Exactly.
Demographics are based on who the advertisers think will have the most purchasing power, and who they think they can influence to use that purchasing power. They believe they can influence adolence boys the most. I think that the demographic they wanted was the teenage boy, I also think the demographic that all of Trek got was more female than anyone wanted to believe. They believed women didn't read science fiction and didn't watch science fiction shows because science fiction was like math and just too hard.
Brit
Really?
From my experence "immature" is the word I hear most women using in regards to sci-fi. I mostly hear that sci-fi isn't too hard for them to figure out but rather not complex enough for women. I feel that sci-fi such as "Batman Begins" or maybe nuBSG are such modern hits is because the public is discovering that sci-fi can be serious and complex. Seriously, are there any women writing for Trek? How many women sci-fi writers are there compared to men? When they sit down at the soapbox to write stories, who's there to represent the female demographic or POV? The demographic is how it is because not enough women are taking an active role in creating sci-fi. I think for years the public viewed that Star Wars and sci-fi w/ more action, aliens and robots were the sci-fi standard. So I think many women tuned out sci-fi. I think studios are now gearing shows for both. So I think Paramount knew Voyager had a big female audience, they added Seven to get your boyfriend get back into Trek too. Thus grabbing their demographic and adding you the new female demographic too. Still, many are expecting a mostly male staff to understand the needs of it's female audience. The majority of the demographic isn't going to truly consider much of the female audience until women start taking a more active role in the creation and writing of it. They went after the male audience demographic again because it's what they understand.
And Women cannot take more part in the creation of Science Fiction until they are allowed to. The major publishing world is of the opinion that women don’t read science fiction so they don’t publish the kinds of science fiction that women would read, the kinds of science fiction that women would not find immature. This is why female science fiction and science fiction romance writers and readers are banding together, why they are creating blogs like “Alien Romance” with Jacqueline Lichtenberg (and if you don’t know who she is you better study your Trek history) the “Galaxy Express”, and the latest “SFR Brigade.” And finally if women were not interested in reading and writing Science Fiction and Star Trek fiction in particular then why is about 90% of all fan fiction written and read by women.
Guys you didn’t show or print what we wanted to see or read, so we did it ourselves, lots of us. Women like Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Linnea Sinclair, Susan Grant, and Ann Aguirre, women who do write Science Fiction. You stated the case as clearly as anyone could and was blind to the answer, ask it again.
Just why are there so few Science Fiction books written by women? Just why did the early female writers have first names that could be male like Leigh Beckett or like C. L . Moore, use only their initials.
You know why your women friends find Science Fiction immature, well it’s because it’s primarily written for 15 year old boys, of course they are going to find it immature. Women went to “Avatar” in the millions and loved it, women love Star Trek too, the audience is there and it is a huge one.
They went after the male audience demographic again because it's what they understand.
And if true (and yes I do think it is true), that is the discrimination in a nutshell. Knowing it had a female audience and then catering to the male is the best description of gender bias that I know.
Brit
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