Wow, that's mighty sexist of you, Borders.

First of all, sorry for the blurry, low quality pictures. It’s hard to get all James Bond on my Motorola Razr, but I promise I have mad, top secret camera phone ninja skills. Oh, and this whole OP is a bit disjointed, but I’m sleepy. Onward I go.

Seriously, fuck Borders. My roommate works there and while I am tremendously thankful for the 33% discount that they generously extend to her and which she gleefully extends to me, I am more than a little heated at the moment. Roomie is a bio major and adores science- she’s almost 6 feet tall with beautiful, long black hair and-on the surface- is not the typical science nerd. That said, she’s always reading Discover, American Scientist, and whatever current magazine has either a: some disgusting picture of a human body part or b: some bizarre picture of a galaxy I’ve never heard of.

I digress. On more than one occasion, she’s lamented to me about how Borders stocks the science magazines under the men’s interest section. As one tends to do with the people they live with, I tuned her out and went back to doing something important, like pretending I’m too busy to study.

Now, unlike the roomie, I’m not a science person. No, sir. I’m a history nerd. I may bounce around my car to Britney Spears while carrying my over priced pink Coach purse and wearing my equally over priced pink lip gloss, but I LOVE military history. Needless to say, much like the roomie, I’m not the stereotypical nerd of my field.

Again, I digress. Tonight she was off and we went in to Borders to pick up some magazines. I asked her where the the history magazines are and she told me they are by the science magazines. I said she’s being a horrible book wench and I need a little more information than that. She points in the general direction and off I go. And baby Jesus be damned-

The history and science magazines were under the men’s interest section!

I wish someone would have pointed out this injustice to me in the past! :wink:

But seriously, what the fuck is that? Let’s take a look at the sections, shall we? Let’s start with the men’s interest section. There’s the tattoo magazines and the naked lady magazines.

The beneath that, we have the science magazines and the history magazines. I guess men are interested in science and history. That’s good. I think.

Whereas the women’s interest section- er, I mean- fashion and health section (see, apparently women don’t have interests) contains magazines full to the brim with tips on how to get skinny for a man, how to cook for a man, how to look sexy for a man, how to find a man, and how to suck a dick to keep a man.

Below that, we’ve got magazines on how to keep the house clean and how to cook. Oh, and we can’t forget the bridal magazines to help us plan for the biggest day of our Y-chromosome lacking lives.

Oh, lest I forget that the politics magazines (my other major is Poli Sci) are at the complete opposite end of the magazine section from the women’s area, but are nuzzled comfortably next to the men’s interest section. Here’s . a fancy diagram I made explaining the layout. The diagram pretty much explains itself, but the totally accurate American flag denotes the politics section.

I’m not sure why this pisses me off so much. I mean, I do know why in general but I don’t know why this one little indiscretion has really pissed me off. Regardless of the reason, I’m going to write a letter to Borders. I don’t know what good it’ll do if any, but it is absolutely horrible that things like science and history are categorized as 'men’s interests". With a societal attitude like this, no wonder so many little girls are growing up without a firm grasp on math, science, or even history. Hell, even the teenage girl browsing through the magazines is more likely to stumble on the knitting magazines than anything else; yet the boy looking at Playboy can glance down to find Armchair General and American Scientist. Hell, I’m 21 and I never knew Borders carried some of these magazines because I never thought to look under fucking Hustler for a magazine about the goddamned Civil War!

Fuck. That. Shit. I’m a girl. I’m a really fucking girlie girl. And you know what? I love reading about military history. Fuck Borders for their attitude about what does and doesn’t constitute a particular gender’s interest. Honestly, how hard would it be to have a . . . I dunno . . . SCIENCE section and HISTORY section? Argh. Fuck Borders with a goat. Or something equally goat-like.

On reflection, all those pictures weren’t really necessary. That said, they sure were fun to take. Made me feel special. :smiley:

Brief hijack: libraries (at least in Los Angeles) carry a large selection of current magazines, including plenty of obscure stuff. If a 33% discount is significant to you, why not just read them free of charge?

That said, great rant. Your phone ninja skills will soon become legendary, too.

Good point about the magazines at libraries! It’s funny you bring it up, as roomie and I were just discussing how our school has a reading room with every magazine imaginable. Oh and big, giant, oversized couches to go with those magazines! We were also discussing how we live literally about half a mile from school and should utilize this feature more often than we do (that’s right CSU system, I’m getting my huge tuition payments of $1000 a quarter back a nickel and dime at a time! :slight_smile: ).

That said, sometimes it’s just nice to have a stack of magazines to flip through while lying on the couch on a lazy Saturday morning. She reads my military history and foreign policy magazines, I read her science and medicine magazines, and we both get a little wiser.

