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Re: A Question for you to Ponder

Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 21:47:13 +0800
From: Loh Kwek Leong <timebomb at pacific_net.sg>
>Subject: A Question for you to Ponder
>Here's my question:
>Why is it that women in the West take to this hobby of
>keeping fish tanks while those in the East don't?  I have
>noticed this syndrome for some time now and it puzzles
>me greatly.  I don't have the figures to prove what I
>observed is true but here are some "statistics" that
>may support it.

Loh, 
     I'm Chrys, which is a woman's name in my case.  
(My mother got creative with spelling).  I've had my own 
aquarium since I was a child.  When I was growing up, 
my mother had a "fish-only" aquarium.  My grandmother 
has had a "fish-tank" for at least 20 years, of one size or 
another.  My other grandmother has as well.  I have one 
aunt who always has fish, and another who has a few 
times in the past.  I think, out of my mother's 7 siblings, 
only one of the men ever bothered to keep a fish-tank.
      Last year, I got into planted tanks, courtesy of the 
internet.  My mother and myself were amazed at the 
idea, we'd never seen actual live plants in a tank. (We 
live in a very rural part of the USA)  So now I'm an 
aquatic plants addict, and my mother is the Java Fern 
queen, due to her low-light conditions.  
      I don't know the reasons why women may be more 
interested in aquariums here as opposed to other 
countries.  In my own experience, the aquarium in
the house has usually belonged to a woman, or else 
been a "whole family" project.  My father, at one point 
last year was sighing at me and my mother about "do 
we need another aquarium?"
      Perhaps, in Singapore, if this has been a traditionally 
male hobby, then the women have never thought to try 
it?  If they saw their fathers being interested,and their 
mothers being disinterested their entire lives?
     -Chrys Amy Dean


"and i try to laugh at whatever life brings
cuz when i look down i just miss all the good stuff
when i look up i just trip over things" ~ Ani DiFranco