YouSpeak: When Women Outnumber Men

Are there enough men on campus?


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There are 9,935 women undergraduates on the Boston University campus, but only 6,689 men. With Valentine’s Day here, that got us to thinking about what impact those numbers have when it comes to romance and dating.

So, this week’s “YouSpeak” asks: “Are there enough men on campus?”

“YouSpeak” appears each Monday.

If you have a suggestion for a question we should ask, post it in the comments section below.

Nicolae Ciorogan can be reached at ciorogran@bu.edu. John O’Rourke can be reached at orourkej@bu.edu.

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YouSpeak: When Women Outnumber Men

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Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.

There are 31 comments on YouSpeak: When Women Outnumber Men

  1. James Flynn’s analysis. James Flynn has an interesting analysis (see book Where have all the liberals gone — it is at Mugar) of what happens to gender relations in ethnic groups when male-female ratios deviate from 1 to 1. He provides data from the hispanics in the US (more males than females due to immigration) and African Americans (more females than males due to early death and incarceration of males).

    James Flynn may be familiar to psych majors as the discoverer of of the Flynn Effect. For people who have read his book or reports on it, do you think he analyses can be extended to other situations, such as gender ratios on college campuses?

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  2. The issue isn’t so much the number of guys, it’s that guys don’t ask you out. They’re all too afraid of rejection, so we’re left trying to read minds and look super cute. Oh, and hitting our heads against the wall in frustration.

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  3. It would be nice if the OP could broaden the question or at least acknowledge that this question only matters for some people.
    “With Valentine’s Day here, that got us to thinking about what impact those numbers have when it comes to romance and dating.”
    –This was a good start; this affects everyone.

    “So, this week’s “YouSpeak” asks: “Are there enough men on campus.”
    –This, however, only applies to het inclined people, since the OP focused on comparing the numbers of men vs women.

    I know, it’s easy to forget that gay people exist. Lord knows that few vday commercials have the balls to depict a gay couple. But it is 2011 now. We can stop assuming that our whole audience/readership is straight. (Or we could take a moment to consider the part that isn’t.)

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  4. In general, females outnumber males when it comes to academia. As for romance, it’s not necessary for girls to limit themselves to the guys on campus (although it is annoying not having the convenience). It’s great for guys I guess. But it kind of sucks for us girls. Then again, V-Day isn’t just about romantic love. It can be about platonic love as well!

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  5. Really, BU Today? This question had to be asked? Just walk down Comm Ave at any given time and you’ll see that the girl to guy ratio is about 5:1, or sometimes even 10:1. That’s something they don’t mention on campus tours…

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  7. Its amusing to hear ladies complain about guys being the problem in dating, that is, guys being too afraid to ask a lady on a date. This is a progressive world, ladies need to stop complaining about us not asking them out because we are afraid of rejection, there are more of them then us, so the ladies should be competing for guys, asking us on dates…

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  9. You honestly believe the dearth of men on campus can “only appl[y] to het inclined people”? What if, perhaps, gay men believed the selection of B.U. men was lacking? Such manufactured outrage as yours really doesn’t help the cause any.

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  10. The real issue is for you ladies that only 2/3 of the few men on campus would even think of dating someone of your sex. As usual, you’re forced to ask yourself the question, “why are all the cute guys gay!?”

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  11. As a freshman, I expected to come to college and learn a lot, meet new people and gain a broader perspective from what they had to say. However, college is not just about academic learning and the like. What about when we’re all sitting around on Valentine’s Day, asking ourselves, “Where have all the good men gone?!” Anyway, I have a great group of girl friends and we are all spending tonight eating at a nice restaurant and by doing so we would like to think that we are strong, independent ladies, which we are.

    However, the question remains, Where are all the fine men?

    Peace and Love,
    Me. C Angelee.

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  12. A few questions we should be asking ourselves is: In what ways is the feminist movement responsible for these changes? What happens when the pendulum swings fully in our favor? And will we be happier for it in the end?

    To me, it’s clear that the Feminist movement has brought innumerable positive benefits and equality to our gender. And while there are a few more battles to be fought, it’s clear that we are winning the war – so it begs the question: what happens when we pass that hypothetical point of total gender equality and start progressing towards inequality in favor of women?

