ROFL!  Well put.

There may be more women on the forum than many of you know.  I've noticed that a lot of women use androgynous handles on forums where there are lots of men, particularly if there's any of the typical masculine back-and-forth teasing about sex.  I'm an old lady by geek standards (50 this year), pretty tough, and perfectly willing to tell any nitwit that behaves inappropriately to BACK OFF.  Not all women are, though.  Where the topic of conversation isn't personal -- like, say, a new monetary system -- it's often easier to participate if some guys assume that we're men.  The grown-ups, of course, have long since figured out that we might be interesting for reasons other than our gender.