this relatavist individualism view is in most cases, a perception unique to the Western World, and cannot even be fitted comfortably with the culture that produces it in most instances.

what are the odds?

I think this is bollocks, and indicative of very deep seated prejudices. The patronising of women in the industry is on the same level as it used to be (and still is to some extent) that it existed in all other forms of life up until recently, so goes beyond being crass and greedy. Being crass and greedy doesn't negate the fact that some people have a genuine belief that women just intrinsically don't understand music in the same way as men, and *that* is extremely patronising, without getting into a genuine belief in that, say, a woman can't know her way around a sound desk because she's a woman.

The Who may well have not got many "birds" at their gigs because of the same reasons discussed above, and more so because there hadn't been the last 40 years of progression. Women wouldn't have went because the prevailing attitude was (and still is to some extent) that rock music was men's business. Not necessarily with men keeping them out (their part was fostering that attitude that rock and roll was a blokes thing) but with women themselves feeling that it wasn't for them because rock and roll was men's business.

Chick flicks exist, but generally aren't especially popular with feminists who espouse the idea that certain images of women are created by hundreds, if not thousands of years of societal pressure, meaning that both men and women think that women have to conform to various roles in society and can only appreciate certain types of art and culture.

Change the comments about music to something else and it sounds like the archaic and backwards attitudes of pre-feminist times. Women didn't talk politics because women, deep down, didn't appreciate politics, their brains were far too emotional to properly discuss things logically. It's not that there's social barricades preventing them from getting into politics, it's just that they have different needs. Absolute bollocks, but exactly the same as you're saying, and exactly the kind of patronising attitude that *is* preventing women from being thought of as musically equal to men, and it's not the fact that men are patronising women and stopping them from getting into the industry, more that as the attitude is prevelant, women feel more intimidated picking up a guitar or a keyboard, or getting behind a mixing desk than a man would.

My friend set up a load of one hour workshops for a Ladyfest locally, and although they were only an hour, so nobody was going to learn to DJ or play a guitar, everyone who attended said they were amazingly helpful because they now felt less intimidated by going into a music shop full of boys who might sneer at them because they're girls and girls know nothing about music.

Like all of the activities and progress of feminists, it IS a case of representation and societal issues rather than an intrinsic difference between men and women, all of the progression of feminism has exposed certain aspects to life that were once thought of as intrinsic differences but we now think of as social constructs. The boys club talked about IS society having similar attitudes to what you've posted, not an evil boys club forcing women out of the industry but something much more insidious. Go to any gig where the artist is fairly vocal about feminism and their position as a female musician and it's easy to see that it *is* a problem of representation.