# Stereotypically "girlie" interests: do you feel contempt for them, and if so, why? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139 "2010-03-28T20:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/101 "2010-03-29T17:09:59Z")
My relationship with girly things is kind of weird, though it does have things in common with several other previous posters. First of all, yeah, don’t assume. I hate it when people assume that because I’m female, I like babies, cooking, fashion, shopping, celebrity gossip, jewelry, and chick flicks. I don’t like any of those things. (Well, okay, sometimes I like shopping.) Almost all of my interests go toward the “guy” end of the spectrum, or are gender-neutral. I get along better with guys and geeky women than with “normal” women. But that’s not to say I have contempt for these things (well, maybe celebrity gossip–it completely escapes me why anyone cares) nor for the people who enjoy them. Everybody’s different. If you want to spend the majority of your time talking about babies or fashion, fine. I’ll be bored stiff. But I’d be just as bored hanging around guys who wanted to talk about nothing but baseball. And you’d be just as bored if I wanted to go on about WoW or video game hardware. I guess the bottom line for me (this is really kind of a cornerstone of my personality, because I so rarely get to experience it) is that I want people to hold off their assumptions about me before they get to know me. As one poster mentioned upthread, do NOT make a sly comment to my spouse about having to buy me some glittery nothing in order to make up for the technology purchase he makes. Damn it, I’M the one who’s more likely to make the technology purchase, if you’d just get past your blinders long enough to see that female doesn’t necessarily mean “access this set of assumptions and cue this set of responses.” It’s rude, insulting, and just plain bad business. You can treat everybody with neutral courtesy and cheerfulness without making any assumptions about their personality. That’s really all I ask. Everybody’s different. Some people (women and men both) enjoy fashion, family, sports, auto repairs, flower arranging, and fruity drinks with umbrellas in them. So what? There’s nothing inherently bad, wrong, or inferior about anyone’s favorite pastimes, just because they’re stereotypically feminine or masculine. The only “girly” pastimes I genuinely do have contempt for are (as I mentioned above), the frothier of the celebrity gossip (things like “OMG! Starlet X was seen in a bikini last week and she has _cellulite_!”) and outright ditziness (especially if it’s affected to attract men). I value intelligence highly in both genders. Stupid combined with girly turns me right off (just like stupid combined with macho does–although I don’t like smart macho/male chauvinist guys either, so that’s kind of a wash). ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/102 "2010-03-29T17:25:19Z")
> [@valleyofthedolls](#): > > Count me as someone who loves Sex and the City (the movie just like Twilight needed a lot of work). I don’t care who knows and I don’t care who mocks me for it, the writing was terrific, the cast was excellent and it was hysterically funny. I really don’t understand the hate for it unless people are projecting their own lives and personalities onto the show. If you’re actually interested in the reasons behind the hate, I recommend [this blog post](http://lawyerwriter.blogspot.com/2005/03/i-hate-sex-and-city-diatribe.html). I’m not going to enumerate my reasons because this is an interesting thread and I don’t want to derail it. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/103 "2010-03-29T17:33:23Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > I can’t follow that logic. Are you claiming that “liking women sexually” is simply more acceptable, no matter who does it, because this is a “guy interest” and in general all guy interests are more socially acceptable? I’m suggesting that this might has something to do with it, yes. Stereotypically male attributes and behaviors carry greater esteem in our society. I don’t think it’s merely coincidental that lesbians are regarded as less deviant than gay men. And I don’t think feminism has much to do with it, either. > [@](#): > > The feminist notion that women ought to be free to pursue their interests (even if typically ‘manly’) is now so deeply engrained in our culture that even a paleo-conservative woman like Palin has happily embraced it - at least, when it comes to herself. I think feminism helped a lot with helping women break past gender stereotypes, but it doesn’t account for every gender disparity that comes down in “favor” of women. All one has to do is read Leviticus to infer that male homosexuality has been regarded differently than female for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/104 "2010-03-29T17:50:17Z")