    Another concern I have is – who will speak out for men when females consistently start to outnumber them in all manner of professions? In the health care realm, all number of pro-womens’ support groups exist, but hardly any can be spoken of for men. This realty continues to be reflected in the increasing life expectancy disparity between the genders.

    Will we have to have reverse-affirmative action to start admitting more men into college?

    And are women happier now than they were 20, 30 , 40 years ago? Especially since a larger number of women now have to compete for a smaller number of men who are similarly educated as we are.

    Just some food for thought………..

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  13. Too bad most of the attractive girls on campus are superficial and high maintenance ones. But then again, some of the guys can be tools. I cannot wait to go to grad school at a different college. I’m tired of this undergraduate nonsense.

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  14. Like Ladies said, why not just have the girl ask out the guy? I mean come on, we can’t read your minds either. It is the 21st century, so lets just go out there and be brave!

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  15. I’m a girl and my opinion is that the ratio is awful. I wiish BU would try to even it out by accepting more guys from now on, even if more girls generally apply to colleges. Everyone at BU and those who visit BU will say that it’s practically an all girls school with some guys thrown in as a tease. If there were a reason to transfer, this would be it.
    Have fun while it lasts, (heterosexual) boys.

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  16. I was on campus several weeks ago just visiting, as I am an online student in Colorado. I wasn’t really aware of a disproportionate ratio, but was aware that there were many beautiful young ladies. Wish I was there :)

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  17. If the BU undergrad body found itself suddenly the only group of people left on the planet it would be advantageous to have more females then males because re population would be more efficient. Of course this is only true if there is not an energy resource limitation. If there was an energy limitation the guys would be forced to drive Toyota Priuses, not uber cool SUVs, which could have a detrimental effect on procreation. I am going to start to horde fuel!!! and maybe water!!! Happy Valentines day folks.

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  18. Beautiful BU women need a place to hang out on Valentine’s Day? Look beyond your fellow students, ladies. Plenty of handsome, intelligent, sophisticated men in Boston for you!

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  19. well… Feminism should lead to equal rights amongst men and women. so women get out there and start hitting on men and stop being so shy. Thanks to mass media prince charming is fake and dead. so stop waiting for him to come, get over it, and get to work. period.

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  21. Girls, 6 to 9 ratio or 2 to 3 is NOT that bad. Most poly-technical colleges I know of have like 1 girl to 5 guys! The major problem, as others have pointed out, is that most (cute) girls at BU always have some kind of LDR or long time bf, and the rest either are not that attractive or love their independence. I run in a number of social circles and MANY cute fun girls I know or my friends know always complain about being single but chronically reject guys and never take the first step themselves. You can’t complain about this social problem when you are not trying to solve it in your own life, that would make you something of a hypocrite. Guys need to risk being rejected more and girls need to show a lot more effort on their part (just dressing up does not count). Cheers friends and good luck!

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  23. Even though girls outnumber guys by a large number doesn’t make things any better for the guys. There may be a lot more girls then guys but that doesn’t mean that those girls are attractive. I would say one in every fifteen to twenty girls I see on campus I would consider attractive. So the real question is where are all the attractive girls??? I mean let’s just let the video speak for itself.

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  24. Its not just that BU has more women than men, there is no doubt about that, there is another problem. Too few people of color and for a man of color it is not easy finding a date. The few girls of color hook up with white guys and white girls seem reluctant to date black guys. How many blacks were interviewed in the video by the way?

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  27. My issue is that there aren’t enough gay guys at BU…and if there are, the issue is that we’re just average people and we can’t *tell* that the other is gay. oops! haha — so we miss out.
    –as to “valentines day”, pssh, it’s Singles Awareness Day (SAD)
    –and as to this video…yeah, hetero-centric, just as the rest of the media is. That’s a shame, balance it out a bit BU Today! We’re just as saddened as the rest of the single ladies around here.

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  30. So I am in incoming (female) engineer – and was curious about what the engineering boys are like?! ;) any better ratios… or shall i plan on outsourcing… o.O

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