mountains and phallic substitutes

I had a lovely lovely hike today, most of the way (I think) up to the Elden summit lookout. It made me so almost unbearably happy to be outside (sans coat!) and headed up... Very good. Tiring though, what with the lack of oxygen and my lack of in-shapeness... But I didn't fall once. I've decided I'm a much better hiker when I'm alone.
The other major point of note today was something I heard on NPR on the way to the trail about a video game called "Guitar Hero". Not thaaaaat interesting, just a game where you basically play a guitar and are judged on your performance. What was interesting was that the reporter took special note of the fact that women absolutely love this game. She seemed perpelxed as to why this would be so, and used it to defend an opinion that women aren't less coordinated, just less interested and that's why they are so less likely to be gamers.
What this made me think about was that women are not really pushed to play certain instruments: drums and guitar are maybe the two most noteworthy, at least for my purposes here. (The term "cock rock" was coined for a reason.) I've read so many interviews with women rock stars like Kathleen Hanna where they talk about being discouraged or teased for having an interest in learning to play "boy" inbstruments in their youth, and how much that influenced their ability to create their music for years. (I also once read an article about how it's much easier and more comfortable for women to play with their guitars held high because of their breasts, but few women do because that's not the way men hold theirs and that's the only example they have to work from. Grrr.) So why the hell wouldn't women be thrilled to have this low-pressure opportunity to try out something that maybe they wanted but never managed to actually pursue? Just a few afternoon thoughts.