Vichy comments on Sayeth the Girl - Less Wrong

47 Post author: Alicorn 19 July 2009 10:24PM

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Comment author: JulianMorrison 20 July 2009 02:27:47PM 1 point [-]

I'm sorry, but that's just a wierd question. Why wouldn't women want to play status games?

Most of those things were originally developed as seduction aids and do double duty, but they have been adopted as status aids and probably are more important in that role. (Signaling only to men, women can get away with much less work - compare porn.)

In their original pure seduction aid role, some stuff - lipstick and perfume for example - used to be extremely disreputable.

Also some obvious fashion fetishes are void of signal to males - handbags are an example.

Comment author: Vichy 20 July 2009 04:05:28PM 8 points [-]

It seems to me a lot of this has to be female-female signaling as proposed. Most men do not seem to care what I'm wearing, and would probably prefer it was 'nothing'. I have NEVER had a guy bring up something I'm wearing unless it was clearly being used as an opening for chatting me up.

Comment author: MBlume 20 July 2009 06:53:39PM 1 point [-]

For the record (I don't think this is objectifying, but my calibration's pretty confused lately), yes we'd probably prefer it was 'nothing,' but we still notice what you're wearing and respond strongly to it, and no, it's not as simple as "less is better".

Comment author: Vichy 20 July 2009 11:13:52PM 1 point [-]

Well, I wouldn't say that women can not wear clothes that men find attractive/unattractive, or otherwise interesting. But I know from conversations that many men consider a good majority of what women wear to be pointless and stupid looking. All the guys I know are practically offended by those baby-doll dress, or stuff like shoes with bows on them.

I have to agree. I mean, I like dressing up, but there is definite limit of like an hour which I will not go beyond. If an hour of work can't make you look good, no amount of time will.

Comment author: thomblake 20 July 2009 06:38:37PM *  0 points [-]

I have NEVER had a guy bring up something I'm wearing unless it was clearly being used as an opening for chatting me up.

I assume 'chatting me up' is being used here to mean something involving dating? An internet search for the expression just turned up synonyms for "making conversation", which wouldn't make sense in context.

Curious... where are you from?

ETA: thanks to anonym below.

In that case, it seems odd to me that guys you know never bring up anything you're wearing. Do you have many male friends? Maybe this is a cultural thing, or am I the 'odd one out' here?

Comment author: anonym 20 July 2009 07:26:14PM *  1 point [-]

"Chatting me up" == "hitting on me". It's a British colloquialism.

Comment author: thomblake 20 July 2009 07:27:28PM 0 points [-]

Thanks! I'm a student of the British language, but I'm hardly fluent.

Comment author: Vichy 20 July 2009 11:10:57PM 0 points [-]

I'm residing in the northwest USA. Pretty much all of my friends are males. No, literally all of them.