Your observation today: girls are weird.
I honestly haven't made a frivolous purchase in probably a decade. I buy clothes maybe once every five years and that's about it. And I'm not really a masochist (or cheap), I just never have a desire to buy anything besides the bare essentials.
As for the claim that girls are weird, I'll cut them some slack. That's just the way they are - it might seem weird to me, but I don't have a vagina. The problem is that society now caters to female frivolity instead of articulating its existence and actively dampening it.
44 comments:
OK, I'm not as interested in scented candles as she is, but really, why does that sort of thing need to be "dampened"?
women be shopping!
Yeah, what the hell is it with women and scented candles?
I'm a man and I like scented candles.
Probably not the way she does ... I mean, I really could never sit and talk for 10 minutes about them, even if I was embellishing it for YouTube, but still, I'd think I'd appreciate her candle hobby more than I would appreciate someone buying a new scarf every week, or some other clothing-related obsession. Or spending $80 a month for a single cell phone line and calling it a bargain.
And I'm not just saying that because she's cute.
Men, too, have their own wasteful ways, such as electronic gizmos and countless hours watching sports.
But women do spend more it seems, and it's not surprising: from a young age the princess fantasy makes them want to create the material environment that suggests that they are royalty worthy of being cared for, merely by their existence. With more discretionary income, the desire expands: in New York there are now places offering manicures and pedicures on virtually every block--princesses being waited on, hand and foot. Twenty years ago, not so much.
The most interesting part of her video was when she said that she was going to give away some of her purchases to her Twitter followers. Who are these Twitter followers?
Dudes watch sport and play CoDBLOPS (I.e. simulated war / hunting), women shop (I.e. simulated gathering). Dunno which side is more frivolous.
holy shit.
"wanna see what i got?"
"yeah sure."
^^^^ conversation between me and my girlfriend which occurs about 3 times a week. chicks just want to show off what they bought at the store, and i can't figure out why. do they need validation for their purchases? are they bringing back treats to us like a well-heeled pup? they know that us guys don't give a crap.
i think the part of this behavior - the desire to show off purchased items - that needs dampening is the part where the woman thinks that what she does or what she buys is important or interesting to anyone else. it's certainly not, but many women - especially good looking ones - aren't told often enough that they aren't interesting.
Do you think it would have gotten nearly a thousand comments if no one is interested?
It may not be interesting to you or me, but it's interesting to some people.
I can guarantee you that your wives and girlfriends don't share all your interests either.
But maybe you're right. Go ahead, tell your wives/girlfriends how much you're not interested in what they do. See what happens.
Humans have a funny way of getting annoyed when the opposite sex is enjoying something they're not a part of.
I told every single one of my girlfriends to hush when a good song comes on the car radio and I get into it.
As a shit test / female imperative, girls will always find a reason to talk or to complain about the volume or something when you're enjoyng a good song and ignoring her for those 3.5 minutes.
"I buy clothes maybe once every five years and that's about it."
jesus christ
"But women do spend more"
Hmmm....maybe not. Men's purchases, while fewer, tend to be of the future resources-draining kind--cars, 60 inch tvs and every damn sound-enhancing speaker system they can find, any new electronic device and the binding contract of use associated with them.
"I buy clothes maybe once every five years and that's about it."
**jesus christ**
Hah, I guess we're due for an essay about the virtues of paleo fashion. "Anything else is for noncy-boys, and if you disagree you can sniff my candle."
As to clothes, men can be too practical. You don't have to be a peacock or a dandy, but you don't want to wear clothes that have been washed too many times. It looks slovenly and unattractive, both to chicks and to people at work if you happen to work in an office.
Buying clothes is a pain but wearing an awesome new shirt or jacket feels damn good.
@PA "Buying clothes is a pain but wearing an awesome new shirt or jacket feels damn good."
Good clothing that fits well has a subliminal effect on posture, creating a more confident impression on others. But much depends on what one's aspirations are.
What's sad is the class-to-mass mediocrity of that brand. The scents of these candles may be less overpowering than Glade plug-ins, but only marginally.
A good parfumeur candle, scented with natural extracts, would be around $10 per oz. at least.
Old Queen.
"Your observation today: girls are weird."
This sort of stuff seems weird to young boys, but the adult observation is that girls are girls. "Suicide girls" are weird. Your stereotypical campus feminists are weird. This girl seems perfectly normal.
