I mean, male peers were never a problem. It just so happens that male peers are the group of people in whose opinion I am least invested.

Both older (read: more powerful) men and women of all ages seem to respond much better when I mention "cycling", "hiking", or "boxing" than when I all I had was "playing video games", "watching downloaded television", or even "reading". It's kind of hard to untangle the effects of 42 pounds weight loss from any of these experiments, though.