"I said, 'Where's my phone right now? It's over there, in my purse.' I basically said, 'You're not designing your phones for women."'
It startles me just how pervasive some stereotypes are.
The quoted assertion appears to depend on two generalizations. The first is that women use purses instead of pockets , and the second is that they leave purses "over there." The implied converse generalization is that men don't leave their phone or its container "over there."
It makes me wonder if the inclusion of this quote was intentional foreshadowing on the part of the author.
I've seen guys leave their phones in jacket pockets on the backs of chairs, but that's way rarer than women not having a phone within arm's reach. To generalise, of course, but pretty much every other woman I know uses a handbag (purse) of some sort and won't always have it glued to their arm. Even I do, occasionally -- skirts don't have pockets, y'know, and it's more comfortable not having a giant iPhone in a tiny pocket. I used to be considered 'blokeish' for not having a bag and keeping my cash/phone/keys in my jeans or coat pocket. It's a fair enough generalisation in my experience.
It's a fair enough generalisation in my experience.
Fair enough in what context? It's certainly a patently valid generalization, but it's still a generalization and, perhaps more importantly, is one that has no obvious and direct connection to being female.
Had the OP's study limited itself to women who self-identify as being feminine and/or wearing skirts, or at least measured that, I wouldn't even question it.
Er, at least in certain contexts, calling a woman blokeish is implying she's a butch lesbian. I used to be a female computer scientist with a buzzcut (and the pockets thing). Everyone thought I was gay.
It was just a really weird thing to say, a way to stop my phone ringing at a distance. How would that actually work? Would you need to wear some sort of proximity sensor? Or leave your phone over there, but keep hold of a remote control? It doesn't make any sort of sense as a feature.
BlackBerries have a magnetic sensor to detect when they're in a case and can change their notifications accordingly, but that's not the same thing.
It startles me just how pervasive some stereotypes are.
The quoted assertion appears to depend on two generalizations. The first is that women use purses instead of pockets , and the second is that they leave purses "over there." The implied converse generalization is that men don't leave their phone or its container "over there."
It makes me wonder if the inclusion of this quote was intentional foreshadowing on the part of the author.