A funny thing happened to the online Ghostbusters fan community… back in the early to mid-1990s when Bill Emkow’s Message Board was the only game in town, I could count on one hand (a difficult feat for me) how many female members actively posted and contributed. If memory serves, half that number were the significant others for the male members that posted on the then appropriately titled “Ghostbusters Homepage”. But with the recent resurgence of Ghostbusters in the public eye based upon the new licensed properties, the forthcoming sequel, and the general nostalgia for how things used to be: it’s only natural that there’s a new diversification of those that actively visit and participate in the online community.
According to GBFans.com Webmaster AJ Quick, 10% of the over 13,000 registered users of his site are now female – and on top of that, nearly a third of total visitors to the site are female. It may sound like a lot in comparison to the five folks I remember from the stone age but given these numbers I immediately think of the other 90% testosterone filled, woman crazy, male members and my God, what must these female members think of it all? I mean, there are “Sexy Ghostbuster” calendars on some sites, there are clueless male members posting diagrams as to why they don’t believe the female anatomy is capable of wearing a backpack, and if you’re a lady and post a picture on the message board – you’d better be prepared to fend off the hoards of lonely dudes that will be outside your window playing Peter Gabriel on a boombox… why hasn’t this 10% demographic run to the hills in fear?
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(The Private Sector is a weekly syndicated column written by Troy Benjamin presented every Wednesday on Proton Charging, Ghostbusters.net, GBFans, and via Cross the Streams as an op-ed look at the goings on in the world of the Ghostbusters franchise. Learn more about Troy at
http://www.troybenjamin.com)
