any women here??

[GoNorth]

sure sure, women like fancy clothes and champagne, facebook and Katy Perry

Some of them...
(who's Katy Perry? )

[bobenns]

"One reason there are more male members of this forum is because as males we identify with Chris at the personal level, we see ourselves in him, we intuitively understand his inner frustration with the world. More women I think feel a maternal instinct to want to rescue him and set him back on track than to really know and understand him..... "

"I would think that to a lot of women in today's modern society that CM comes across as some kind of loser...."

"He wouldn't appeal to many of today's young women shopping for trendy clothes at the mall...."

I would say BULLSHIT. that totally goes for todays men too! sure sure, women like fancy clothes and champagne, facebook and Katy Perry but that is so not a gender thing. I've met just as many guys who could never live without their iPhone or brand jeans.

My comments were not meant as a personal attack on you. Its a generalization as to why there are more men here than women. Your being here makes you an exception to the rule.

I hate going to the mall, but once in a while I have to. The place is crawling with these plastic looking broads that drive shiny H3 Hummers etc. Everything is about appearances, they are hollow, empty shells as human beings.

Yes there are a lot of shallow men out there as well.

But we are talking about those who come to this web site. Why are there more men here than women? was the question.

So by the fact that there are more men here than women we can deduce that CM life essence has a stronger appeal to more men than women.

So tove, why is that?

[pezar]

One reason there are more male members of this forum is because as males we identify with Chris at the personal level, we see ourselves in him, we intuitively understand his inner frustration with the world. More women I think feel a maternal instinct to want to rescue him and set him back on track than to really know and understand him.

A lot of people conclude that he had it all and threw it all away. He was no doubt headed down a path to a life of career and financial success, but not of real happiness in his own mind. He didn't take up the torch being passed to him from his father and run headlong into the world of brainy men doing technological development at the cutting edge of modern science and space exploration. He had what it takes to achieve in that world, he had a destiny set out for him there and all the right doors would be opened for him. But he declined it in his search for true meaning.

I would think that to a lot of women in today's modern society that CM comes across as some kind of loser. Lets face it, we are at a time of the most wasteful, shallow and meaningless consumerism of all time. People are so caught up in the acquiring and consuming of goods and services and energy that they cannot see outside the box. Chris asked the really big questions about life and went searching for the answers in the world as we know it, but also in himself. He followed the beat of a different drummer, and when you get to care about Chris its not about what he has, but who he is, a purposeful, bright, honest young man in search of the truth about life. Unbathed, in his tattered rags, He wouldn't appeal to many of today's young women shopping for trendy clothes at the mall.

But for those who see beyond this shallow wasteful consumerism that is destroying our planet, Chris is a icon, a light pointing to a different way of seeing, of being and living. There are alternatives to the dictates of society. Not starving in the bush, but living an alternative lifestyle with less waste and more open honest and meaningful relationships with others.

I've studied a little of the life of Gautama Siddhartha, aka the original Buddha (c. 5th century BC), and Chris reminds me a lot of him. Buddha was born to a family in the second tier of the Hindu caste system, typically warriors and nobles. He was prophesied to grow up to be a universal teacher, so his father greatly limited where he could travel. But one day at the age of 29, he slipped out of the royal compound where he'd been confined, and saw an old man, a dead man, and a begging monk. The truth that all men grow old and die was therefore revealed to him, and he decided to become a monk. He wandered the earth searching for the answer to the question, why do men suffer? He finally sat under a tree and resolved not to get up until he found the answer. He was made fun of and tempted to give up, but he didn't, and finally he got the answer that men suffer because they desire material things, and that the Middle Path was the answer to free oneself of the desire for materialism, to stop the cycle of death and rebirth.

The difference, of course, is that Buddha lived 50 more years, enough time to start a religion. That's where I see the story of Chris going, too. The story seems to have universal appeal, yet Buddhism itself never really caught on in the US, partly because it requires the devotion of a monk to practice correctly, and most Americans aren't willing to make that leap. (Most monks in Asia were given to the monastery's lama as babies, thus acting as a safety valve for Asian tendencies to have more boys than girls survive to adulthood. The same pressures don't exist here.) Most Buddhists in Asia are like "Sunday Catholics" here in the US-they're only in church during holy days. Chris's story can be seen as a search for happiness, and the answer-happiness is only real when shared-comes after the journey into the wilderness and the life lived in solitude. Echoes of this story can be found in the narrative of Jesus-the search for truth by the lonely wanderer, the journey into the wilderness to find peace. Some religious scholars think that there may have been contacts between the Buddhist East and ancient Israel during Roman times, and the story of Buddha became that of Jesus, heavily garbled. Another factor: "Buddha" translates as "enlightened one", "Jesus" can be traced back to the ancient Hebrew for "child of God". Interestingly enough, "Christopher" means "bearer of Christ" in Greek.

[bobenns]

This picture is one of the most touching I have ever seen. It conveys for me all that I can understand about a mothers loss of a son. It brings a tear to my eye every time I see it. She is obviously looking for him at the bus.

I think it suggests what a lot of women feel about the CM story. The empty void, the loss of one so special, there is nothing for them to say on the topic.

[naturelover24]

i dont think thats why there arent any women on here... older women sure!, but not younger.. i think we all can relate, but its easier for men to relate to a male man character.

[GoNorth]

... older women sure!, but not younger..

Why?

[naturelover24]

i think this movie appeals to younger people, men and women alike. the older women, if parents, probably feel for billie more than anyone. but for us younger people, or people without children, its an adventure movie of a lifetime!! think avatar but only real life! he lived in pandora on earth! haha

[GoNorth]

Interesting theories. Ok, mothers (and fathers) probably have a different point of view.
But for the rest, one possible difference between genders has not yet been mentioned yet: What about the girls and women who like McCandless as a MAN? I mean, he was a charismatic young guy in his prime and - depending on personal taste - not really ugly. I guess that in addition to the identification with his philosophy, this kind of sensation is probably more frequent among female McCandless-"fans" than the mother instinct.

[pezar]

Interesting theories. Ok, mothers (and fathers) probably have a different point of view.
But for the rest, one possible difference between genders has not yet been mentioned yet: What about the girls and women who like McCandless as a MAN? I mean, he was a charismatic young guy in his prime and - depending on personal taste - not really ugly. I guess that in addition to the identification with his philosophy, this kind of sensation is probably more frequent among female McCandless-"fans" than the mother instinct.

The irony, of course, is that Chris seems to have been uninterested in women from a romantic/sexual standpoint. Jon Krakauer admitted that there's no evidence Chris ever had sex or a girlfriend of any type. He had a few female friends, but they were platonic. Maybe there's a tad of what has been called the "loving Mr. Spock syndrome" where women feel that men who have no romantic interests need to be "warmed/loosened up". It's the same misguided maternal instinct that leads women to think they can "fix" a violent or thuggish man, only to end up disappointed but unbowed. Ladies, you've got to understand that if a guy isn't interested in you, he's not, and you don't need to convince him otherwise or beat yourselves up because he "rejected" you. I really think Chris had high functioning autism, the lack of interest in romance, the attraction to the wandering life, and other aspects fit. I know, I have HFA and I see myself in Chris.

[laurenantics]

I'm a woman, I'm 32 and I have an iPhone.

I don't think Chris was a loser. I was so deeply moved by the novel "Into the Wild" that upon finishing I literally spent days mourning his death as if I knew him.

I don't pretend to understand Chris' motivations as keenly as a fellow male would -- but I did feel the entire range of human emotions while reading his story. I do think I understand a lot of his feelings and instincts.

I don't think you have to be just like him to be on this forum.