Here's some purely anecdotal "evidence" of gender differences in process
preferences: Our undergraduate photo majors have been, in most years,
more than half female. (Which is not to say not that any particular
student is more than half female, you understand, but that more than half
the student body is female.) I believe the ratios are about the same in
most undergraduate photo departments in this country. What happens to
all these women photographers after school I cannot say.....
In any event, my "non-silver" course is required for photo majors. When I
first began teaching, maybe 12 years ago, the boys arrived kicking and
screaming -- they just wanted to be in their darkrooms making c-prints.
They brightened up a bit when we got to vandyke brown, because that seemed
more like "real" photography, but gum was an uphill struggle. Sometimes
they admitted (at the last minute) that once they'd actually done it they
liked it, but usually just a sigh of relief when the ordeal was over.
The girls were far more likely to be enthusiastic to begin with and to
exploit the creative reach of all the processes in a freewheeling way.
And with a few exceptions, only the girls *loved* gum. Until a few years
ago, that is. I'm certain there's been a change in the air. Now the boys
are just as likely as the girls to be eager for gum, to consider it the
crowning achievement and challenge. Of course this can be partly because
I know much more about gum now; since they start where I am, they're
miraculously improved. (Sometimes I think I should do a recall on the
early models.) But I sense other, cultural factors at work. The *idea* of
gum is much more appealing. When I bring in books of pictorialist works
students really study them. Etc.
And face it Klaus, Ginger's remarks about "pastel colors" are probably only
semi-joking. They're probably true. "Real men" don't do pastel. At least not
in the States...
Judy