whew... that was a lot to read there, very interesting thread.
I am a female, and when I began reading the thread I felt a bit angry that men feel that women in general aren't as into self exploration, growth, research and experimenting through/ with psychedelics, but then I realized that basically all of the posts made here were quite true. Perhaps there is something that draws men to the adventure/ lessons/ journey of psychs more than women.
I myself fall into the category of woman whose boyfriend turned her on to the whole psychedelic scene, and I love him for it. However, I have embraced it in my own way that is completely personal and separate from his. He is a truly amazing wealth of knowledge about psychedelics and drugs in general. He's been into them since he was about 14 years old, learning, researching, acquiring, testing and loving all these psychedelics. I fell in love with him and embraced it too, timidly at first, having consumed LSD/ LSA and Mushrooms only a handful of times before meeting him, but then I dove in. I did it on my own terms, I never felt pushed into it .
Psychedelics have definitely made me a stronger, more self aware individual who perhaps NOW would not need the guidance of a male to explore the psychedelic world. Plus now I know where to acquire psychedelics. Perhaps women feel more secure tripping with a male counterpart to “take care of them” during the trip. I know that it is still comforting to me to be around my partner when tripping, plus it makes the trip so much better to be with someone you love and share it with them.
Even though I fall into this category of "girlfriend learning from boyfriend" I feel that I contribute to the community in my own way. I now actively participate in “research, acquisition, experimentation and documentation as a female.”
I believe that women do seek security, and lets face it to the female stereotype who obsesses about her hair and nails and coach bags naturally isn’t seeking an ego death experience from psychedelics, simply because perhaps ego is her main focus. Society has programmed women to hate their bodies, seek security through men and be catty with other females, so are women in general really prepared to find out that its all bullshit? To tear through that veil and realize that they have been programmed to feel and react to the world in a completely illogical way.
I am however quite shocked at just how male-dominated this forum is- like where am I gonna get BL groupies from? Some of you's would be alright I spose...