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.

I´ve used it, so has my colleague. You cannot extract track changes from a word document and print those pages only. Obvious to a secretary that that is useful, obviously invented by a man in Microsoft so not available.

Following other comments...Well, I have owned a Nissan, I am 5.10 tall and had the driver´s seat pushed back to it´s max potential. Yeah, I guess Japanese men aren´t taller than 5.10 hehehe. I constantly kick my daughter´s pushchair because my stride is longer than the average woman´s , I have ended up walking like a Japanese geisha with cute white socks...and I find car pedals super uncomfortable, their tilt is completely wrong.

@SVRT19674

I´ve used it, so has my colleague. You cannot extract track changes from a word document and print those pages only. Obvious to a secretary that that is useful, obviously invented by a man in Microsoft so not available.

Or just by someone who isn't a secretary. Not all secretaries are women.

YABU. I'll remember this thread when I'm spending 10 minutes on our mobile chemo unit trying to fasten the heavy drip stand back onto the wall after my patient has been up for a wee. Definitely tested by a tall, strong man, not a 5'2" nurse.

I've heard it used in a slightly different circumstance to the ones being related. A new design of train was being introduced. Unlike most trains which were specified by the operator, these had heavy involvement from the Civil Servants at the Department for Transport. When it came to the seat covers, rather than go for a cut-pile moquette or imitation leather in a darkish colour, they chose a flat cloth in light grey. Needless to say, it was irretrievably stained within a week.

Quite a few people said at the time that a female designer would have had more sense than to use a cloth which could stain irretrievably which says rather a lot about who has to deal with stain removal in most households, even in the 21st century.

Quite a few people said at the time that a female designer would have had more sense than to use a cloth which could stain irretrievably which says rather a lot about who has to deal with stain removal in most households, even in the 21st century.

Not the same scenario, but that reminds me of the old (probably apocryphal) tale of NASA spending months and millions of dollars developing a pen that would work in space, whereas the Russians just used pencils

Our old rental house was designed by a man who never had to use the kitchen.

The hob was in a corner up against a wall and the buttons were on the inside beside the wall so the buttons got boiling hot and you inevitably burn yourself reaching across to adjust them.

The toilets didn't have sinks in them, the bathroom with the sink was next door (French houses are mostly like this!) so you had to leave the toilet without washing your hands, touch the doorknob to get to the sink.I hated it.

@LongPauseNoAnswer

Our old rental house was designed by a man who never had to use the kitchen.

The hob was in a corner up against a wall and the buttons were on the inside beside the wall so the buttons got boiling hot and you inevitably burn yourself reaching across to adjust them.

The toilets didn't have sinks in them, the bathroom with the sink was next door (French houses are mostly like this!) so you had to leave the toilet without washing your hands, touch the doorknob to get to the sink.I hated it.

A friend moved into one of those sort of fancy relatively new builds a few years ago. The builder is slightly famous and this particular house was the one he had lived in and built then sold after he'd finished doing all the building work in the area. The kitchen is very nice to look at. Clearly the man had never used a kitchen in his life. The oven is in a weird corner making it very awkward when trying to get heavy things out. The stove has the cutlery drawer underneath it. The cupboards are spread all over the place. The pantry cupboard can only be opened if no one is actually working at the counter. It's a complete disaster. My friend says she's mostly got used to it now but that she still fantasises about redoing it, even though it's practically brand new and completely impractical to do so.

Passport facial recognition checks fail to work with dark skin

When it launched a new passport checking service, the Home Office knew that it had trouble handling some shades of skin, a report in the New Scientist has revealed.

....
Documents released as a part of a freedom of information (FOI) request acknowledge that the Home Office knew its system had trouble mapping the faces of some ethnic minorities.

It was aware of the problem but decided to launch the service regardless.

This was somthing I found shcoking - they did tests with different skins tones and facial feature found there were issues but thought fuck it and went with the system anyway.

It does make you wonder how much is just not considering users and how much is oh well they'll have to cope attitude.

The version of this phrase that I know well goes "built by a man, for himself", and usually refers to kitchens, cupboards and mirrors. My parents' kitchen is lovely but I can only reach the bottom shelves of their 4-tier cupboards and there are many, many mirrors in this world that cut off my chest, neck and sometimes even my chin. I'm short, yes, but not unusually short!!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Quite a few people said at the time that a female designer would have had more sense than to use a cloth which could stain irretrievably which says rather a lot about who has to deal with stain removal in most households, even in the 21st century.

Not the same scenario, but that reminds me of the old (probably apocryphal) tale of NASA spending months and millions of dollars developing a pen that would work in space, whereas the Russians just used pencils

Ah, now pencils aren't really recommended. Seems if they break you can end up with teeny tiny bits of wood and graphite flying around that can get into places they shouldn't be and interfere with the tech, etc.

I had to buy some compost the other day. And realised that as a woman I was penalised because I couldn't buy the big packs because I couldn't carry it. So had to buy two smaller bags at a cost of £10 instead of the big bag that was 1.5 x the amount of my two small bags that cost £11.