I flipped through a few of her other videos. She's always nicely turned out and pleasantly perky. Her room is tidy and she has good taste in decor. Presumably, she and her environs smell good. Where I come from, these are desirable qualities in women. Naturally there’s some cost associated with them, but it’s money well spent. She could buy a pickup truck full of candles and lotions for what I spent on my stereo.
She and women like her are a social asset. Men respond to the sweetness and style, and their wives and girlfriends love her beauty tips. She’s unlikely to embarrass you with vulgar behavior.
“The problem is that society now caters to female frivolity instead of articulating its existence and actively dampening it.”
I don’t agree where this type of behavior is concerned. Women have spent money on fashion and beauty products, and men have been cracking wise about it, since time immemorial.
“…[what] needs dampening is the part where the woman thinks that what she does or what she buys is important or interesting to anyone else.”
Misogyny is an ugly thing.
That video was your idea of a girl being weird for buying stuff??
She's well-dressed, well-groomed, well-spoken and is sitting in a beautifully decorated bedroom, talking about a bargain she got on a good product. What's not to like?
While women buy things men find frivolous, the reverse is certainly true. I know, I live it. The basement, garage and my husband's "workshop" (playroom) is crammed full of his tools, guns, machines, vehicles, etc. His buddy came over recently and I heard him say, "Your driveway looks like a used car lot." (I myself am so frugal that I'm not really representative of women generally but there's nothing I'd rather spend my money on than home furnishings.)
So don't even try to peddle that "men buy things they need/women buy junk they want" notion to me unless you want to find one gently used, very extravagant husband on your doorstep.
@ William and Kylie:
Yes this girl definitely seems like wife material. She seems like a sweetheart.
And yes, men buy stupid shit too.
My point regarding female "weirdness" is merely noting differences between men and women. As I said in the post, I'll cut women some slack. I think getting excited about candles is really weird, but women like it - so fine.
I'm using "weird" here not in a derogatory sense, but more of a "aww, now let me pat you on the head" sense.
Then, and perhaps I should have been a little more clear, I made a general point about female frivolity. The video and that point are related because in the end buying candles is frivolous behavior, but it's really benign from a societal standpoint.
Oh and about the girl in the video - two relevant notes (concerning topics often discussed here) about her as gleaned from a few other videos:
1) Her mother is Thai and her father is Scandinavian (Asian female, white male). I would have never ever guessed she wasn't fully white.
2) Her boyfriend in high school was captain of the football team, proving that sweet, good girls are still hypergamous.
The Haul Videos are a big phenomena among teen and up to mid twenties girls and women. Its all about shopping, and finding bargains for what most men would find boring or useless.
What is interesting from a social perspective is that if Wal-Mart's CEO and Bill Gross of Pimco are correct, along with Nouriel Rubini, massive inflation and income declines are coming. To kill off Haul-based videos. Because the girls and women exist in the same economy as everyone else. Their income is tied to stagnant wages and increasing prices.
So far girls and women have not paid much of a price for the sucky economy. Kill their ability to do haul videos, that will change.
Her mother is Thai and her father is Scandinavian (Asian female, white male). I would have never ever guessed she wasn't fully white.
Her Thai ancestry comes out in the nose.
i think buying lots o' scented candles is weird, too. but, then again, i think watching hours and hours of sports is also weird.
to each his own, man (~_^)
There are three topics that men should never speak of in public: religion, politics, and fashion; just kidding here.
Remember, burgundy and navy are never out of style as far as ties are concerned, and purple was a fashionable tie color in the last couple of years, although that trend seems to be waning. People should maintain a conservative and restrained style, and never fall into a consumerist trap.
Spending is often motivated by habit and knowledge. For example, everyone knows that real and organic materials outrank artificial ones, and mahogany furniture defeats veneer, and for clothing wool and cotton defeat polyester.
Although a deviation from the tasteful decorating rule could be made for religious symbols if one is Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic, both infamous for having those repulsively tacky crosses with the little guy on it. Orthodox Churches and vestments are notorious for being gaudy and not knowing the understatement principle, to put it very lightly. To be fair the Catholic Church is noted for its great cathedrals that put the American megachurches’ secular international style architecture to shame, and having commissioned great artworks.
"but you don't want to wear clothes that have been washed too many times."
Does not apply to Nantucket Reds.
