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It is often said that Men care about things and Woman care about people.

I thought I'd start a thread to ask this question and inquire if you good people think this is a valid generalisation or a gross over simplification ?

Are personal Relationships or metaphorical people of greater importance to woman & Girls than objects or concepts or non-human characters (like Transformers say) are and vice versa ?

Also to use some examples :

If I man was watching a Movie would they be looking at something quite different to what a woman was (in general) ?

Would the other element be important to both - just less important or just not even considered.

For example on average what is it about Optimus Prime that has more male appeal and what is it about Bumblebee that has more female appeal.

Is it a gender or age thing (or neither) [in general] in your opinion to dismiss the Transformers in the live action Movies as "Things" or 'effects' or to see non-humans in sci fi as disposable ?

Those are the sorts of points I would be interested in discussing... if anyone else is too please contribute to this thread.

Thank you for the reply and the kind words, That is very appreciated - I thought I might get mocked for asking a question like this.

It is a question that had been rattling about in my head for a while after noticing a number of things like if see what Transformers Characters are popular on Tumblr (shudder) it's Starscream and Knockout - and Transformers Prime Arcee to some extent I suppose.

But if you look at the general Public's view (as much as I've been able to observe it since 2007) those woman who were introduced to Transformers in 2007 with the Live Action Movie seem to really latch onto to Bumblebee - you could say it's because he has large eyes and is cute and that yellow is a pretty neutral colour.

But It seems if you start talking about the Movie with Male Transformers fan especially the ones that like or don't actively dislike the Movies they often say Optimus Prime is cool - and despite the apparent dislike ROTF Optimus's Leader Class toy often pops up in list of "Best ever" Transformers.... yet strangely Battleblade Bumblebee doesn't (and that is actually a pretty objectively impressive toy if you think about it - especially the Takara repaint).

So if there was a community out there that had more female members to it would they be saying Bumblebee or something else in response to "best ever" type threads as they (in general) favour other characters.

Not that I think that there is always a distinction in gender preference for characters like that - I was just wondering if there might be any sort of statistically recognisable one in the case of Movie Optimus Vs Bumblebee. Or to give another example what about Spock & Kirk ?

Or to mention something that came up in conversation recently if there was a Batgirl Videogame would it be as popular as a batman one would it have the same audience or would it slant more female - I personally would really like a Batgirl game - but I do think some might be less than enthusiastic at the idea - I think there is plenty of good arguments for it though - it gives a good excuse to bring more DC Villainess' into the Arkham Universe and Btagirl can beat the living hell out of them with a lot less complaints than when Batman does it (notice how often he ends up locking woman in cages to complete fights) Also Batgirl is sometimes associated with Motorcycles so she can have a Bat-Cycle instead of a Batmobile and that might make for a fun play mechanic.

I always really enjoyed the Kate Archer games and would really welcome more of them I also have said in the past that I'd rather like a Snake Eyes and Scarlett game.

But It got me wondering would strong female protagonists like that be offputting (well it might be to 12 year old boys) but then that never seemed to be an issue with Lara Croft - so would it be with Batgirl....

It just seems to me that the technology and the world of Batman and the colour full antagonists that appeal to say Men (on Average) would still apply to Batgirl - but just maybe giving larger roles as antagonists to the likes of Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn would be kinda interesting.

It might even make the game better as you can throw in street gangs of Girls & More Woman police without people getting as upset with Batgirl beating them up.

Sorry I may have wondered off the point a bit there - but it was something that passed my mind when I was thinking about the Bonus Batgirl Character in Arkham Knight.. and how here having her own game would be both interesting and advantageous as well as a nice change of pace from batman without having to change the whole game mechanics that people like from the floor up if you say were playing someone else like The Flash for example.

If you don't want to answer the original premise of the thread.

Then I'd be just as interested in a discussion direct to the (mostly?) Male board members if they can feel embodied by or invested in female Characters - I know I can.. but I hear the tales of people saying their little boys are girl phobic.

So I wonder things like if a 7 year old was buying Force Awakens toys would they leave Rey on the Shelf - Hasbro seemed to show very little confidence in selling her - though they say their excuse is "spoilers".

I always though Cobra's Baroness was really cool likewise venom's Vanessa Warfield - the reason wasn't that they were attractive woman in tight clothing it was that they were half way competent adversaries so I felt they improved the stories they were in.

Beyond Good & Evil is a game often sited as a terrific game and that has a female protagonist - I don't think that had a baring in everyone's minds as the reason they wanted a sequel though.

Or perhaps I just have Bald Space marine fatigue so a woman character in the lead role is seen as a nice change of pace - but as some have pointed out - you wouldn't need to re-write Ripley in Alien very much to have the exact same character as a man. (that isn't an insult to Ripley however) just an observation that she's goal focused and is a good science Officer and written that way it would apply to any gender or race.

But then some men asked why they can write such strong female characters the reply you often here is "Because I treat them like people".

Personally I think the idea of Agency is an important one if a character has agency then they are likely a good character regardless of other aspects.

I would say though that for a female Character to have that they do need to be given the same back story considerations as any male character - that is why Rey is so dissatisfying as she's just a power fantasy for little girls as she stands - without that back story to her I find it a lot more difficult to fully engage with her - a problem I never had with Ripley - but that was because wee followed her Journey so we were on board for the ride from normality to well Death I suppose.

One odd thing is that I've often wondered about myself is why in new Battlestar Galactica do I like Sharon so much more than Starbuck ?

But that may be a discussion for another place.

Men and women are different, plain and simple. In this day and age of equality (not a bad thing), I think this gets forgotten and push to the side. Its still a very solid truth. Boys and girls were made and/or evolved (depending on your personal beliefs) for different roles and functions. As such, we view and interact with the world differently. Men care about people far more than things, and just as much as women. They just tend to show it in different ways. In till very recently, it wasn't very cool for a man to express his feelings for another through the normal ways. They ddint say "I love you", they didn't give lots of hugs and kisses. What they did do was provide. They made sure the wife and kids had a roof above and food on the table. Some worked 2 or 3 jobs to do this. They also taught. They would bring the kids along while working in the yard or on the car. They would talk about life, and explain how things were. They would make sure you were prepared to face the world.

I think this is why men have the rep for focusing, or caring, more on things. Now days this is changing. Its no longer socially taboo to express your feelings for another publicly. With more women in the workplace, the burden to provide is no longer solely on the mans shoulders. I think these attitudes will now start to change.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

For example on average what is it about Optimus Prime that has more male appeal and what is it about Bumblebee that has more female appeal.

I never got the vibe that women liked Bumblebee more. I always thought he was the kid-attraction factor. Women usually go for Starscream.

Totally. My mum doesn't like the 3rd series of Transformers because it has no Starscream.

(three children, each five years apart all liking Transformers gave her over 10 years to form this opinion. lol)