> [@winterhawk11](#): > > I guess the bottom line for me (this is really kind of a cornerstone of my personality, because I so rarely get to experience it) is that I want people to hold off their assumptions about me before they get to know me. **As one poster mentioned upthread, do NOT make a sly comment to my spouse about having to buy me some glittery nothing in order to make up for the technology purchase he makes.** Damn it, I’M the one who’s more likely to make the technology purchase, if you’d just get past your blinders long enough to see that female doesn’t necessarily mean “access this set of assumptions and cue this set of responses.” \*\*It’s rude, insulting, and just plain bad business. \*\*You can treat everybody with neutral courtesy and cheerfulness without making any assumptions about their personality. That’s really all I ask. Bolding mine. I don’t mean to pick on this post specifically, because others have described a similar sentiment in this thread and other threads. Although I’ve quoted this post, anyone should feel free to chime in. I definitely understand that it’s a very poor sales technique to verbalize assumptions about people - even if the assumption happens to be correct, it’s still rude and a faux pas to presume to know what a stranger would like. But it does seem that making an assumption that a woman would like a man to buy her jewelry is a particular trigger that makes some women very angry. Personally, I would think the salesperson was a total loser because I can and do buy a lot of my own jewelry, thankyouverymuch. But is there also something offensive about the idea that a woman would like jewelry, if she in fact does not care for it? (e.g., it’s symbolic of materialism or vanity or foolishness?) ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/105 "2010-03-29T17:59:43Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Apparently it’s called [GameCrush.com](http://GameCrush.com). > > [http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/199165.asp](http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/199165.asp) > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Oh my God. [Really](http://www.pcworld.com/article/192234/gamecrush_pay_to_play_video_games_with_hot_girls.html). :eek: > > ETA: Beaten to punch. My mind, it is blown. Oh well, to each their own. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/106 "2010-03-29T18:08:56Z")
> [@Sidney Evgeni Jordan](#): > > But is there also something offensive about the idea that a woman would like jewelry, if she in fact does not care for it? (e.g., it’s symbolic of materialism or vanity or foolishness?) Not per se, but let’s swap the genders. Instead of the gadget counter, we’re standing next to the jewelry counter. Wife has just bought herself a piece of expensive jewelry, with Husband standing there next to her. Would the salesman likely make a sly comment to Wife about how now she needs to let Husband go buy that new power tool he’s had his eye on? Or perhaps even worse, a sly comment implying that Husband should be “rewarded” (wink wink nudge nudge) for letting Wife buy expensive jewelry (never mind that it might be her own money)? If the salesman did that, I think Husband has every right to be offended at assumptions every bit as much as Wife would in the other situation. Basically, I don’t like assumptions. A proper salesman in this case might (or might not) compliment the woman on how nice the jewelry looks on her, complete the transaction, and be done with it. Just like in the other scenario, comments about what the wife might or might not be getting to justify the husband’s gadget purchase are out of place and patronizing. They might be a little less so if the woman was obviously decked out in upscale fashion and jewelry, but would certainly be inappropriate if directed at a wife dressed in T-shirt, jeans, athletic shoes, and no makeup or jewelry–even if she loved these things and was just “dressing down” for the day. The salesman has no way to know this, so he should stick with the situation as it is. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/107 "2010-03-29T18:16:21Z")
Julia Serano goes on at length about this in her book _Whipping Girl_, basically saying that although most people would agree that women are men’s equals, few would agree that femininity is masculinity’s equal, and that this discrepancy is simply misogyny repackaged in a new and more acceptable format. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/108 "2010-03-29T18:18:06Z")
I have nothing but contempt for the stereotypically girly things. They don’t accomplish anything. Gaming and music and sports are actual things that people do; fashion doesn’t _do_ anything. It just clothes, it’s just metal and rocks, it’s just makeup. I don’t have much patience for anyone who has very limited interests to begin with, but I’m more likely to take someone seriously if they’re obsessed with, say, rock climbing or cars than I am someone who’s obsessed with Sex in the City or fashion. The only possible purpose that expensive designer clothing serves is to attract a guy, and I guess I hold the radical belief that there’s more to life then chasing after men. Every time a woman giggles about shoe shopping or something, she perpetuates a stereotype that _all_ women are primarily concerned with shoe shopping (or whatever). That leaves those of us who really don’t care about it and prefer practical shoes in some weird no man’s land: I’m apparently not feminine, because I don’t own any high heels and have never watched an entire episode of Sex in the City and would much rather watch an action movie than a romantic comedy - but I’m still obviously biologically female, and therefore couldn’t possibly be truly interested in other things. I’m getting some of that from this thread, even: oh, she’s just saying she’s also into hockey as well as romance novels to save face, we all know that since she’s a woman she must prefer the latter. Also, part of my objection to female-oriented media, whether it’s TV or books or movies, is that it’s just awful writing. If preferring a well-written book to Nora Roberts or some other crap written solely to make money off fat housewives makes me sexist, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![Lestrade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/109 "2010-03-29T18:19:32Z")
