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Wondered Where People Get Some of These Ideas?

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  • tulips_and_tea
    tulips_and_tea Posts: 5,744 Member
    tj1376 wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    I find it amusing comparing mags from the same publisher but aimed at men vs. women (such as Men's Health and Women's Health).

    In the taglines, men usually get "ripped", women "toned". Men get "rock hard abs", women "a flat belly". And so forth.

    There was even a set of special issues (photo below) put out by that publisher, one for men and one for women, that were aimed at bodyweight fitness. Inside, based on a flip-through, there were pretty much exactly the same exercises. They just were photographed with models of the appropriate sex. Taglines on the cover slanted very diffently, though. :lol:

    ejbm931rdv0x.jpg

    Men have to do just 25 exercises but women need 128? *kitten*.

    But the men's magazine says 25 WORKOUTS and the women's states 128 exercises. It's still ridiculous and misleading, however.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    SueSueDio wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    These publications are catering to the desires of the target demographic.

    Advertising is not the root cause. This is a symptom.

    I get your point. But where do those desires come from in the first place? It just seems like stereotypes of what a man and woman should want and/or look like are just being perpetuated throughout the ages, sometimes.

    Genetics and observation primarily.

    The Scandanavian nations are much further along in their social experimentation in this and found that as the equality increased, the gender differences increased, so the objective evidence on social norms is diminishing and their is certainly a genetic foundation to gender based wants/needs.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    SueSueDio wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    These publications are catering to the desires of the target demographic.

    Advertising is not the root cause. This is a symptom.

    I get your point. But where do those desires come from in the first place? It just seems like stereotypes of what a man and woman should want and/or look like are just being perpetuated throughout the ages, sometimes.

    Genetics and observation primarily.

    The Scandanavian nations are much further along in their social experimentation in this and found that as the equality increased, the gender differences increased, so the objective evidence on social norms is diminishing and their is certainly a genetic foundation to gender based wants/needs.

    Nonetheless, I do think the "nature vs. nurture" framing deprecates the role of social norms in influencing behavior. Women's behavior today (and I do mean behavior, not just roles) is noticeably different than was the case when I was a child.

    I'm not launching an argument that biological sex (or deeply-felt psychological gender) has no influence whatsoever on behavior. That would be silly. Still, what you are saying in the bolded, it seems to me, could as easily be framed as an argument that social norms are very important, if behavior changes when opportunity for self-expression ("equality") increases, i.e., something was constraining that self-expression previously.

    I suspect that, by nature/genetics, there's quite a broad spectrum in either men or women, for most behavioral inclinations we might pick out as stereotypically gender-based, with the spectrum for men overlapping the spectrum for women by varying degrees for each of those inclinations. Perhaps it's a tortured definition, but to me, gender "equality" has something to do with letting each person find their own happy place on those spectrums, without arbitrary external limitations based on their biological plumbing.
  • RunsWithBees
    RunsWithBees Posts: 1,508 Member
    Motorsheen wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    CSARdiver wrote: »
    These publications are catering to the desires of the target demographic.

    Advertising is not the root cause. This is a symptom.

    At this point in the idea's life cycle, I think it's just a self-reinforcing, self-perpetuating system. The cause and effect are circling conjoined twins.

    It may gradually evolve a bit in one direction or another, but any kind of rapid change would require a system disruption.

    [ I look at why one gender would want something simple over complex or vice versa. .


    Like This ?


    cool-man-woman-switch-simple.jpg





    Which one of these woke up pretty?
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