To wonder why male things are always better?

[Bumpitybumper]

Has anyone else noticed things typically associated with men are considered to be better? Examples I've noticed:

Trivial
Names - baby girls being given male names is considered cool and trendy (James, Noah etc) but this seems to seldom work in reverse.
Colours - pink is often rejected even for girls because it's too 'girly' but blue is acceptable for both sexes.

Non-trivial
Professions - women are encouraged to enter typically make dominated STEM industries but little is done to address the appalling pay, conditions and underappreciation of female denominated sectors such as teaching, caring etc
Childcare - the onus seems to be on getting more women into FT work rather than spending time at home to raise their children. Tax system and free childcare entitlements designed to encourage this rather than to incentivise men AND women to be SAHPs.

There are loads of other things I've noticed too.

AIBU to be deeply cynical about why the traditionally male approach is always seen to be superior and to worry that this isn't the best way to achieve equality?

Funnily enough just pegged a load of casual clothes out. Without exception DS and DP clothes were fairly thick, well made and robust, even the cheap supermarket t shirts. Mine are much more flimsy and have to be wrangled back into shape to stop them looking like a piece of rag. All of them - underwear, tops, jeans etc. Why? My clothes aren't any cheaper than theirs

I never really thought about that before, but you're right. Underwear especially now you mention it, and t shirts aswell hmmm

That's interesting BertrandRussel about medicine. Do you also think a contributing factor though might have been a dilution of the work force, if maybe women were moving from staying at home to working?

It's just depressing that it would be solely based on the fact that the newer generation of qualified people were women, haha.

Bumpity, that's basically saying that it's fine for men to spend time not doing anything 'useful' but women have to spend their 'fun' time making things, quite possibly for the use and enjoyment of other people.

I think the push to get both parents into full-time work is a strange priority. Children are the future, right? So why is our average model one where children are in full time childcare/wraparound care, often from 7.30am to 6pm, and parents are struggling to cram homework, baths, reading, preparation of nutritious meals, interacting with their child etc into an hour or two before bed? Followed by cleaning, washing clothes, keeping house in a decent state for them.

In my perfect world, I would say that care of children is crucial. One parent would therefore be incentivised to work part-time. They would get tax breaks and childcare would be heavily subsidised. The SAHP would have pension/NI contributions paid automatically until their child was secondary age. I would go as far as to say that child benefit should be designed with the idea that one parent would be unable to work full-time any more in mind. Oh, and maternity pay would be at least minimum wage.

I know people will say I'm mad - but I think we're failing children with our current model.

Mens toiletries are often the same as womens, but 2/3 of the price because they are in a blue/black box.

When Dads go to work, it's a noble, important activity, providing for the family, securing their future. When Mums go to work, it's because they're selfish materialists, prioritising 'stuff' and 'fancy holidays' above their children. Ignoring the fact that mums put food on the table too.

When men take assume control, they're being assertive and taking charge. When women do the same thing, they're bossy bitches.

I completely agree Cheddar

I remember hearing David Cameron talk about how much he valued families.... WHat he meant was, he valued adults who had children and continued to work. There is a very black and white view about what makes you "valuable" as a human being in the eyes of the government, and raising children has become completely overlooked as a priority.

I for one won't be sacrificing my children's early years by working ridiculous hours, but I understand how fortunate I am to be able to make that decision.

On the other hand, when dads stay at home, they're modern, egalitarian heroes. When mums stay at home, they're lazy, boring scroungers...!

It’s just the way you’re thinking, perhaps change the way you think and it won’t be an issue?

Feminism was the best thing that ever happened to men. We’ll never be truly ‘equal’, we’re just out working full time now taking the financial pressure off them, as well as doing most of the childcare & housework.

When men take assume control, they're being assertive and taking charge. When women do the same thing, they're bossy bitches.

Yes and that view is enforced from the minute that little kids can move around and interact with others. All this shit starts so young, it's so deeply ingrained, gender roles and behaviours are the biggest brain wash going, worse than religious indoctrination in fact imo, it's clever most people don't even realise it's happening

....and tying it back to the original post; guess who's role traditionally is to raise the children? So of course it's become massively undervalued...

Feminism was the best thing that ever happened to men. We’ll never be truly ‘equal’, we’re just out working full time now taking the financial pressure off them, as well as doing most of the childcare & housework

Agreed.

Spudlet if men even have the kids for a weekend on their own, they are some kind of hero. A woman doing the same would not even be commented on as it is just expected that she will be able to cope.

It's astonishing isn't it? Anything women do is so undervalued and yet a man doing the exact same thing is treated completely differently.

I want clothes with PROPER BLOODY POCKETS. And for them to be practical and not thin and flimsy, as pp said.

Interestingly about clothes - I do taekwondo which is traditionally a male sport. Recently there has been a massive upsurge in women taking up martial arts (great for self-defence).

The only trouble is the uniform - the trousers are not made for any sort of hips and the top comes over the hips so I have a massive top to fit over my hips but its baggy everywhere else.
The only good thing about the dobok is that it is made of really good quality fabric and tough wearing.

Apparently they did a women's version a little while ago and instead of just tailoring the current dobok, they decided to make it of lycra and very flimsy.

All of the women instructors point blank refused to wear them and the idea was dropped.

Echo2 I think you're right about the current brand of feminism.

We have found ourselves in a situation where we try to replicate men in the workplace whilst still being saddled with a lot of the burdens that we have had pre feminism. One of these burdens is how femininity and female things are perceived as inferior. It's like we are trying to compete with men at a game where they have dictated the rules and stacked the odds against us, so we try to replicate men as much as possible to try and get round all the problems of being a woman.

Totally agree with most of what has been said.

You need to follow manwhohasitall on Twitter ....it perfectly sums up the ridiculous things that are said to/about women by reversing it and applying it to men

Another thing - mens pants are literally the most comfy things in the world to wear. So I wear mens pants.

At our surestart centre they did 3 mums group and 1 dads. I went to the mums and we had to take tea bags and milk and do a kitty. DH got free bacon butties and coffee at the mens one. I went to the mens one and was asked to leave by the women in charge who told me men wouldn't come without the bribe of food with a laugh and shake of her head - like she was talking about a Labrador, not the Childs parents.

Women's trousers annoy me. Do women not need pockets?!

Same with work wear. I had to buy all male clothes when I did my plumbing course (I'm sure you can get women's cargo pants with padded knees, but not sure where!) - and out of 20 students, I was the only female!
To be fair to all the lads, they were brilliant and treated me as an equal (and indeed some of them actually asked me for help when they realised I was actually good!)

Will changing the way I think make my knicker elastic sturdier then?

I don't think women working full-time soon after having kids is feminism's fault. It's due to rising costs of living. It's an economical problem (but still a big problem)

women do have a much better choice of shops for clothes though (and better ranges within those shops).

and womens' trends seem to change much more quickly than mens', which is probably partly why things are lower quality - there's more of an expectation that clothes will only be worn for a short period of time.

and girls' clothes are much nicer than boys for the most part.

as for the PP who said pink wasn't great for girls, but that blue was ok for both - pink is great for both too! me and both my DSs love pink stuff!

womens toiletries are generally much better too - an intern at an old workplace told me that most older teenagers/young 20s guys now use plain dove etc, rather than traditional mens brands/versions.

Posted too soon, meant to add that we need to change the way everyone thinks not just us as individuals.

I always buy men's push bikes, they're better.