> [@Sidney Evgeni Jordan](#): > > Bolding mine. I don’t mean to pick on this post specifically, because others have described a similar sentiment in this thread and other threads. Although I’ve quoted this post, anyone should feel free to chime in. I definitely understand that it’s a very poor sales technique to verbalize assumptions about people - even if the assumption happens to be correct, it’s still rude and a faux pas to presume to know what a stranger would like. But it does seem that making an assumption that a woman would like a man to buy her jewelry is a particular trigger that makes some women very angry. Personally, I would think the salesperson was a total loser because I can and do buy a lot of my own jewelry, thankyouverymuch. But is there also something offensive about the idea that a woman would like jewelry, if she in fact does not care for it? (e.g., it’s symbolic of materialism or vanity or foolishness?) The jewelry doesn’t matter, being treated as an accessory instead of a customer is demeaning and insulting. I’ve run into the same thing when shopping with my SO, where saleswomen treat me like a walking wallet. I know that they do it because many men play that part, but that doesn’t make it less annoying. In other words, exactly what **winterhawk11** said. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/110 "2010-03-29T18:20:02Z")
Yeah. No woman would ever buy nice or expensive clothing because she thinks it’s pretty or that fashion is interesting and fascinating. Besides, isn’t the stereotype that guys don’t even notice clothing labels? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/111 "2010-03-29T18:26:41Z")
“The only possible purpose that expensive designer clothing serves is to attract a guy” If this is true, then why do married women and women with boyfriends wear those clothes? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/112 "2010-03-29T18:26:51Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I have nothing but contempt for the stereotypically girly things. They don’t accomplish anything. Gaming and music and sports are actual things that people do; fashion doesn’t _do_ anything. It just clothes, it’s just metal and rocks, it’s just makeup. I don’t have much patience for anyone who has very limited interests to begin with, but I’m more likely to take someone seriously if they’re obsessed with, say, rock climbing or cars than I am someone who’s obsessed with Sex in the City or fashion. The only possible purpose that expensive designer clothing serves is to attract a guy, and I guess I hold the radical belief that there’s more to life then chasing after men. Why are gaming and music “actual things” while fashion and its corollaries are not? ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/113 "2010-03-29T18:28:40Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > Gaming and music and sports are actual things that people do; fashion doesn’t _do_ anything. It just clothes, it’s just metal and rocks, it’s just makeup. “Clothes are something you have to wear every day of your life. Gaming and music and sports are just people running up and down and making noise.” I don’t think fashion is any more or less frivolous than any of the other non-productive ways in which people spend their time, energy, or money because it pleases them. > [@](#): > > Every time a woman giggles about shoe shopping or something, she perpetuates a stereotype that _all_ women are primarily concerned with shoe shopping (or whatever). People say this about gay men, too, and I don’t get it. Why would my interests reflect on someone else, purely on the basis of their gender or their sexual orientation? Surely if someone extrapolates from one woman and assumes her interests are those of all womankind, the problem is with the extrapolator, not with the woman’s interests? > [@](#): > > Also, part of my objection to female-oriented media, whether it’s TV or books or movies, is that it’s just awful writing. If preferring a well-written book to Nora Roberts or some other crap written solely to make money off fat housewives makes me sexist, so be it. This I can definitely get behind, however. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/114 "2010-03-29T18:30:52Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Why are gaming and music “actual things” while fashion and its corollaries are not? It’s pretty common to characterize “feminine” things or characteristics as unreal, artificial, frivolous, affected or fake and corresponding “masculine” things of no more or less actual utility as real, natural, serious, artless, or important. Witness sports casts being treated as though they are actual news. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/115 "2010-03-29T18:32:14Z")
The whole “Fashion is for morons” kind of reminds me of that scene in Devil Wears Prada where Miranda Priestly chews out Andie for her eye rolly attitude. Miranda was a bitch, but she had a point. In its own way, on its highest levels, it is art. And what we wear is a choice. It’s not something everyone feels they have to obsess over, but why put it down? It really does reek to me of insecurity when I see people falling over themselves to say how much they hate fashion. It’s almost as if they have to project that air to keep people from judging what they’re afraid will be perceived as an ugly outfit or bad makeup. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/116 "2010-03-29T18:32:15Z")
I am a guy and I have no idea when a woman is wearing expensive clothes or jewelery. I just know what looks good but I have no idea if it costs $500 or $50. (except in rare cases) ---
