Male/Female Stereotypes

[guywithashovel]

I think part of the reason why I tend to be a little atypical is because I've been around women more than men for most of my life. When I was growing up, I spent a lot more time with my mom and sister than I did with my dad, since he was gone most of the time. He wasn't gone from home much more than the average working guy, but he worked second shift, and his workplace was 80 miles away, so he was usually at work when we were home from school in the evenings. Plus, for most of my working life, I've spent my time in jobs that are dominated by women. I don't do this on purpose. When I look for jobs, I don't think, "Okay, let's try to find a job where most of my coworkers will be female!" For some reason, I just always seem to end up in jobs like that.

[Racket_Man]

I navigate using every available type of information I have. I'll start with street names and actual distances, because those are concrete. Then I'll use cardinal directions and landmarks as backups and mnemonics.


^-.-^

as a delivery driver who drives in ALL kinds of weather from pouring rain to fog to a blinding wet snowstorm (as in the snow cakes on everything) I use every means necessary to get to where I am delivering. this includes counting streets from a major intersection and know the lahyout of my delvuery area really well.

in my personal life if I have to go somewhere I have never been before, maps (of all varieities including paper and MapQuest type and they only have street names and address numbers) are my friend OR I get detailed instructions such as "get off at Exit 172 and make a right. go past the <well know petrol company> gas station for 2 streets and turn left, go past the streets named after golf stuff. turn left and then look for the long brown house with the address of 1999 on the mail box. it will be across the street from a light blue house with yellow trim"

once I have navigated through that I can find my way back there again even after a year.

[HYHYBT]

My sister-in-law was, briefly, a professional football (American) player. They were trying to start up a league or something. Didn't last long, and she left because it made it impossible to get insurance.


Hardly the NFL, but still... she *did* get paid to play football Don't tick her off.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I get rather annoyed whenever I hear guys say that women know nothing about football (soccer to you Americans). Excuse me, I used to play the game and I've supported the same football team for donkey's years. Hell, I even know what the offside rule is. (linked in case anyone needs to know what that is. XD) Yet there are still men who believe that women a) know fuck all about football and b) only ever support teams cuz they fancy the players.

I've even had someone say, "Oh, you support Spurs. That's cuz your fiance supports them, isn't it?" Um, no. I've supported Spurs ever since I first got interested in football, and I have the photographs, taken of me as a teenager in an away Spurs shirt, to prove it.

[AdminAssistant]

My current town is pretty nicely laid out on a grid, except where the University is. Most of the east/west streets are numbered, and most of the north/south streets are states (in the order of admittance into the Union, which is really convenient for US history geeks). The biggest problem is that a few streets change names randomly. For example, you're on 19th street, you go straight through an intersection, and all of a sudden you're on John Doe Boulevard. Oh, and some of the streets in the really old section of town are still brick, which is really great on your car's suspension.

[DrFaroohk]

As for the directions thing, I'm more a fan of the landmarks than the street names, cuz where I live street names are rather difficult. Ten years ago we didn't even have street names for a lot of stuff, and many names are just made up. different people had different names. Route 1, Old Town Road, The County Road, and 3 Hill Road were all the same roads for example. so was the Station Road, Midtown and Tibbetts Road. Same road.

Plus the signs are hard to see. My wife and I were trying to find a place once and the only directions we had was "Jefferson Street". In the middle of a smallish city, 4 lane roads, lights everywhere, middle of the night, it's hard to see a tiny little street sign, especially wherre's lots of "J-----son" roads. Jackson Johnson, etc...

Now, what all our guides failed to mention was there was a ginormous BURGER KING sign right next to this right. If they'd said "get, take the left at Burger King", we'd have had no problem.

e

[Greenday]

What? They actually did a study? What a waste of time. Everyone knows there's no women on the internet.

[Andara Bledin]

Most of the ones I run into have fully bought into the idea that they can't; that somehow their gender is somehow making it physically impossible for them to do so.

A WSJ article full of bad science regarding m/f differences as regards online activity.

