Is tarot a woman's domain?

I have a question for you all. I've not been involved with tarot long enough to get a good idea of who or what types of people are interested in it & drawn to it, so I want to ask you all what you think.

Is tarot a woman's domain? Are there just as many men interested in it or only a few compared to the number of women? I went to the Time Out for Tarot meeting today (which was wonderful. Thank you CreativeFire for organising it!) & there was only one man amongst ten or so women.

Generally speaking, more women tend to be intuitive & in touch with their spirituality & emotions than men (I'm not men bashing at all, I'm just giving generalisations) so does this mean that women tend to be more attracted to tarot since it is quite an intuitive thing?

In your experience, mixing with other tarot enthusiasts, have you found just as many men as women, or far less men?

maybe women are more open minded

but I bet there are as many men who would like their cards read. I once mentioned that I liked to do horoscope profiles in the pub and three men asked me immediately to draw up their horoscopes for them. I've not mentioned the Tarot to them, but I did it once for my nephew and his friend and they had a queue of their mates to have their cards read (mostly boys!).

I think more men would be interested if they weren't as bothered of what other men might say. (men are renowned for teasing each other!).

I was recently invited to give a talk on Tarot to a men-only Masonically restricted Rosicrucian Society (SRIA) - to which I will again give a different but open talk in August. The first had only men (as it was restricted), the second will have, I presume, far more men than women.

At Melbourne's Tarot Café, however, there are generally far more women than men (only, on average, four of five men).

I do not think it is the interest in Tarot per se, but the ways in which it may be talked about and communicated. Both the titles 'Tarot Café' and 'Time Out for Tarot' have a far more feminine aspect to them.

If I look at the (Tarot) books on my shelves, I note that there are more masculine authors than feminine - again, undoubtedly partly a reflection of myself as man...

At the Beltane Bash in London, 3 out of the 4 readers there were men.

Just judging from my overall impression, there are probably more women than men interested in tarot, but there are still plenty of men. Male tarot readers are not an endangered species

. o O (If they were an endangered species, would we female tarot readers have to round them up and start an emergency breeding program? )

Yes, it is a woman's domain.
All men should stop reading, now.

JMD, hand over ALL your decks, immediately.
I'll pm you with my address.

ferrous said:

Generally speaking, more women tend to be intuitive & in touch with their spirituality & emotions than men (I'm not men bashing at all, I'm just giving generalisations) so does this mean that women tend to be more attracted to tarot since it is quite an intuitive thing?

Click to expand...

Hmmm, if a man were to make a generalization about a woman, we would be in deep doodoo. Hehe.

I don't think women are any more intuitive than men, but I believe they choose to tap into it more than men do. Personally, I find myself very much in touch with all the things you list, but I do know that I am an exception. That is probably why most of my best friends throughout life have been women (and yes, I am straight .... ask Gardener).

Oh, and there is another thread about male readers:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22452

Dan

Re: Re: Is tarot a woman's domain?

contrascarpe96 said:

I don't think women are any more intuitive than men, but I believe they choose to tap into it more than men do. Personally, I find myself very much in touch with all the things you list, but I do know that I am an exception. That is probably why most of my best friends throughout life have been women (and yes, I am straight .... ask Gardener).

Dan

Click to expand...

Contrascarpe, you'll need to hand over your decks as well,
but keep the ones I have already.

Sd

Well !!!

SongDeva, talk about being aggressive. As if you didn't have enough decks already. Hey, list, this here SongDeva is a true, has-it-bad TARAHOLIC. Either that or she is planning to open up the worlds largest tarot deck supply outlet.

So, don't send her any decks. Advise Tarot Garden and other establishments to stop filling her frequent orders for more decks. She needs help. Dave.

Try this one: It’s our perception that women are more intuitive and/or perceptive than men; fueled by a media bias, and worn-out Victorian ethics and values.

Tarot is not a woman’s domain. It is a domain of humanity – and reaches beyond gender and age.

Don’t even think about it SongDeva…

I think tarot is for everybody.

It used to be the domain of Hippies, Gypsies and those known as as "Odd People"; At least around here. (These so called "Odd People" were both male and female, and is the way folks with alternative beliefs have been traditionally referred to in my small, provincial city for as long as I can remember. I'm an "Odd People". I'm very proud of that.)

I think it's merely a question of the information concerning what tarot is about becoming common knowledge.
As more people learn about it, I think more people of both genders will be attracted to it.

When I mention the fact that I read to the guys I know, every one so far has expressed interest in what I have to say about it, and some of them ask for a reading!

I also think that many men might be selling their own intuitive capacities short, and believing that they have less intuition than women, less sensitivity, stuff like that, which I think is a myth.
Maybe some men are less sensitive or intuitive. But I've met women who are like that too. I think our culture tries to impress false standards of "gender appropriate" behaviour on people, but that is breaking down now (thank the Gods) and men as well as women are freeing themselves from the damage of a sexist paradigm~ ie: what women and men are "SUPPOSED" to be. You are what you is.

But Deva, that's a great way of getting some new decks...If it works! (Some of them may be onto the grand scheme already...)