must have been invented by a man

[Lottle]

AIBU to hate this phrase?

It wouldn't be acceptable to say "must have been invented by a woman" or "a [choose a different race to your own] person"

I'm sure lots of good stuff has been invented by men.

"must have been designed by a white person"

Let's not forget the (pretty recent) range of hygienic "no-touch" taps and soap dispensers which could only detect the hands of white people.

They went all the way into production, I believe, without anyone ever thinking to try the sensors out on a range of skin colours.

Oh and to the "must have been designed by a white person", I saw recently an interview with a medical student who has produced a book to show how various illnesses present across a range of different skin colours.

Up till recently (this year maybe), most pictures in the standard medical references would be of white skin.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/amp/53448162

I was about to mention the 'no touch' taps and hand dryers.

Things designed by men are designed FOR men, sometimes that's fine, others it makes things really difficult for someone not their size.

This can have drastic consequences eg inflation of airbags.

On a similar vein I recently read that doing housework does not count as exercise. The person who decided this has obviously never lugged a vacuum cleaner around the house, or bent and stretched cleaning things that at are down low or up high.

PPs have mentioned cars not being made for women. I couldn’t agree more. My issue is my gear stick. To put it in reverse, you have to lift a ring that’s around the gear stick. The top of the gear stick is so large that I can’t have my hand on top and lift the ring at the same time. I have to put my hand underneath. DH can do it from the top as his hands are much larger than mine.

My house has no loft, no built in storage, no under the stairs storage space and no garage. I always said it was designed by a man.

Where am I supposed to put things? Where does the Christmas tree and the decorations live? Where does the hoover go? WHERE DO ALL THE THINGS I NEED TO STORE GO?!?

I checked, and it was indeed designed by a man.

@goose1964

On a similar vein I recently read that doing housework does not count as exercise. The person who decided this has obviously never lugged a vacuum cleaner around the house, or bent and stretched cleaning things that at are down low or up high.

You're joking! I burned more calories working as a cleaner than I have at any other time in my life (including when I joined a gym!)

They went all the way into production, I believe, without anyone ever thinking to try the sensors out on a range of skin colours.

Wow, I never realised they were that precise. I assumed they just had some kind of low-level beam between the opening where the liquid comes out and the base of the unit that activated when any object (such as a hand) disturbed the beam, or maybe incorporating a warmth sensor as well. That is shocking - how can designers be that stupid, racist or both?

However, it can (very occasionally) work the other way too. I remember reading of a sophisticated new facial-recognition security system in Japan which gave an 'error/intruder attempt to defraud the system' alert when anybody with blue or green eyes tried to use it. I know Japan is one of the least multicultural major countries in the world, but there are a few of us people of European origin who sometimes do make their way over there.

My issue is my gear stick. To put it in reverse, you have to lift a ring that’s around the gear stick. The top of the gear stick is so large that I can’t have my hand on top and lift the ring at the same time. I have to put my hand underneath. DH can do it from the top as his hands are much larger than mine.

Not belittling your experience in any way, but I always assumed they were designed for you to put your hand, palm-upwards, under the ring with two fingers either side, and then lift the ring. Seems safer that way. I didn't know that some people grabbed the ring from above, palm gripping the gear knob, with their finger tips.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

He’s not using his finger tips though. He’s using the sides of his fingers. Mine don’t reach that far and I would have to use my finger tips. I can’t lift the ring like that.

If you go to a race and they give away a race t-shirt it is inevitably a unisex design, which is a male shape. It might be small enough, but it won't be a female shape.

It is so refreshing when you go to an event where they've thought about this stuff and you can get a size 8 (or 18) in a ladies fit!

Disabled toilets are my favourite subject for this: not big enough to actually fit a wheelchair in and close the door, especially not with a carer present. No mirrors - disabled people don't care what they look like. Baby changing units that are only at standing height. Bins with a foot pedal to open. Locks that can easily be opened from outside with a radar key, and no way to say the toilet is occupied.

Clearly not designed taking disability into account, just to box-tick.