A blog rebuttal to the book the article is about.

^-.-^

[Ginger Tea]

Even though I told my taxi driver the house number and street I still said its by the 2nd bus stop on the right hand side when we got to my local and he was all set for pulling up at the left hand bus stop which is further away.

I rarely look at street names and when cycling look out for something I can see clearly in all weathers and lighting, I think my usage of landmarks stems from being a bus passenger, I wasn't driving so I just gazed out of the window in boredom for the trip from my old town to Manchester, I didn't need to know if we had passed this factory or that building, but it gave me an idea where I was in the dark slightly drunk or tired after a night out or working the late shift.

If I'm going somewhere new to me and someone says a landmark that I am unfamiliar with I will ask for a street name to find on my A-Z (or now google maps on my phone and let that do the work), sometimes though it turns out I know exactly where it is, I just don't notice the building listed as a land mark
Hint: don't use colleges outside of Kings they all get jumbled up with me.

When I first phoned up about working in a nightclub I had no idea where it was, so I asked them "just follow the crowd" she said which was their tag line, erm great that means I have to start work AFTER you are well into the shift as I am waiting for a crowd to follow.
was it too hard to say "were the one above Lion Yard?" Oh you mean "5th?" which used to be their old name (Filth for its more accurate description)

Although my now infrequent nightclub WAS hard to find, Before I moved I was down every 3rd month for a week or so. The one I knew of had closed and the pub I frequented at the time told me of their new location either as a street or "it's next to the corn exchange" next not being exact. I walked up and down that street for ages in daylight looking for signs of a nightclub, found out it was over a shop via a door with a discreet brass plaque.
Found it in the end, but meantioning the tea shop it was over would have been a bonus.

[XCashier]

And more often than not, it's women saying that shit.

Oh yes. Both genders can be guilty of misogyny. And when it's women saying it, they don't mean "women can't fix cars," they mean "I don't want to fix this car!"

[HYHYBT]

Ah, but from the *giver's* point of view, if they have never thought to count the stoplights, even if they try to in their head before telling you they might well get it wrong. Same for "third street on the left;" unless you're in town, it's very easy for either of you to miss one. How confusing is, say, "turn left at the light where you cross the railroad tracks," assuming you're not on a road that does that repeatedly? Now, if you get directions like "turn at the pink house" when you don't know the area or that the "pink house" is white and has been for 20 years, but is still called that because it USED to be pink and everybody got used to using it to know where to turn, that's different. (Yes, there is exactly such a place in Madison County, GA.)

I rarely know which direction is which. That sort of thing is much more useful in places where streets are laid out in cardinal grids; here, they meander.

[Greenday]

Ugh, I hate directions that involve landmarks or specific buildings. Give me street names, "take the second left" or "make a right at the third light". Those are easy for me. Landmarks are terrible.

[Plaidman]

I too go by landmarks. If I got by streetnames, I'd get lost like crazy. I have no idea if Oak street comes before or after Raymond street. I just don't.

As for women? Women simply can do anything a man can and then some.

Everything in the world that a man has done, a woman has also done.

Everything that a woman has done, a man has not done all.

No man can give birth after all.

Even a women can get someone else pregnet.

[Andara Bledin]

The thing that gets me about gender stereotypes is that some people insist that "girls can't do this/that!" Most of the time, those statements are pure misogynistic bullshit, and you can always name multiple examples of women who can, and has, done what the other person said they can't.

And more often than not, it's women saying that shit.

^-.-^

[XCashier]

I navigate using every available type of information I have. I'll start with street names and actual distances, because those are concrete. Then I'll use cardinal directions and landmarks as backups and mnemonics.

Street signs can be rather small or in difficult-to-see positions (my town is notorious for this, and it drives me batty!). A building that's been there for fifty years could be torn down tomorrow. So it's best to use every available type of information, as you said.

The thing that gets me about gender stereotypes is that some people insist that "girls can't do this/that!" Most of the time, those statements are pure misogynistic bullshit, and you can always name multiple examples of women who can, and has, done what the other person said they can't.