Women's hobbies

[GoshAnneGorilla]

Apologies if this has been done already and is a bit muddled, but I've been thinking...

One of the things that bothers me about "anti-pinkification" is that boys toys or gender neutral toys are positioned as being better then girls toys, which are often viewed as having no value at all.

Then we get into adult hobbies, chick-lit is disparaged in a way that pulpy crime fiction or those endless SAS books never are.

Cooking has become a respected hobby, but only it seems, because men are on the telly doing it. Any activity that is mainly done by women, seems to be fair game for mockery and disparagement.

This is reflected in endless threads on Relationships, where men's hobbies are sacrosanct and women are expected to not have any need for leisure activities.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this?

"I don't tell men that I know a lot about Nick Drake. He's a musician that men like to tell women about as a reflection of their intensely melancholic souls."

This is really interesting. Since dd was born I having been doing the Family Tree. I find it fascinating, but I suspect DH lumps it in with my MN/FB internet time. I read a lot. DH claims to be quite literary but I have never seem him read a whole book. He watches(not plays) Football. This has a REAL effect on logistics in the house, re bedtimes, weekends, holidays etc
I used to like walking - no-one else in the house is interested. Food for thought.

This was the philosophy behind the book "Stitch'nBitch" book, that women's hobbies were undervalued and that celebrating women's contributions was actually a very feminist thing to do.

I remember going to a quilting exhibition at the V&A. It was a fascinating look at history because women's stories and stories of the time are bound up in the quilts. But amongst the hundreds of women visiting there were about 1 or 2 men. Yet women go to exhibitions to celebrate men's scientific achievements all the time.

I think crafts are fantastic - to be able to make something from scratch is a wonderful skill - but unfortunately there is always the issue of cost. The prices places like Hobbycraft charge is ridiculous sometimes.

I sometimes think women are their own worst enemies, I can knit beautifully and would like to sell my work at the local WI......but the other (older generation) women sell their knitted work so cheaply I can't and wont compete. My time is worth something. They must spend many hours on some items, often intricate baby clothes, to then sell them for a pittance.

Hmm. This is an interesting topic.

I hadn't considered the idea of having a bath as leisure time, to be honest. But the point seems so obvious now!

So true that women's hobbies are disparaged. I make latch-hook rugs, I design them myself, and I really enjoy it, but I have found that people can be very patronising about it. I also belong to a folk dancing club, and I have had people ask me if my dh minds the fact that I go there, especially as it's not terribly useful! No thought that I might want to do it because it's fun!

So true that women's hobbies are disparaged

I think you'll find that it's the case with any hobby that isn't "mainstream" to be honest.

Wargaming & RPG's get a lot of stick as do many "geeky" hobbies like astronomy, metal detecting etc. Anything that "manly footy types" can't understand is routinely ridiculed.

I started a wargames club when I was in the Army & we'd regularly get p*ssed up idiots coming in & trying to break stuff or knock it around because it didn't fit in with their perception of what was an acceptable use of their spare time.

The shelves at WH Smiths are full of magazines devoted to some fantastic hobbies so people must be doing them - maybe they keep quiet so as to avoid all the denigration?

This is an interesting discussion, and something I've been thinking about lately.

I have a lot of hobbies. Some things I do with OH (cycling, snowboarding) and some on my own (scuba diving, silver-smithing, running). I also am trying to teach myself various things in my spare time (e.g. 3D CAD design, Android app development). OH also has a lot of hobbies that he does without me. We are lucky to live in an area where things a lot of people might do once a year on holiday are available on our doorstep for a large part of the year.

I'm currently pregnant with my first, and things are going to change a lot!

Obviously, I'm not going to be able to carry on as I was before - and the pregnancy has meant a lot of changes already. But both OH and myself have been assuming that we are both going to be able to have some leisure time, split fairly evenly, with a bit of give and take to allow each other to have time to ourselves. Maybe a night or 2 per week off each, and the occasional weekend day. But I've been surprised at how many other people are just assuming I'll be giving everything up. Maybe I'm just being unrealistic... but I'll still be me.... surely?