There are few threads in here which split posters roughly down gender lines, and the majority of the time, women will get dog piled or disregarded because they are in the minority. This happens in most threads where someone has the minority opinion, but some threads just naturally pit female posters against the males. Add to that the naturally fraternal and chauvinistic overtones on a primarily male forum, and it's easy to see why it might be a hostile environment to females and their opinions at times. I don't think the desirable thing is gender, neutral nics, rather, I think a more even distribution of male and female posters would alleviate a lot of the problems and make this kurakani a more interesting place. This does serve to ensure that the female posters are among the most level-headed, reasonable and interesting people on the boards, simply because they are confident, and were able to rise above all the sophomoric bullshit that goes on here. People are constantly referred to as manipulators backstabbers, psychopaths, stereotyped, and are often assumed to be insensitive lunkheads who just want to play around and tell fart jokes. Again, this is often true. Goes for both genders. But the problem is that since there is such a small ratio of women to men on this place, the women get the feeling that they're being dogpiled by the men, since there are approximately 100:1 men:women, and 100 men expressing their opinion that women, in general, ARE bad is just a tad bit overwhelming to the 1 woman reading those 100 posts. Stereotypes exist for a reason. You can either conform to them and reinforce everyone's perception, or ignore them and be yourself. This applies to everyone, not just women. I do also find some threads incredibly hostile to women and some poster very misogynistic, but I also find the opposite. There are some very intelligent men and women who often post what I am thinking about a topic. I really appreciate that. I don't really think it's any of these at all. Women are encouraged and welcomed to participate, and I think most of the time they receive more attention and the majority of it favorable. :)