I curse the day when I agreed to write an article for the volume on gendered spaces. This is the most theoretically thin area of knowledge I have ever encountered.
For instance, a volume on gender and urban studies that I’m reading right now informed me that women are forced to choose the kind of hobbies that allow them to be flexible enough to care for their children. And this is why so many women play bingo.
I kind of thought that bingo was a pastime people enjoyed when they were well past the age of child-bearing. I mean, how many women with small children do you know how belong to a bingo club? There is a bingo place close to where I live and I am fairly sure that even the most amazing advances of modern medicine are not likely to turn these bingo players into parents (or even grandparents, to be honest) of small children.
Clarissa's Blog 
Bingo was a children’s game. Now its played by oldsters who had played it as kids, and the kids by and large are off to something else. That doesn’t bode well for the future of the game.
It sounds like the book was written by someone with no knowledge of the topic, making statements based on air. That certainly raises questions about almost anything else this author might say.
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Exactly. How am I supposed to take this seriously? And it isn’t just this author. The entire field is like this. Skyscrapers were built to symbolize penises. Young mothers play bingo. Women spend most of their leisure time shopping for food or driving to shop for food. It’s like, enough already with this insanity.
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When I think of easily interruptible hobbies for women who care for small children, I think of reading (in all forms but especially short articles), heavy DVR and Internet streaming use, and sites like Facebook with games like Candy Crush (although it’s popular with both men and women). Men I think are more likely to watch sporting events live or on broadcast TV ( which are not as interruptible). Knitting along with bingo is more of a grandma thing.
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Even knitting is a younger hobby than bingo, I believe.
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The only cultural knowledge I have of Bingo came from the movie/book Matilda (The titular character’s mother leaves her at home alone all day so she can go play Bingo) and from Sherman Alexie novels (Bingo is really big with Native Americans to the point where it’s as big of an inside joke as frybread). Mothers my age with young children are much more likely to be seen spending time on Pinterest, not at the Bingo Hall.
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There are a large number of online bingo sites, heavily advertised on my TV, so it’s become just another form of online gambling.
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In the north east of the UK, at least, Bingo is played mostly by lower-income women of all ages – they go along with their mums and grans as soon as they’re allowed (it’s gambling so there are age limits) for a bit of male-free fun and excitement, it’s sort of the female equivalent of men going down the pub to watch a football match, but at a more child-friendly time and without getting drunk (on alcohol at least, the company and excitement can lead to great rowdiness!). It’s also a popular ‘ironic’ destination for a cheap student night out for groups of girls who don’t want to get drunk and be harrassed by young men. Bingo halls are doing fine here, and they are definitely used by women of all ages (more older women, sure – but they generally have a bit more time for leisure and a little bit more disposable cash) though generally of a limited range of social classes (this is partly based on reading/talking to local people, partly on observation when I tagged along on a departmental social outing to the bingo).
Was the author of this article perchance British? Because if they were, or had spent time here or been influenced by research done here, they would have a rather different dataset
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Actually, yes, it’s a British author. Thank you for the insights!
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