mention it, I do know a fair few of women with a very deep interest in philosophy, and you can’t exactly get deep into philosophy without historical context, ergo, female history nerds. Women are also a lot more interested in history when they are represented, and I don’t think I need to soapbox to you about the lack of feminine representation in history texts.
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed the same thing, but I think it might have something to do with the type of gatekeeping and “well akshually” apparent in the original post.