@babybythesea - your experience doesn't suprise me. I was at a meeting for the design of a Children's Centre and the architect proudly told me that they now had a standard template for them that they could just roll out. I pointed out that the one they had just built had no space to park buggies and nowhere to put an oven in the kitchen. Cue some very red faces.

I agree with PP re facemasks. I've ben making my own and had to scale down the pattern to get it to fit a bit more comfortably.

Was thinking this this morning when I tried to stick a pad with wings onto my knickers. It's so awkward and makes me sore every month.

He’s not using his finger tips though. He’s using the sides of his fingers. Mine don’t reach that far and I would have to use my finger tips. I can’t lift the ring like that.

Oh, I see. I still think it sounds safer to approach it from underneath, though!

Ironing board hooks and racks.

Think about it.

To keep the ironing board off the floor, the rack has to be at least 6 feet up the wall.

The iron itself gets stored above the ironing board.

Looks good in the pictures, but you'd need a step ladder to put the iron away.

#MustHaveBeenInventedByAMan #ThereIFixedIt

Would it be ok for a poor invention to be described as eyeroll "oh must have been invented by a white person!

There have been a few examples above of "why, yes it would actually"
I recall the story of a NZ man of Taiwanese descent whose passport applications kept being rejected; the computer had decided that he had his eyes closed! There was no allowance for East Asian features. I'm prepared to bet that the system was designed by a white person.

The invisible female experience in medical issues is shocking and dangerous. My own issue was the difficulty in getting a diagnosis for my autistic daughter. The test was developed with the presentation of boys with ASD in mind; girls present differently.

I recall the story of a NZ man of Taiwanese descent whose passport applications kept being rejected; the computer had decided that he had his eyes closed! There was no allowance for East Asian features

We had that problem with DD1's (UK) passport photo. We're white but she and DH have an eye shape uncommon in the UK (she looks a bit like Björk) and she had to make her eyes really wide for the system to accept the photo. She looks really surprised!

Yes to sinks not being different heights.
I especially hate those like you get in service stations set into a bench, when you have a toddler and really hot water.
Pick toddler up, jam their stomachs into the wet bench, get them to hold hands over sink while simultaneously turning on tap and splashing some water on to their hands because it’s too hot to put their hands underneath it, repeat for soap and then rinsing. You need at least three hands. One to hold the toddler, one to keep turning the tap on, one to do the splashing. Why can’t they put sinks low down?

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

He’s not using his finger tips though. He’s using the sides of his fingers. Mine don’t reach that far and I would have to use my finger tips. I can’t lift the ring like that.

Oh, I see. I still think it sounds safer to approach it from underneath, though!

As you have to be completely stationary to put a car in reverse, I don’t see how it can make much difference really.

@Unsuremover

I forgot the details but there was a building designed as a massive office. The architect was explaining that since it was a high pressure environment with lots of late nights etc, he has included lots of spaces where one or two people could be completely hidden, sort of hidden hollows in corridors and between meeting rooms. He was very proud of it. Then the female on the board said he had designed every woman’s idea for a nightmare. Walking out alone in the dark late at night only to find someone behind you who knew they couldn’t be seen. Was a lot of talk about that would only be true if you were on constant alert about being attacked with all the woman saying yes that’s what we mean.

This is just insane. Why would anyone want this? Even men could be at risk in this situation.

@BeingATwatItsABingThing I am describing it really badly. It looked lovely, lots of curves corridors and “thinking pods”, you could eat your lunch in isolation looking over a view etc rather than a big box full of smaller boxes. Looked lovely, would be lovely to work in, apart from when it wasn’t.

I had an eye test last year and the machine thing that you rest your chin on and it's got a head strap came towards me and the (male) optician said "sorry, it's quite difficult to sit at comfortably, it's only been designed for people with a completely flat chest to use".

[quote Unsuremover]@BeingATwatItsABingThing I am describing it really badly. It looked lovely, lots of curves corridors and “thinking pods”, you could eat your lunch in isolation looking over a view etc rather than a big box full of smaller boxes. Looked lovely, would be lovely to work in, apart from when it wasn’t.[/quote]
Ah I see!

Such a shame that there are enough people out there willing to attack others to make the architects design so unsafe.

Designed by a man, deadly for women.