Battle of the Sexes

Written by: Alex

It's always a hot topic for debate over who is smarter - males or females. Over the last few months, a competition has been going on in the user groups in an attempt to settle the debate, at least for now - Battle of the Sexes.

Originally set up by Yoshi and Charisma on the old forums, questions were posted in the Divas and Guys user groups for the opposite sex to answer. Points were given for each correct answer, and a running tally was kept over the weeks to see who would come out on top.

Questions were generally general (or rather, obscure :P) knowledge, with a few gender-related ones thrown in to confuse the other team. All questions were member submitted, and proof/evidence had to be given to show that the answer was indeed correct before it was considered for submission.

Want to test out your knowledge? Here's a selection of questions that were asked over the rounds.

1. What are Phlox?

2. In which three locations does the European Parliament do its work?

3. What happens if a hurricane tries to pass the equator?

4. What is the one thing that all of the lines in Weird Al's song 'Bob' have in common?

5. What game has been featured on the most covers of GamePro magazine and how many times?

6. From what word did Joanne Rowling derive the name of the high court of wizarding law in Great Britain?

7. In volleyball, when there is a disagreement over a call, and there is no way short of instant playback to prove who was right and wrong, what would you do?

No scrolling down and cheating!

When the forum database was reset, the scores from the original competition were lost. So, the game had to start over. (Which was good, because I think the Divas were losing!) The game ran exactly the same, with Yoshi and Charisma collecting questions and running things.

However, when Charisma resigned from modding the Divas, ownership was handed over to the lovely Jasujo and Sapphire Faerie. Sapphire Faerie was delegated as the representative for the Divas, and was sent a lovely long guide to how to select the questions, and how to run the competition overall. It was also very nicely colour coded. :)

Sadly, as the competition progressed, the amount of submitted questions decreased. A couple of rounds only had 5 or 6 questions, as opposed to the usual 7, though we're blaming it on the Guys. After all, there were more than enough questions from the Divas. Maybe they were too hard to be chosen. ;)

Even the threat of Sapphire Faerie's deadly high heels didn't work for motivating both groups, as the competition ended about a month ago due to lack of inactivity. However, nobody knows for sure about what the future holds for it.

With the points being tripled for the final round, the Divas were one question away from winning the whole thing. Sadly, we weren't able to, and the score ended up as follows:

Girls: 82.5

Guys: 85.0

For those of you who attempted the questions... here are the answers:

1. A genus or ornamental herbs, or flowers.

2. Strasbourg, France; Brussels, Belgium; and Luxembourg.

3. The hurricane loses all of its rotational energy and decays into a cluster of thunderstorms.

4. They're all palindromes.

5. Mortal Kombat , 12 times.

6. The Witan, or, the Witenagemot.

7. Simply have a re-do. The server serves the ball again, and it is as if the last round never happened.

And, for the record? I still think females are smarter overall. ;P