**Author:** ![apollonia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2bfe46/32.png) [@apollonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/apollonia)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/117 "2010-03-29T18:37:10Z")
Gaming “doesn’t do anything” either. Fashion and makeup in one sense are much more real–they allow one to actively portray an image of oneself that is at odds with walking around naked, and you can change that at will. I might as well go around slagging on gamers–video games, after all, don’t do anything, they’re fake games in a computer! Only silly, shallow, frivolous people care that much about fake people shooting fake guns at fake villains with computer-animated graphics. Fake, fake, fake, boring, stupid, silly. Time-waters, pointless, useless. So it goes both ways. And for those who are not familiar with the film, the quote **Freudian Slit** is referring to is as follows: > [@](#): > > This… ‘stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/118 "2010-03-29T18:39:55Z")
Fashion is a very big business in the US but many of the clothes are now made overseas. I can see why a $20 shirt is made in China but I don’t know why $300 shirts are made there too. Guess they want to squeeze as much profit out as they can. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/119 "2010-03-29T18:39:57Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I’m suggesting that this might has something to do with it, yes. Stereotypically male attributes and behaviors carry greater esteem in our society. I don’t think it’s merely coincidental that lesbians are regarded as less deviant than gay men. And I don’t think feminism has much to do with it, either. > > I think feminism helped a lot with helping women break past gender stereotypes, but it doesn’t account for every gender disparity that comes down in “favor” of women. All one has to do is read Leviticus to infer that male homosexuality has been regarded differently than female for a long time. I know that female homosexuality is not condemned in Leviticus, but I know that fact mostly because it appears _counter-intuitive_ – in that the fundy types who these days hate homosexuality based on the Biblical injunctions tend to ‘blast’ both male and female homosexuality without acknowledging this difference. It’s a great way of taunting them (“are you saying God thinks Lesbians are _okay_?”) That being noted, whatever cultural pressures led to the odd state of affairs in Leviticus are those peculiar to iron-age Judea and have only limited relevance to modern concerns over the treatment of ‘girly’ topics on Internet Boards. 😉 Perhaps we are both right, in this sense: that in the past, more “high ranking” activities were reserved for men only, and thus got associated with being “manly”. Feminist liberation is thus seen in the context of seizing these activities for oneself as a woman. It is now normalized to such an extent that even those who do not consider themselves “feminists” simply take it for granted that they ought to do these things, too. ---
**Author:** ![Pray\_for\_peace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pray\_for\_peace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pray_for_peace)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2010, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139/120 "2010-03-29T18:40:45Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > I have nothing but contempt for the stereotypically girly things. They don’t accomplish anything. Gaming and music and sports are actual things that people do; fashion doesn’t _do_ anything. It just clothes, it’s just metal and rocks, it’s just makeup. I don’t have much patience for anyone who has very limited interests to begin with, but I’m more likely to take someone seriously if they’re obsessed with, say, rock climbing or cars than I am someone who’s obsessed with Sex in the City or fashion. The only possible purpose that expensive designer clothing serves is to attract a guy, and I guess I hold the radical belief that there’s more to life then chasing after men. > > Every time a woman giggles about shoe shopping or something, she perpetuates a stereotype that _all_ women are primarily concerned with shoe shopping (or whatever). That leaves those of us who really don’t care about it and prefer practical shoes in some weird no man’s land: I’m apparently not feminine, because I don’t own any high heels and have never watched an entire episode of Sex in the City and would much rather watch an action movie than a romantic comedy - but I’m still obviously biologically female, and therefore couldn’t possibly be truly interested in other things. \*\*I’m getting some of that from this thread, even: oh, she’s just saying she’s also into hockey as well as romance novels to save face, we all know that since she’s a woman she must prefer the latter. \*\* > > Also, part of my objection to female-oriented media, whether it’s TV or books or movies, is that it’s just awful writing. If preferring a well-written book to Nora Roberts or some other crap written solely to make money off fat housewives makes me sexist, so be it. Thanks for your honesty. There can be a tendency in IMHO for the threads to be so one-sided at times, which is annoying. Maybe I misunderstand your comment (bolding mine), but I don’t see anyone who is presuming that deep down inside, women truly like only girly things, but they say they like hockey just to save face? :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotypically-girlie-interests-do-you-feel-contempt-for-them-and-if-so-why/534139.md?page=7)