Social Question

Mariah's avatar

Do some men feel uncomfortable with women who have stereotypically "male" talents?

Asked by Mariah (25883points) August 18th, 2011

Inspired by the discussion in this thread.

Men: when a woman is good with cars or electronics (for example), do you feel emasculated in any way? Do you know any men who do? Do you think this is at all a common phenomenon? Be honest.

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22 Answers

Jude's avatar

I would hope not.

I can change a tire, my struts, fix my brakes, fix my lawnmower, lift heavy objects and kiss your ass.

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

I have played golf with men that do not take well to being beat by a woman.
They are pussies.

FutureMemory's avatar

Absolutely not.

It does seem a common thing though, for males of lesser intelligence/evolutionary progress.

incendiary_dan's avatar

I don’t, because I can probably get them to fix things for me. My automotive skills don’t extend far beyond changing my oil, and I know fuck-all about computers.

But I do know men like that. Mostly they try to cover up the insecurity with pretty horrific jokes.

Blackberry's avatar

It’s even better. I’m not a fan of those women who actively seek the role of the “woman”. I’ve had some women flat out tell me that they wanted to cook and clean and they wanted their significant other to work and know how to fix things around the house etc.

ucme's avatar

Why no, it’s not 1976 after all.

Nimis's avatar

I think most guys say/think they’re okay with it. The real test is when they lose to a woman in a competitive setting.

Then you can separate the real men from the boys (who throw down their cues and storm out the door after losing in a pool tournament).

Mariah's avatar

@Nimis Exactly. They can say they’re okay with it as much as they want, but in truth, if it bothers them more to lose to a woman than it does to lose to a man, there’s something discriminatory going on somewhere deep in their brains.

rebbel's avatar

I am with @ucme .
Of course I don’t.
(The fact that I write this between these two thingies is to state that this is going to be an open door statement and that I feel stupid to do so since it is (supposed to be) bleeding obvious: women and men are equal.)

Cruiser's avatar

As long as they shave their armpits and legs I am cool with it. I dated a girl in college who owned a Harley and did all the service herself. She turned out to be a self-absorbed bitch who was only happy when you told her how great and beautiful she was. I apparently was a glutten for that kind of punishment as my first wife was the same and so was another girl who I fell for and turned out to have a very selfish me me me attitude. I did finally find and marry a very confident strong woman who is anything but selfish or self-absorbed,

rts486's avatar

I don’t think so. I see it as a way to learn something new or how to do something better.

YoBob's avatar

Nope, not at all.

I happen to love smart, strong, capable women (after all, I married one).

cockswain's avatar

I know people that would be threatened by it, but they are idiots.

I think a woman that can fix cars and electronics is cool.

I play a bunch of sports. Depending on the sport, there may be women that destroy me (soccer for example, sometimes volleyball). It just reinforces to me that the game is more about skill, speed, and finesse, and being a big strong guy doesn’t give me an advantage.

Pandora's avatar

I can only speak for my husband. In the beginning I think he was a little put off by somethings but I think it had more to do with the fact that he had a hard time admitting that he wasn’t good at everything. With time he learned to appreciate that I could do some things better. I’m better at working with electronics. They just make sense to me in how things function plus I have a memory for remembering how where parts belonged and I have patience for it.
He is impatient and will try to do anything to make things function. He once dremeled a computer part because it wouldn’t snap back into place. (not pretty) Of course it never worked again. :(
But there are things that he can do better than me. He is better at understanding computer programs. Just don’t let him crack it open.

DominicX's avatar

How profoundly insecure would you have to be to feel emasculated by such a thing?

I personally haven’t come across this much, but one of my friends admitted that he was embarrassed that his girlfriend was so much more athletic than he was; but he admitted that he was insecure about it.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

I wish my s/o would try doing some of this stuff. She waits for me to do everything and it sometimes gets frustrating.

Nimis's avatar

@Mariah True! But thankfully it seems to be the exception rather than the norm.

Brian1946's avatar

@Jude

“I can change a tire, my struts, fix my brakes, fix my lawnmower, lift heavy objects and kiss your ass.”

Did you perhaps mean, ”...kick your ass”?

augustlan's avatar

My ex-husband would never admit this, but it did bother him. He literally never ‘let’ me drive, unless he was too drunk to drive. To him, driving is a man thing. I really like to drive, and am a better driver than he is, but he wouldn’t hear of it. I could’ve put my foot down, but decided early on that it just wasn’t worth it. Nearly every time we tackled some sort of home improvement project, we had a fight. Even if I was the designer of the entire project, once it came time to actually do it, he insisted on taking the lead, and would argue with me every step of the way about how to do it. I’m the one who took woodworking classes, but power tools were ‘for him’. So frustrating. To be fair, it wasn’t just ‘male things’ that he’d nitpick about, though. If I was stirring whatever I was cooking for dinner, he would literally take the spoon out of my hand and take over. Grrr.

The man I’m married to now is the very epitome of ‘manliness’ in many, many ways. Including being secure enough about his manliness that he doesn’t mind a bit that I own all the power tools, and drive us everywhere we go. :)

Jude's avatar

@Brian1946 Hahaha! TyPO. He’d be kissing mine. :)

Michael_Huntington's avatar

Screw that, I see it as a huge turn on. If a woman can play bass, loves to listen to Motörhead or can drink as much as Lemmy, then goddamnit, she’s a keeper.

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