Toy Cameras and Sex

ok people. guys are gearheads and care about what camera they are using, what lens etc.
BUT
girls are usually NOT only interested in the result but also, how a camera looks like. the problem is, that most cameras look almost the same. there is a lack of "lady-cameras", like there are certain cars, you would call "designed for females". a toy camera looks different, sometimes creative and cute. There is a need for "personalized camera", and I don't mean $$$$ engraved Leicas :)
 
to OP:
please don't put "Toy" and "Sex" in the same line as in the title. That triggers imagination...
and I think "gender" would be better used.
 
On a more realistic note, several years ago a female friend who is a well exhibited documentary photographer (much more insightful than I) asked me for an equipment suggestion saying that I was much more "into cameras" than she. She said that she felt her high end camera gear was getting in the way of her photography and wanted a camera suggestion for a upcoming photo documentary trip to Cuba. I knew she shot with a Mamiya 7 and Nikon SLR but also knew the way she thought.

I recommended (actually loaned her) and Olympus Stylus Epic with a fixed lens and suggested she buy iso 400 color film. She came back from Cuba saying "That's it! I can think about my photos and not the camera." Her Cuban photo series has been well received.

Now that is just a singular example but I find very few females who are not more interested in the final photographic result than in the technicalities of getting there. I do think the females are ahead of the males in that regard.
 
Some of the low-tech cameras have many intestring options now days. My Diana clone can shoot 35, 120 and Fuji instant. Rumors have a planned knock off digital back with so called flavor modes like Kodachrome and Trix-X, flavors, what the heck!? As far as lenses we have the pinhole, normal, wide, micro and fisheye. Hey, with those options, how could one resist? The only camera I have that has these kind of options is my Improved Seneca 8x10, comes with a modified 5x7 and 4x5 back. Could take a Graflex 120 back as well. Not too bad for a low-tech "Plastic Cameras" :D
 
I have a sneaking suspicion that back when animal skins where the height of fashion and wooden spears with flint heads the bleeding edge of technology, the men huddled together by the fire, drinking/eating some fermented fruit and discussed the various kinds of spear and arrow heads, their angles, shapes, production techniques and so forth. The women however, where busy feeding brats, stirring the pot, making clothes and so forth. Women never had a chance to sit down and fuss over details, results was all that counted for them.

/Mac
 
dazedgonebye said:
Just noodling along Twitter, looking for people to follow, and I think I've noticed something.
It seems to me that a very high percentage of Holga/Diana/other such camera users are women. Not a scientific observation to be sure, but certainly the female/male ratio is much higher than I've noticed in places like RFF.

I know I'm a horrible sexist for indulging in generalities, but it has always seemed to me that female photographers, on the whole, were less gear oriented and more results oriented.
Could it be that low-tech cameras are more appealing to the female sex?
Click to expand...

Why not. Most of the selfpics on the web are done by woman. Most of the Photoshop-work of combining pictures and textures are done by woman. Why shouldn't women be drawn to a certain type of camera.
 
This thread would probably make a good case for gender studies. The topic at hand is pretty similar to the usual discussion whether or not boys are better at maths and girls are better at languages/art in school.
The implication here of course being that women have some sort of shortcoming when it comes to technical understanding of complex devices and that men are generally emotional retards. Of course no one says this and instead everyone starts saying that the actual reason why toy cameras are popular with women is because they are so much smarter than men.

I'm surprised no one has brought up the argument of cameras as phallic symbols yet. I guess I just did :)
 
I would say that when it comes to mechanical devices, women wants things to work, and men are fascinated by gadgetry.

That's just a generalization.
 
FWIW, the only 2 Holgas I've seen in Taiwan so far were used by women. They even had the black gaffers tape all around the corners. One women even came up to me and asked where I got my TLR.

I don't think they're hung up on gear as men are as she didn't even ask me about the M4-2 hanging off my other shoulder :rolleyes:
 
And only this weekend I saw a violently pink Holga on the shelves of a 'hip' store. You know, the Lomography kind. Didn't check out what it cost, but probably too much.
 
Urban Outfitters are known to stock Dianas and Holgas, along with the latest urban chichi clothing. And film.

Perhaps guys would be more apt to lean toward toy cameras if they were arrayed alongside the power tools at Home Depot or Harbor Freight Tools. ;)

~Joe
 
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