My brothers have made it pretty clear to me since I was young that God made a huge mistake by giving me female body parts. I grew up with my Polly Pocket living quite fabulously in my brothers’ Micro Machines airplanes and my legs all covered with battle scars from my bike trips around the neighborhood. Dresses were no option and girly whining was absolutely unacceptable. Whatever the boys did, I did.
High school came along, though, and I discovered that there were more interesting boys than my brothers. They stunk less too. I also began to experiment with art and color. Yes, Pandora’s box opened and introduced me to blush-on and lipgloss. Pretty soon, I was trading in my VIP ticket to the world of the boys’ in crowd for bleacher seats to watch Girl Hormones Live.
Obviously, it’s been quite a while since I dabbled in anything masculine, save for the random “boy talks” with some good friends. Therefore, I’m so thankful that school work and org work are giving me the chance to unleash my inner boy this month! The school paper assigned me to compile insights on automobiles, and i have been given the opportunity to interview the second luckiest man in the Philippines (next to my boyfriend, of course), TopGear’s head honcho. I am absolutely floored by his acceptance, and I cannot wait to pay him a visit at their office and gawk at all the shiny cars. Although I have absolutely no knowledge of all those technical stuff, I do have a penchant for anything pretty, and man oh man, cars with seven figure specs are very pretty.
It doesn’t end there.
Aside from immersing myself in the testosterone-filled world of cars and car parts, I have also been learning the basics of surfing with my group mates–from a theoretical viewpoint, of course. We have an interesting contact who’s been quite passionate about describing his job description: he travels to the country’s top surfing destinations, waits for the water to swell, and rides the waves all day. Oh, he owns and operates his own custom-built surfing company too. Totally rad for a twenty-something surfer dude from California. For “market research” my group mates and i are planning to go on a surfing trip and feel for ourselves what our products should be like.
My excitement is filling up the page, and I will probably ship my voice recorder to Davao once I’m done with my interviews. I want my two brothers to feel jealous that little sister is going around talking to men they’d want to be good friends with. I can feel a stubble growing on my chin as I speak. Pass me a protein shake, macho Kate is on the loose.
Fine, if you break it down into numbers, then yes, cars and surfing are most probably “guy things”.
But really, in an period when Gabby de la Merced is shown burning rubber in a Sunsilk ad, and the ranks of Filipina competetive surfers experience steady growth, is it really fair to describe them as “masculine” activities?
I realize that you’re approaching this from a marketing viewpoint, and industry research most likely characterize them as male pursuits. Fair enough.
But I’m just not comfy with the idea of assigning gender to particular hobbies or interests. It just reinforces limits that are *already* in place, rather than opening up the possibility of more gender-neutral participation (i.e. it’s not a “boy thing” OR a “girl thing”; it’s just something that appeals to your or doesn’t, regardless of gender).
I mention this *precisely* because it leads to certain market segments being ignored or overlooked, because of their percieved minority status. For example, how many female drivers or surfers are forced to buy gear that was designed with male participants in mind, just because there are limited options available for women? If there was a better commercial environment for girls to “buy in” to cars or surfing, then perhaps more of them would get involved.
So you can’t really stick with “the facts”, because they often foreclose other possibilities.
Anyway, i’m sorry if this reply came off more ranty or self-righteous than it needed to be — i’m not my usual articulate self today.
I realize that you most likely wrote this because of your personal experiences. And i’m definitely not invalidating them. Just pointing out alternatives that you might not have considered.
I appreciate that you’re pointing out the possibilities for this entry to become more sensitive in describing certain activities as “masculine”. I agree that assigning gender to hobbies comes off as a limiting factor, but in my opinion, one of the main reasons why Gabby de la Merced campaigns and Roxy adverisements are awarded so much attention is that they are breaking down the preconceived notion that race car driving or surfing are exclusively for men.Existing gender limits make marketing for women much more interesting.
And that was kinda what I was going for here, although this entry was definitely not edited well enough to articulate it. The two aforementioned activities were just something I happened to stereotype as “boy things” particularly because that was the kind of knowledge I was exposed to.
I will also be interviewing a car club for my automobile compilation. Guess what, the President’s a chick.