Breakdown of female libertarians according to Facebook

I am not entirely sure how I got to writing this post - one minute I misplaced my wallet (which has my keys), a few days later it is still missing and I have to go to class, of course my apartment is locked, I go back there time and again to see if my roommate is home, at one point she is there but I guess she could not hear me knocking, I go back to the computer lab once her lights are out because there was no hope anymore that she would hear me, waiting for someone to potentially let me crash on their couch (has yet to happen, and I doubt it will at this point), waiting for the last person (other than me) to leave the computer lab so I can curl up under the desk and sleep, have not eaten in over 12 hours, and will probably have to go a full day without eating...not to mention getting slowly more sleep-deprived.

The point of this all is that my mind somehow thought it would be a good idea to look at the liberty-related Facebook pages I am the admin of and compare gender stats. This idea may have come from me noticing a male friend sharing a post from Libertarian Chicks, and that got me thinking...

I am not sure if I found this surprising or not.

I decided to check out the insights for the Western Libertarians page - the libertarian club I am the president of (as of writing this post) at Western Washington University.

And to think I thought the last one was bad...

These are the results for WWU Students for Sensible Drug Policy - of which I am also the president.

While this page, Liberty Enjoyed, has less than fifty likes, it keeps up with the trend. I actually thought it would have more women, based on the context for why I made it and the content.

Along the lines of Liberty Enjoyed, I decided to check out the stats for Better Because - the Facebook entity for my mom's book.

Now will you look at that.

Is libertarianism being branded in a way that mostly appeals to males? If so, should we make it female-friendly or gender-neutral?

Should we take the Julie Borowski approach and focus on the individuals, or should we take a hint from Cathy Reisenwitz and address issues that certain groups of people (in this case, women) almost exclusively have to deal with?

Because this is not a random sample, I am curious to see what other liberty-related Facebook pages show gender-wise. Comment with that information by just typing it or uploading a screenshot.

These results could also be because these pages deal with politics - a subject that women in our society are not encouraged to keep track with or enjoy for that matter.

If you know people who are admins of liberal, conservative, socialist, etc. pages, I think we would all be interested in seeing what the results are for those.

I found it interesting that only "men" and "women" appeared for gender - no "other" or anything else, especially since Facebook now gives you the option to customize your gender. I guess it could be because that nobody who likes these pages have identified themselves (at least on Facebook) as another gender, but that is another story.

What do you nonlibertarians really dislike about libertarians/libertarianism?

One theory out there for why libertarianism is not as popular as conservatism or (modern) liberalism currently is because of infighting* - libertarians using the "No True Scotsman" fallacy and saying that "these people are not truly libertarians because _________," and not agreeing with other libertarians what the movement's "ultimate goal" is - anarcho-capitalism, market anarchism, minarchism, whether social justice should be included, etc.

*It is good to that my definition of infighting differs from other people's. I like to differentiate between "infighting" and "debate." I believe that there is a different between the two - debate can be both good and bad, and some is needed to challenge each other intellectually, while infighting is unproductive and is always bad. Julie Borowski, on the other hand, seemingly does not see the difference between the two. Good to note here...I have been meaning to write about Julie and her perspectives on infighting for a while now. Will this be my next post?

Looky at what I found!

Ironically, attempts to address infighting seems to lead to even more infighting about whether or not infighting deters potential libertarians, or like I said in the first sentence, is a prominent factor for why libertarianism is not mainstream or popular.

While this is definitely not a scientific study (hopefully I did not need to say this in order for you to figure it out), I want to see what nonlibertarians have to say about this all.

Nonlibertarians: So in the comments, attempt to answer:

1) Why is libertarianism not mainstream?

2) Have you seen libertarian infighting, and if so, is it as bad or worse than infighting in other organizations or movements?

3) What deters you from libertarian philosophy or from becoming a libertarian?

4) What have libertarians done or said that makes you look down upon them?

This is not formal, so be free to answer whichever catches your interest. Try not to use this to attack individuals, unless it is along the lines of, "I think Ron Paul is a bit loony, and I know a lot of libertarians look up to him, so that's why I don't take libertarians seriously." I am hoping that people reading this get some insight into what nonlibertarians really think and why.

Libertarians: You can answer too if you like, but I would appreciate it if you point out that you are a libertarian. If you want to, you can attempt to debate with anyone you do not agree with.

If you share this (more shares = more comments), you will make me happy.