XPost: rec.arts.anime.misc   
   From: whinebucket@comcast.net   
      
   "Nick"  wrote in message   
   news:1nhc45l95bh5ae2qt3anumf1dcgm8jmh2l@4ax.com...   
   >   
   > Just saw this in today's The New York Times, and thought it tied in nicely   
   > to the recent threads about Aria: after nine centuries of male monopoly   
   > (in   
   > Venice, here on Earth), a 23 year old woman has become the first woman to   
   > pass the grueling test to become a trainee gondolier and can now take   
   > passengers on her gondola while completing her training.   
   >   
   > (Which inspired me to go back and re-read the chapter about Akari-chan's   
   > promotion from pair to single: not sure I'd call it 'grueling', but it did   
   > seem to be a genuine test of her skill at handling a gondola.)   
   >   
   > All of which makes me wonder: did the males-only tradition in Venice   
   > influence Amano's creation of a world where the Undines are exclusively   
   > woman and most other gondola jobs are only open to men?   
   >   
      
   As I recall, though I haven't gone that far in the manga (though Grandma has   
   been introduced in the volumes the publisher finally decided to sell) -   
   Aria Company itself was founded by a woman, and has been a small, 1 to 2   
   person operation since - making up for it by being staffed by those   
   recognized as among the best.   
      
   More than likely, though, the situation is that because Aqua is still a   
   frontier planet, there are more job opportunities, or opportunities with   
   better chances of advancement, in 'luxury' fields such as those that involve   
   catering to tourists.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)