And the "small" bags were each 30kg, making it possible for me to move them, but not comfortably.

Walking boots/snow boots! Leafing through a flyer from an outdoor equipment retailer and the men’s boots all have good grips, high base with defined heel, the laces start high up and no suede lower than ankle level. Women’s boots, one with barely any grip, most flat (only one with a defined heel), low base, all had suede down to the base and the laces start on the top of the foot rather than higher up. So slippy boots and soggy feet for women. Must have been designed by a man.

@Ghouliet

Walking boots/snow boots! Leafing through a flyer from an outdoor equipment retailer and the men’s boots all have good grips, high base with defined heel, the laces start high up and no suede lower than ankle level. Women’s boots, one with barely any grip, most flat (only one with a defined heel), low base, all had suede down to the base and the laces start on the top of the foot rather than higher up. So slippy boots and soggy feet for women. Must have been designed by a man.

But the laces are pink so what more could you want?!

Theres a famous tv architect (male) on Irish TV. I recall (Programme has him improving thie house they live in at a cost of twice thier budget.

I recall watching one episode where he was delighted with himself with his design for the kitchen. Which was very sparce on cupboards (think there was one or two wall ones). The couple (possibly the woman, can't properly recall) said they needed morning storage. Architect told them they didn't as it would ruin the look. He got a right strop on. Didn't seem to occur to him it wasn't him using the place.

Another property programme (it was a Scottish couple (both male)- doing some project for tv where they were doing up houses still they got to million pounds). Anyway they were doing up this house which was the sort a family would buy. When designing the kitchen they thought it would be a nice look to have the hob on a island. Builder (also male) said something along the lines that it wasn't a good idea as families would be put off as the hob had open access from three sides. The couple total derided his opinion. Anyway, went a head with it. Televised viewing showed multiple families not interested because of the cooker.

Ultimately these two things, and other things upthread happened because the person designing just isnt thinking about how or who will be using it. Tunnel vision makes them think only of themselves. So when men design things they simply don't consider anyone other outside of them.

Question we need to ask is, when is it still mostly men's designs that get realised.

Another property programme (it was a Scottish couple (both male)- doing some project for tv where they were doing up houses still they got to million pounds). Anyway they were doing up this house which was the sort a family would buy. When designing the kitchen they thought it would be a nice look to have the hob on a island. Builder (also male) said something along the lines that it wasn't a good idea as families would be put off as the hob had open access from three sides. The couple total derided his opinion. Anyway, went a head with it. Televised viewing showed multiple families not interested because of the cooker.

We watched that years ago - male desginers though wasn't clear what their qualifcations were and in fact not sure they had any or experince they hosted a web chat and DH asked them and question was completely ignored. Same house they refused to believe the garage they'd taken space from was too small for a car to park in - estate agent had to demonstrate.

They did a house near where I grew up and did basement out - and were shocked to find the foundations were really shallow despite it being normal for that type of period house in that area. They were awful for listening and taking on board any advice think the builder left part way through the series.

We did like watching as it was such a car wreck at times they made everything harder than it needed though by last house they did seem better.

I am very sure tights were invented by a man!!

And these awful tampon adverts with the woman wearing white trousers & rollerskating!

YABU. It's a perfectly reasonable thing to say about something that has clearly been designed by people in a disproportionately powerful or privileged section of society who have failed to consider the fact that lots of people have different needs from themselves. Obviously not all poorly-designed things fall into that category, but some certainly do.

@Coyoacan

Oh come off it, OP. When men invent things that are mostly for use by women, it is generally a disaster. I remember a male architect showing me the floorplan for a house he was designing and the kitchen was a window-less cube.

Because the woman will be mainly in the kitchen?

I was coming on to say pretty much this
I mean, what idiot decided that sanitary pads should be fragranced? Not a woman, that's for sure!!!
After reading through the thread I'm quite shocked actually.
At 5'10 I 'fit' in the mans world! (tall, long legs and arms and probably bigger hands than a 5'3 female) I sort of hadn't really thought about how smaller women would manage the likes of tall sinks, aspects of driving etc...

Because the woman will be mainly in the kitchen?

I think it goes beyond this. It's not so much that women's spaces don't need to be nice (although that might be part of it) but mostly that because so few men are the ones doing the bulk of cooking and shopping etc, there's no appreciation for the time spent in the space, or its importance. It's seen as a utility space.

I remember reading something years ago about back pain in women, from washing dishes. As sinks aren't designed for them to use, yet they use them > more lower back pain.

I say 'Must have been invented by a man' for stuff that has clearly been designed by someone who never has to use it or has designed it to fit the bigger male body when women also use it. Like amazing bagless vacuums because James Dyson will never be the one choking on the dust as he empties them ten times a day because they fill up every few minutes. Or car seat head rests that are incredibly uncomfortable if you are five foot four!

Walking boots/snow boots!

Meindl do pretty much their whole range in womens and men's fit. The functionality, and often colours, of the boots are identical