to absolutely detest things with bloody cupcakes and bloody shoes on them?

[TCOB]

Okay, I am not some CEO hotshot but I still don't want to turn up to serious meetings with a notebook covered in bleeding cupcakes and shoes. When did these things become the defining images of womanhood? I don't mind shoes, some of them are quite nice, but the amount of TAT out there raising them into some kind of occult fetish is chilling. Anyway finally found a nice Sanderson print notebook but slightly drained by the amount of shoes I've had to look at. Do 'normal' women love them or something? Or is a lazy sub SATC stereotype?

yes they are a little ubiquitous - I quite liked the cupcake design when it first appeared, DD2 has a CD case with that design, but its everywhere now.

I've never really got the shoe fetish thing, heels just don't suit my lifestyle (I walk or cycle everywhere, and spend my spare time on the allotment), and I never learned to walk in them. DD2 is a little disappointed in me - I only have 2 pairs of pretty shoes, which she loves trying on, one is a pink pair I bought for a wedding and haven't worn since.

But you know there's a whole market out there for them or they wouldn't be selling them.

I don't 'do' handbags, shoes or the latest must have label but I understand that other people do.

And some of them don't even have vaginas

I unashamedly enjoy Mama Mia if I can sing along. Loudly. But as I'm 51, Abba are the soundtrack of my teenage years. If you weren't there, you wouldn't understand

I agree. Seems everywhere you go, there are cupcakes! The only thing I like on them is the icing.

Black and Red notebooks brought out Pink and Black that were aimed at females as there wasn't much choice at the time for professional notebooks. And they wanted something for the business woman. It's nice it also donates to breast cancer. They're actually quite nice and not bad priced depending on where you buy.

Grimma one of my earliest memories is my mum crying when they split up . I feel the Abba love. Worra I'm being proved wrong re the market - shoes and cakes clearly have a lot of fans. I do find it odd though they have achieved this mythic importance. Shoes are just - well - shoes. And suddenly I get given cards with pictures of them on for my birthday. It's deeply odd.

As some one who can't walk in heels, the shoe thing really passes me by.
Cup cakes make me hungry.

I like the fashion for butterflies on everything.
Have always loved butterflies and moths in the right place.
This is not my bedroom lamp shade!

I wonder if there's a market for notebooks with sparkly pink cartoon vaginas on them...?

...only if they are wearing Louboutins and eating cupcakes at the same time.

Its not about liking shoes or not. I would feel the same if everything had a design of books on it.

I like curry but i don't need every item i own to have a picture of curry on it. The trend is very boring.

Actually, there was a trend with that picture of colourful spices wasn't it?

Oh and muffins are much better. especially blueberry ones.

What is that awful stuff on the top of them? Even the ones in posh coffee shops seem to be topped with sugary margarine. Grim.

Now that's a card I'd buy.

YANBU at all. I love heels - not silly spindly ones, block ones you can tower over people in. I like cup cakes - well, I like licking the frosting off. What's the point of the twee pictures?

[thinking again about the fairy cake liberation front - it might have legs after all]

I love this thread. Fecking yes.

YANBU.

Funnily enough, most men aren't infantile enough to have created a market/demand for retro, lolly-coloured pastel depictions of tractors and vroom-vroom cars...

Oh yes. Bloody cupcakes and shoes.

What do I want on my notebooks? Well, spanners would be nice. Or skis. Or anything relevant to things I enjoy but, blow me down, I'm a woman so cupcakes and bloody shoes is my lot in life.

They don't really bother me but I have noticed them on quite a lot of things lately. I absolutely detest 'skulls and bones' type things on boyswear which was all the rage among manufacturers a couple of years ago. As it is, I don't like camouflage for pretty much the same reasons but this was overt, in your face, real 'occult' stuff. It made and continues to make me very irritable, particularly when it is an outright attempt to militarise our society to the benefit of a very few through familiarity with those symbols.

Yanbu. Plus they're often really crap drawings. As if it doesn't matter about quality.

Well, to be fair there are notebooks with tractors and cars out there but i haven't seen any grown up man owning one.

And cards for men usually have a pint of beer on them which i find as silly as the cupcakes one tbh.

YANBU. However the solution is simple: just ignore the pink cupcakey shite and buy a Moleskine

I have to disagree. As a stationary buying addict (as opposed to cupcakes and shoes) I find the cutesy designs to be in the minority. Therefore YABU as you are just noticing them more as you hate the designs so much. I have just ordered a whole batch of new design free ring binders and pukka pads. Took me seconds to find them and not once did I see a cupcake or shoe design. I cannot wait for them to arrive so I can organise my work and write on my fresh pads. I may have to order some new black pens for the occasion.

Now I agree with whoever said try finding a teatowel or something for the kitchen without cupcakes on it!

Cupcake birthday cards I am indifferent about, cakes and birthdays are fairly related.

But I agree about the endemic cupcakification of standard objects. Peculiar indeed. I guess it's because they are easy to draw and come in pretty pastel colours.

The shoe thing baffles me too. Bags seem popular too, as do references to shopping.

YANBU and I too blame Sex and the Bloody City. "Bleeeeeeeeeeeeee! Shoes! Bleeeeeeeeee! Cupcakes! Bleeeeeeeeeeee! Ugly man!"

Silly ladies.

YANBU

Who bloody buys this crap, pink glittery cupcakes everywhere! Grr!

It's a bit silly and annoying, I agree. But still there's plenty of plain stationery around, if you don't like the pink cutesy stuff then don't buy it. There's no law that you have to just because you're female.

There must be someone buying this stuff though, or it wouldn't be made - someone must like it!