The Lost Girls

Where the Men Aren´t

USA | Wednesday, 16 August 2006 | Views [1107] | Comments [2]

Just a question The Lost Girls would like to throw out to the universe: Why does there seem to be more American women on the road than men?

We've met a bunch of Americans with a double X chromosome traveling by themselves, and a few in groups. But we never, ever seem to meet American guys backpacking unless they've got their girlfriend in tow. On the other hand, there's no shortage of packs of Israeli, British, Chilean and Australian men. What's the deal? Can anyone explain this phenomenon?

Tags: People

Comments

1

it's an interesting question. Many years ago on a lengthy jaunt around Europe, I did meet single American men travelling... but on the whole declined to spend any time hanging out with them. You see, we fundamentally had different attitudes to travelling - I was taking my time to soak up cities, prefering to see a little of the real local life if possible and essentially treating the journey as a 'journey' of self discovery. I was only just begginning to figure out that travel was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
The American men I met however, were on a whirlwind 'if-its-Tuesday-it-must-be-Belgium' kind of trip. Invariably, they'd all just graduated college, had 6 weeks off before they willingly joined the rank and file of corporate life and already had it fixed in their mind that this was the only travel they'd ever get time for again. On top of that, they all had competitive attitudes to how many chicks they could shag... I never felt like becoming another notch on their bedpost so on the whole, steered clear.
Since then, I've only seen scant number of american men with passports in the Big Wide World. What are they all doing?

(Hopefully some of these elusive creatures will contribute to this conversation...)

crustyadventures Aug 16, 2006 2:26 PM

2

Yeah, it´s kind of a rite of passage for Americans, both men and women, to take 6 weeks to backpack Europe after graduating. But, for most of us, it seems lengthy travel stops there. It´s almost like we´re brainwashed to think if we travel for longer once we get a job, employers will look down on us for doing it.

However, I´ve found a few American women traveling in Latin America but hardly any guys...

hollycassandra Aug 16, 2006 11:04 PM