Fandom could skew female because men might keep a low profile because they are universally painted as fat, thirty year old virgins living with their parents.

Hey! They are also painted as thin, pale ...thirty year old virgins living with their parents.

Only the Goth ones.

thin, pale ...thirty year old virgins living with their parents.

No, Daniel. Those are vampires.

I suspect that TV fandom may be overall female-dominated for historical reasons -- TV fandom's relationship with SF fandom. In the 1960s, SF fandom was overwhelmingly male-dominated (although there were female fen, they weren't by any means in charge). Star Trek comes along, and brings in a huge number of new fans of both sexes; the new men aer not remarked upon, but the new women really are. Most of the fanzine history of the 1970s that I have read has been a dual debate over (a) whether women "belong" in SF fandom, and then (b) whether Trek is SF fandom at all.

Sort of like, if you can't beat them, define them out of your club. Active Trek fandom has always had a powerful female presence, and is the template from which most other TV fandoms drew their behaviors. SF fandom basically ceded the TV fandom territory to women entirely, and then fought a useless rearguard action against women in all its other specialties as well.

With my parties, you'll notice a hugely disproportionate number of really hot women in pretty dresses. I'll never figure out why more men don't attend these things.

Chances are good, yo.

they are universally painted as fat, thirty year old virgins living with their parents.

Same goes for the women.

Same goes for the women.

I have pics that prove otherwise. When I got onstage at W&H Annual Revue, I remember thinking, "dear god, my fandom is hot."

At the most recent con I went to, there were two friends who had met each other picketing NBC when they canceled Trek for the first time. They've been friends for 40 years now. How freaking cool is that?

men might keep a low profile because they are universally painted as fat, thirty year old virgins living with their parents.

Nah -- they were painted that way long before there were a lot of women in fandom. Not to mention in fandoms that are still male-dominated -- think of the comics shop guy on the Simpsons.

Teh Seth may turn that stereotype around.

Teh Seth may turn that stereotype around.

Comics are cool again, but fandoms? I think you're talking a different beast, there. Still, demographics for these things are definitely changing, and I think "Buffy" crystallized a lot of that, so who knows?

And as for men writing fan fic, how come when ever this conversation comes up, the focus is immediately on sexual pairings. A few of us are male, married professionals who like to write episodic stories that don't focus on sex. (Although I admit I'm the guy whose stories have Oz/Justine and a Dawn/Xander in the year 2023.)