Demographic of PTA fans

[Punch Drunk Hate]

From most accounts it seems fans of Paul movies are mostly white straight males. Even with the critical success of his movies they don't attract many outsiders to show up. Why do you think minorities or women not as fascinated with his work? Are the subject matters just too geared to interests of his audience, or is there a hidden factors that steered those audiences away from Paul work?

[ono]

Most accounts?  Citation needed.

Just 'cause this forum is predominantly male doesn't mean his fan base is.

Paul wasn't close with his mother and is male, so his films will no doubt reflect that POV.  His first picture is very much oriented in a male perspective but still manages to give Clementine her due.  Boogie Nights will simply turn off a lot of the female audience because of its subject matter, but is more than fair in its treatment of its women characters.  Magnolia is an amazing study of women.  PDL is again male-centric, not really giving much insight into Lena.  There Will Be Blood was criticized for not having women really, a criticism that was very much out of place because that was simply reflective of the times.  The Master was similar to There Will Be Blood in that respect.

I don't think you can say one thing or another about PTA's demographic without some sort of scientific survey.  Anything further would just be conjecture based on hearsay.

[Punch Drunk Hate]

Most accounts?  Citation needed.

Just 'cause this forum is predominantly male doesn't mean his fan base is.

Paul wasn't close with his mother and is male, so his films will no doubt reflect that POV.  His first picture is very much oriented in a male perspective but still manages to give Clementine her due.  Boogie Nights will simply turn off a lot of the female audience because of its subject matter, but is more than fair in its treatment of its women characters.  Magnolia is an amazing study of women.  PDL is again male-centric, not really giving much insight into Lena.  There Will Be Blood was criticized for not having women really, a criticism that was very much out of place because that was simply reflective of the times.  The Master was similar to There Will Be Blood in that respect.

I don't think you can say one thing or another about PTA's demographic without some sort of scientific survey.  Anything further would just be conjecture based on hearsay.

This hotbed is off-limits, even if the forum fits into my expression.

Anecdotal observation is that I know some prominent film critics who categorize PTA as being a dudebro director in the vein of Nolan and Tarantino.  It also doesn't help that many Film Twitter commentators are male, with Paul being popular with young filmgoers he crosses into that demographic. Scrolling through the IMDB user ratings show a big gap between the female and male voting, with men rating the films higher. We could attest that his movies are primarily centered on the male psyche, though Phantom Thread seems to be a welcoming change where the female is a co-lead with one of his muse. This is just going off past encounters on the web, as I do know females who love his work and would cite Paul as their favorite director.

[Rooty Poots]

Gay white guy here, and while there are plenty of filmmakers I love, PTA is the only one I truly Stan for.

My Filipino husband loves him too (but not as obsessively as I do).

[FilmCell]

He’s not a superstar director with blockbuster hits and a strong media presence where he gives quotable interviews so most of his fans are film geeks. And Film geeks are usually white dudes.

[wilberfan]

And Film geeks are usually white dudes.

That's sort of where I was headed.  Let's turn the question around.  What director's fan base is almost exclusively female?  Is there even one?  What do women nerd-out about?  Which creative types (not actors--too easy) have their group of Fangirls?

[FilmCell]

Sofia Coppola, Maya Deren, Ava Duvernay, Chantal Akerman, Kelly Reichardt and Rebecca Miller all have female fan bases.

Anderson isn’t as famous as Oliver Stone, Spike Lee, Wes Anderson or Tarantino, etc so the people who know him by name are a small group.

[ono]

Let's take this a step even further.  Can we accurately answer this question?  Is there any way to formulate a survey and get it out to the general public and stress that it be answered only by women?  I don't see how you do that.  Maybe you just write the survey, and ask that the takers specify a gender, and extrapolate the results that way.  Any means in which you disseminate the survey will be biased just in the way you get it out there.

What would the questions look like?

1) What are your 5 favorite films?
2) What do you think are the 5 best films ever made?
3) What are your 5 favorite directors?
4) Who do you think are the 5 best directors?
5) Name 5 film related artists who in your view have the biggest following?

Choosing 5 so as not to limit to one, but allow for more options and establish a ranking.

I'm trying to at the same time draw a line between what people love and what people acknowledge as quality, and allow for the fact that even anonymously, people want to give "smart" answers.

Ask age, race, religion, gender, political affiliation, and income, and then extrapolate based on that?

I am interested in this question too because I've often wondered why there aren't more women film geeks?  Or is it just that they don't feel comfortable making their presence known online?  Or that they don't get as passionate about things as men do?  I've noticed this in other pursuits as well, so it's not an isolated phenomenon.

Let's try to at least come to a consensus as to what the questions are, and then maybe we can figure out how to get them out there and get them answered.

[FilmCell]

Being a Film nerd means risking looking like a loser with no social life. That’s a risk girls aren’t willing to take.

[Punch Drunk Hate]

Being a Film nerd means risking looking like a loser with no social life. That’s a risk girls aren’t willing to take.

You have many girls who consider themselves bookworms, which has the same habit as being a film geek. The difference lays in that reading tons of books, while not common, is more socially acceptable then a person who watches thousands of films and can create a 1000 favorites list.

[Rooty Poots]

There are plenty of female film geeks. But most online film geek communities aren’t the safest places for them. I’d say maybe almost 50% of the membership at The Dissolve are women.

[FilmCell]

Social currency means more to girls. There are probably more girls who are into anime and horror flicks than the types of films pta makes.

[Punch Drunk Hate]

There are plenty of female film geeks. But most online film geek communities aren’t the safest places for them. I’d say maybe almost 50% of the membership at The Dissolve are women.

Many cornerstones of the internet are hostile to any viewpoint of a female, so they don't feel like speaking out in fear of harassment from douchebags. I remember The Dissolve, but I didn't realize the high percentage of female users contrary to other sites, which is welcoming. It's sites such as reddit that need to clean up the toxic misogyny that pollutes the site.

Social currency means more to girls. There are probably more girls who are into anime and horror flicks than the types of films pta makes.

I get anime but horror is bizarre in that some of the most popular films tend to have strong misogynist tones, such as the slasher flicks of the eighties. 

[Drenk]

I don't buy that social currency thing or that you can state that as fact.

Masculinity is definitely something important in PTA's work—and it's not some dudebro fantasy even if he got the dudebros with There Will Be Blood (they are slowly going away now, though). The people I know online or "irl" who are as crazy about PTA as I am are mostly men. Yes. Straight or not. White or not.

I think it's linked to the way online communities work. Like ono says, you have to answer this question in a scientific way. The results might be interesting, but I can't do it.

[FilmCell]

You clearly have a lot to learn about women.