yendi

The big Boskone recap probably won't get written until later this week, as it involves looking at my notes and summarizing a lot of panels, as well as finding time and energy to do so.

But I did note something interesting, especially while watching the girls at shadesong's reading (which went swimmingly, btw):

There seems to be a ratio of about six girls to every guy in the pre-teen to early teen (let's call it 10-15) range at Boskone.

There's a less skewed ratio at Arisia -- maybe three or four girls for every guy.

This is entirely anecdotal, of course, and there are dozens of potential explanations (including the fact that Boston is a demographic outlier or the fact that fen are genetically predisposed towards giving birth to girls). But it's an anecdote that I find fascinating.

It's also not in the least bit surprising (although my biases as a father of an almost-teen probably are a factor).

But there still seems to be an entire generation or two of product developers and advertisers (as well as any number of creators of awful sitcoms) assuming that the cons (and associated fandoms) are populated, if not by Comic Book Guy, at least by younger versions of the characters on The Big Bang Theory.

In related news, here's today's XKCD.

(Also, I really, really need a new userpic for Elayna-related posts; my little girl isn't a little girl anymore. Will see if we can get a nifty pic when we're in Arizona to show off the new haircut and some great desert scenery.)