Except that we know this to be true. Doesn't have to be sp's, male-only spaces are dramatically more toxic across-the-board (frats, sports teams, male-dominated industries, etc). Besides the numerous studies, anyone growing up during the proliferation of the internet knows that this is made exponentially worse with the anonymity of being online (xbox live, reddit, etc). If there were no sp's on this board this place would be a never-ending dumpster fire, instead of the occasional trash-can blaze.
In fact, because it's sps on here (as opposed to civilian/non-industry women) I think many men here think that the discourse is allowed to be just one level up from barbaric. Some of the shit typed here no one would have the balls to say to any human being in real-life ever.
I personally think this is a load of crap. I've belonged to somewhere between 15-20 boards over the course of my adventures. MERB is the only one that has SPs as active contributing members on it (PERB and TERB too, of course. When I refer to MERB I'm usually also referring to the sister sites) and it isn't any more civilized than almost any of the other boards I've been on, with two exceptions, neither of which are around now. The two boards that were non-civilized were both founded by guys who got booted off of other boards for being assholes. Like seeks out like and there you go. Most boards are very polite (in a general sense), very civilized and the membership alignment is much greater than it is here, so you don't get some of that push-pull that exists here between SPs and board members and there is a greater sense of "brotherhood" for lack of a better word.
There are two major differences. Most boards have some kind of a low paywall to climb over to get to the useful stuff, so member paid rather than SP paid. That has very different consequences that I'm not going to get into here and now. They also usually have a free area that equates roughly to the lounge here. The second difference is that they aggressively try to keep SPs, agencies and shills off the board. They correctly believe that they get better, more detailed and more candid information that way, and that fraudsters and thieves are less able to adapt quickly by changing name/MO/hair colour etc. if they don't know the guys are onto them. It is absolutely true that this culture has prevented a number of men from getting ripped off or worse at the hands of bad actors. Merb is unique in that it offers the SP perspective and an insight into at least a small number of providers and agencies, and some of the educational stuff is better and more generally useful here because of that, if you apply the right filters. So, you trade off more comprehensive information for a broader world view locally.
Do guys call SPs filthy names on other boards? No, not usually. They also don't call them SPs (something else virtually unique to MERB) Most of the time they are simply referred to as girls. girls that work in MPs are usually MP girls. Occasionally when there is a local nickname that is used (eg. jineteras, ticas, paisas, pinays etc.etc) which are almost universally non-derogatory. There's assholes in every bunch, but aside from some locker room comments that come up here and there the vast majority of the guys are respectful when talking about the girls. CRT even labels itself as a "Gentlemen's forum". What is almost universal elsewhere is that white knights are aggressively slammed (being grouped in with shills, but again board culture differences apply. It's not like here) and the worst epithets I usually see are reserved for them. on MERB they get free ice cream.
I'm not saying one or the other is better or not for any individual. What I am saying is that MERB is not representative of what monger boards are usually like. It's the outlier, not the norm. Coming back to the point, guys do not become a band of aggressive cavemen the moment the ladies leave town. Almost every other board out there is proof of this. What does happen on this board is that there is a small group of guys that work to curry favour with SPs here, and are consequently more genteel and vocal in support of said ladies, in a way that most other boards would never put up with. So again, pluses and minuses, but with the impression that the men here are better behaved. They're not, but their behaviour is definitely different on MEB because of the presence of the ladies, no question.