Re: Judges: by sex?
- To: iris-talk@onelist.com
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] Judges: by sex?
- From: H*@aol.com
- Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 16:45:36 EDT
From: HIPSource@aol.com
Mr. Brooks,
I think that your theory probably cannot be proven valid. There may have been
more male judges initially, or may not, and we may have lost some in the war,
but I don't think that is what was going on.
First: The presumption that women prefer pastels and men like reds browns and
blended golds is not proven and is certainly open to debate, even as a
generalization.
Second: The "male" period you describe also includes the Dykes winners
RAMSES-- a pastel pink and rose blend, WABASH, a crisp amoena, SPUN GOLD, a
rich yellow, and SIERRA BLUE, MISSOURI, and GREAT LAKES. Blues, as I
understood it, you see as a feature of the "female" period.
Third: Tetraploidy arrived quite early in the "male" period so we can be
pretty sure that is not the distinction.
Fourth: My own theory of what is going on here is that we are seeing the
collective exploration of the potential of the gene pool of the genus by
hybridizers of the twentieth century with awards coming in due time to those
individual irises which represent notable accomplishments. Pinks of the
'male' period were less successful than reds --or blues--of the male period.
Ruffles and lace had not really been developed in most of the "male" period.
As hybridizers developed these more difficult colors, and embellishments, and
refined them, they accordingly received awards for excellence. They could not
receive awards for excellence before these features were accomplished.
Fifth: I have no idea who has done the serving all these years at AIS fetes,
but it is abundantly clear that many distinguished women have held positions
of responsibility within AIS from its very earliest days. In old photographs
of iris society functions, the numbers are about evenly divided, and all the
people are wearing suits and hats.
Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com
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