That is a myth. Girls have caught up to or passed boys in every academic area, including math, science, and history.

Fess up. You’re actually irritated about where the tattoo magazines have been placed.

It’s true. Everyone knows they rightfully belong by the religion magazines.

I hate to do this, but cite? I’m not asking out of jerkiness, I’m genuinely curious. If that is the fact, then that’s absolutely wonderful.

That said, I know roomie and I both experience a sexist attitude towards our studies on a daily basis.

To begin with (and I’m running this by her as I’m typing), we’re out numbered in our classes by boys 3 to 1 (roughly, give or take, yadda yadda). Almost daily one of us gets someone saying:

“Oh, you’re a bio major that’s premed. So you want to be a nurse? Oh, you want to be a doctor! Now why would a pretty little thing like you want to be a big busy doctor! Don’t you want to be a nurse?”

or

“Oh, political science and history? My, my, my! Aren’t those awfully tough subjects for a pretty girl like you? You want a PhD? Why? You don’t need a PhD to teach kids. Oh, you want to be a professor? In military history? Why?”

Fuck that. Of course my little quotes aren’t exact, but they are combos of various things we are regularly told. We are always asked WHY we want to study what we study and we are never asked that question in a friendly way, but rather in a way that is attacking our choices. That’s crap. What’s wrong with a girl wanting to be a doctor, instead of a nurse? A professor instead of a high school civics teacher? Absolutely nothing, yet there are still plenty of folks that think there is, regardless of whether or not they are forward with those ideas.

/buzzkill

You can’t take pictures inside Borders without permission.

/buzzkill

Justifiable homicide and justifiable homicide with a historically accurate weapon, respectively. (I’m a guy, FWIW)

Dude, you are such a buzzkill.

Well, if it’s bad, then a mod is welcome to blow up my links. Except the one to my bad ass paint drawing, which is majorly badass.

Dateline can do it. How am I any different than Dateline?
What? :smiley:

Says the people who run Borders. It’s not like it’s against the law, or anything.

You lost me at naked lady magazines, and dick sucking how-to books.

Seriously though, where were the cooking books? I doubt many guys that aspire to be chefs would be horribly offended by them being placed in the women’s interest section.

If you ask me, having men’s and women’s interest sections are a pretty stupid idea to begin with. I’m sure rational people can find what interests them by looking at the genre signs.

Aww… you chicks are so cute when you’re angry.

Was the “Oprah’s Book Club” selection sold out, or something?

But you aren’t little girls anymore. There is still plenty of bias against women at the advanced level of you and your roommate.

Basically, girls are ahead of boys, and society is mostly fine with that, but when they get older a lot of people still expect women to go with their “traditional” subjects and men with theirs, regardless of what they have done before.

Cooking books are in the cooking section. Those are books.

The cooking magazines are broken up about equally between a dining/culinary section and the women’s interest area.

I was actually originally saying there was no point in having a men’s and women’s interest sections period, but roomie made a good point. I mean, GQ, FHM, and Maxim are men’s interest magazines. Cosmo, Jane, and Marie Clare are women’s interest magazines. Beyond those types of publications, I can’t imagine fairly categorizing anything. Science is a men’s thing? Cooking is a women’s thing? Is this 1812?

You have a point, I’m not disagreeing. But, I am still asking for a cite about the fact that girls and boys are achieving and being taught equally in the fields of math, science, history, civics/government, and all of the other traditionally more feminine geared subjects.

One hesitates to point out the sexism evident in this very comment. Surely you are aware that women nowadays operate computers, and, indeed, populate this very board. Gaudere…she weeps.

(bolding mine)

And now, the topper:

The irony meter, it explodes! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Perhaps the fact that so many women nowadays talk like this (and you kids get off my damn lawn!) makes it hard for Border’s to discern your delicate sensibilities. And besides, isn’t the notion that women have delicate sensibilities a somewhat antiquated and sexist one, itself?

This shit gets so confusing.

They are not achieving equally. Girls have caught up or pulled ahead in math and science, but boys are way behind in english and reading. Colleges are 60% female and women earn many more degrees.

Men still have the edge in advanced degrees though, especially in math and science. While women enter college with better achievement up to that point, they don’t go for those advanced degrees as often. Bias against women at that level is certainly a major factor in that.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?cefaf6cc-11c0-4c80-9167-a63efa16c248

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/31/60minutes/main527678.shtml

At the very least, Borders should make these magazines available under both the Women’s and the Men’s sections. Otherwise, they are just rude. I think I will drop by our local Borders just to check.

An email to MS. mag might be appreciated too. They are usually on the lookout for such glaring gender bias as this.

Must… resist… urge… to post inappropriate snarky comment about society not needing so many Home Economics majors… gaaaaah urge too great!! :smiley: