Why
Are There No Women R/Cers?
Primitive hunter-gatherer societies are typically
communities of 50-150 individuals. If more, communication
breaks down and if fewer, there are not enough specialized
workers. And so it seems that all successful RC clubs have
membership within this range too, for essentially the same
reasons. We aren’t very far from the primitive, are we?
And in these hunter-gatherer societies, it is always the
men who periodically wander from home in small bands to go
hunting or raiding or looting and pillaging while the
womenfolk maintain a home and family for them to return to.
It was this way for eons and it is still in our genes.
In my 50+ years of modeling, I have yet to meet or even
know of a woman with more than a passing or peripheral
interest in building and flying RC model airplanes. I’ve
asked many women—they can’t explain it either. I know of no
other hobby or sport that is so exclusive despite their
understanding and support. Women are active in full-size
aviation and all other sports except maybe sumo wrestling,
but there has never been an Amelia Earhart or a Patty
Wagstaff or a Hanna Reisch in RC. It’s not intentional;
it’s just the way it is. Their role, like their
hunter-gatherer forbearers, seems to be supportive instead.
It appears that we have not strayed far from our
primitive past. But it also reveals how civilization
develops. Modeling is a paradigm for using our base and
primitive instincts for something more creative and grand.
For it is much better to pretend to be a German fighter ace
than to actually be one. |