I once saw a halarious comment on YouTube from a foreigner about what there economy was based on: "dumb american women buying shit"
Indeed, have you ever been to a mall and noticed everything is wildly overpriced? It's because women can't manage there money and buy $700 handbags.
"i think buying lots o' scented candles is weird, too. but, then again, i think watching hours and hours of sports is also weird."
Male nerds feel the same way.
In Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh you can stand in front of a Bath & Body Works on the 1st floor and look up to the 2nd floor and see yet another Bath & Body Works in the same mall.
In too many cases, women and their money are easily and soon parted.
It's because women can't manage their money and buy $700 handbags.
That's nuthin'. I've seen women drop $2-3K on a handbag. Insane!
Quant said...
Hah, I guess we're due for an essay about the virtues of paleo fashion.
I like to wear the flesh of the men I've killed and the women I've raped.
That's just how much of an alpha paleo man I am.
And trust me the chicks dig it.
"That's nuthin'. I've seen women drop $2-3K on a handbag. Insane!"
How much is a Porsche?
"How much is a Porsche?"
Between 20 and 40 handbags.
I once had a girlfriend who had absolutely zero interest in clothes or shopping. And she was an 8.5, with a 140 IQ. A once-in-a-lifetime experience that was never repeated. Probably no coincidence that this was pre-1990. Girls have regressed, just like blacks.
"I would have never ever guessed she wasn't fully white."
-1stdv
You can't be serious. Look at her nose.
You can't be serious. Look at her nose.
Sure, after I got over the fact that she's just so darn cute, I noticed she had a very unique nose. But I didn't think it was anything racial - I mean her eyes and skin are completely white.
Here's what a half-Asian girl usually looks like:
http://www.exposay.com/celebrity-photos/olivia-munn-the-break-up-world-premiere-cX82PC.jpg
You can tell both the white and Asian ancestry. Not so for the girl in the video.
Just saw a video where the girl in the video says her favorite book is The God Delusion and her favorite author is Richard Dawkins. She's an extreme outlier because the very few atheist women I've seen are usually fat lesbians.
Yeah, I dunno why women seem on average so much more consumerist than men are (though maybe men are just more varied on this and they have the same average).
It seems funny the ones who feminist thought says are the objectifiers and are object oriented and obsessed are the ones least obsessed with accumulating material objects!
It seems like there's more balance between the degree of consumerism in East Asian and African societies between women and men. Japanese, Korean and Chinese men seem a lot more obsessed with being fashionable, more so than Southern European or Northern European men (perhaps they aren't and distance is distorting), as do especially African men (who are quite the popinjays).
last Anon hit the nail on the head.
Women ARE more consumerist-minded ("minded"?) than men. Sure we buy frivolous stuff, but we don't do it for the sake of consumption itself.
And to take it a bit further, why do men accumulate wealth, status, and toys? Often - the only exceptions that comes to mind are things like model airplanes that don't impress women at all - men are driven by the goal of IMPRESSING MATERIALISTIC WOMEN.
Women, on the other hand, just like "shopping".
This sort of stuff seems weird to young boys, but the adult observation is that girls are girls
yes, i agree. the interesting thing is that most of the guys i know in real life enjoy the things about girls that they don't understand and/or find frivolous. it's a very feminine thing (to them), just as crying over sports games and tricking out a monster truck is a very male thing to women (though the women usually find these things to be frivolous and/or weird as well).
One, I find it ironic that you write very deep blogs, yet at the same time find youtube videos like these.
@ EE:
One, I find it ironic that you write very deep blogs, yet at the same time find youtube videos like these.
Yes I've always had a wide array of interests. In general, I prefer my entertainment to be very shallow - which does often surprise people in real life too.
It doesn't make any scents to me, as a man. But I wonder if she even realizes that the scents she describes are purely chemicals concocted in a laboratory.
This video is clearly a set-up.
This is a "viral" commercial for B&BW
Either that, or this girl just happens to have a few hundred dollars in off-camera lighting and sound gear.
Yeah, this chick is a shill.
She's got a whole website of extended product infomercials.
She is eeither getting paid/ or getting this stuff for free.
And yes, chicks like to buy shit.
Yeah, this chick is a shill.
Obviously, but we don't really care because we all want to bone her like meth-crazed weasels in heat.
"pingback": guys are kinda weird, too
(but not as weird as most chicks, i will concede.)
(^_^)
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