About three or four years ago we had gone to a very well-attended Renaissance Faire, and it seemed to attract a crowd of both men and women (as well as many families with children). I had noticed the gender balance because a non-insignificant percentage of the women in attendance were wearing costumes that came very close to the boundaries of Indecent Exposure In any event, more recently, in one of my immunerable Woman Shortage discussions, I found out that Renaissance Faires have a reputation for attracting a mostly male - and mostly nerdy - crowd. That certainly was not the case with the one I had attended, so unless it was somehow atypical the likely conclusion is that the sausage-party reputation of these events is inaccurate.

I’ve never been to one. My wife, interestingly enough, has. I would have greatly enjoyed seeing her in one of those outfits. Perhaps one of the reasons that it attracts more women/girls than one might think is because their costumes are simply better looking than ours.

On a sidenote that I may make a separate post out of, Slate has an article on LARPing, which I’d bet is a much more male-oriented fantasy/medieval kind of experience. I’ve never LARPed before, though I did catch a session of vampire LARPing and found it beyond the geekery that even I am capable of (not that there’s anything wrong with it!).