to think that if a man said"I can't drive on motorways" or"I never answer the door if I'm home alone" or "I don' t know where the trip switch is" or "I can't update the operating system on my computer

[seeker]

... or any other basic life skill people would point and laugh?

So why doesn't the same apply to women? Why are women still expected and encouraged to being pathetic, and applauded when they are?

And why are women who aren't often regarded with suspicion?

why is 'answering the door if you're alone' some kind of life skill now?

As you can tell perhaps, I tend not to answer the door at night if I'm alone or if it's just me and the kids. I also lock it behind me when I am in the house in the day

experience has taught me it's a good life skill to do those things!

My dh can't switch the computer on never mind update the operating system.

He makes a better yorkshire pudding than me though.

these are NOT basic life skills ffs. a basic life skill is being able to make yourself a meal, not driving, or being a whizz with electrics.

Shheeeesh. Why is it suddenly a feminist issue to admit you can't do something? I can update a computers operating system, change the fuse on a plug and lots of other things considered to be "men things" but I can't sew for shit and I'm seriously crap at ironing. It's not anything to do with my gender though.

But men wouldn't admit in company to it - would they?? > Some woman BOAST about being unable to do these things

People only do things if they get 'rewarded' for it - being a kept, 'incapable' woman is often playing up to type and attracting a certain sort of attention they want?? (If this makes sense??)

I don't think dp or I have ever been applauded for any mundane task although I should be for some of the antics I get up to after a few glasses of wine

I honestly think MN has been invaded this weekend by a hoarde of rabid half-educated proto-"feminists" who simply want to have an argument over a half assed semi-idea of what Bernard Manning would have thought feminism to be in about 1978. Its getting really boring.

It really is TFO, really really boring.

Do you think they are actually trying to put us of using the feminist board ?

I got put off the feminism board the very first time I went on it, worzsel. I've just hidden another thread by an OP who is so incoherent I actually can't work out whether she thinks she's a feminist or not....

TFO - how fucking patronising. "half-educated proto-feminists"? Really?
I don't care how feminism is discussed, as long as it is discussed.

It all seems a bit 'I'm a better woman than yaow-esque'

I just don't get it.

Oh and I can't drive. I do volunteer three days a week, have just assembled a sideboard by myself, have lugged nearly a tonne of gravel into my back garden and dug out the same weight in earth AND managed to cook a meal and pudding from scratch.

Meh, I'm still pathetic though because I choose not to learn how to pootle round in a box on wheels.

some women like to play the pathetic card when it suits

i know i do when i cant change a tyre and a nice policeman walks by :)

and i can admire his backside as he changes it for me

TheFlyingOnion

Why are you so aggressive, on here. CHILL.

Why is men 'not admiting' to their failings or what they cannot do, a good thing?

I don't think younger women do laugh about not being able to do things, they are just honest.

Previous generations were told that it would make them inattractive to men if they acted as capable as them, so of course they 'played up' to the 'little woman' image. Wether that was the case in reality is a different matter.

I am in my fourties and remember when motorway driving was quite dangerous. There wasn't the regular police patrols, lighting, patrol stations or cameras that there are now. People didn't have mobile phones. There were lots of rapes and deaths of women who had broken down on the motorway, so a fear may have been instilled long ago and not got over.

There are plenty of things men supposedly 'can't' do which are indulged, such as working washing machines, various kitchen appliances, etc, etc, etc.

Your thread title described my husband

who's being aggressive? There have been more threads than usual about various feminist issues, with the OP generally beginning the thread on a massive generalisation.

I surely cannot be the only person to have noticed

"Why are women still expected and encouraged to being pathetic, and applauded when they are?"

I don't agree that this is the case at all.

I didn't read TFO as being "aggressive" in any form. Slightly narked, perhaps, but I'm with her on that

It isn't the case unless you're a feminist

TheFlyingOnion

You are being aggressive, as usual.

yup, I'm narked. I'm also going to have a break from MN for a while, as all this narkiness is doing me no good....

Answering the door is not a life skiil; it is a choice. I frequently do not answer the door if I have no particular interest in speaking to an uninvited visitor.

You're not the only person to have noticed, TFO. :)