Exchange program with women's style forums

[Kent Wang]

We already have a handful of female posters here, but I think it would be a fabulous idea if we started an exchange program with a women's style forum. That way we can get valuable opinion from women and they too can benefit from our thoughts.

We'll have to draw up some rules (number 1: no creepiness) and then send out a delegation. I want do this with some formality, so I'd like to solicit some opinions here first, draw up a delegation, and then we'll post a thread on the women's forum soliciting their interest in a mutual exchange program. I'd rather not have any one jump the gun, start posting some creepy or insensitive stuff and get the ladies hostile to our presence.

So who thinks this program is a good idea? Are you interested in joining the official delegation?

Does anyone know which forum we shoud go to? Just like it takes a bit of experience to know the differences between AA and SF, perhaps someone more informed can identify an appropriate women's forum.

 

[dah328]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh, of the women I know, I would trust vanishingly few of them to give me good style advice.

 

[hopkins_student]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh, of the women I know, I would trust vanishingly few of them to give me good style advice.

Agreed.

 

[Kent Wang]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh, of the women I know, I would trust vanishingly few of them to give me good style advice.

I wouldn't trust most men either, just the ones that post here. I'd imagine that women that post on style forums would be a lot more smarter.

 

[hopkins_student]

I wouldn't trust most men either, just the ones that post here. I'd imagine that women that post on style forums would be a lot more smarter.

I disagree not only with your grammar but also with your word choice. It has not been my experience that intelligence, or rather the lack thereof is the cause of poor taste.

 

[dah328]

We generally self-select here based on some level of interest. Almost every woman I know is interested in fashion, so that doesn't work so well.

 

[aybojs]

I wouldn't trust most men either, just the ones that post here. I'd imagine that women that post on style forums would be a lot more smarter.

At least from what I've seen on fashion message boards, most of the women who post there are just the female equivalent of your Abercrombie-obsessed frat boy types... in other words, not exactly the best fit for the forum. Plus I (and I think I'm not close to being alone on this) really couldn't care less about women's clothing, nor is my interest in clothing primarily the product of wanting to appeal to your average female.

 

[discostu004]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh, of the women I know, I would trust vanishingly few of them to give me good style advice.

replace "vanishingly few" with "none" and that's my opinion

 

[Stu]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh, of the women I know, I would trust vanishingly few of them to give me good style advice.

Amen brother. With apologies to Jill, who seems to be a glaring exception, just about all the women I know, including my wife (who doesn't read this forum and will never see this

) have not a clue. They think the Ralph Lauren pony player is chic.

 

[gorgekko]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but, uh, of the women I know, I would trust vanishingly few of them to give me good style advice.

I quite agree with you. I have little desire to hear the opinions of nearly every woman when it comes to fashion.

 

[Roy]

I never take women with me when shopping.

I might get into an argument about fabric selection and not get out alive. I'd rather trust my own sense of style.

 

[Kent Wang]

Ouch. Well I'm officially scrapping the idea then. Let's forget all about this.

 

[Luc-Emmanuel]

the dark side of the style forum, a bunch of mysoginists. Wow, I never thought you could all be so close minded.

Luc

 

[aybojs]

the dark side of the style forum, a bunch of mysoginists. Wow, I never thought you could all be so close minded.

Luc

How is it misogynist for members of a discussion group devoted to a specific field of expertise to request that someone not solicit outside intervention and opinions from laypeople without knowledge of that field? I wouldn't be interested in recruiting pickup truck enthusiasts for a sports car forum or heavy metal enthusiasts for a classical musicians' forum, to use two hypothetical examples, so why should this be any different?

The motivation is to keep the forum's signal-to-noise ratio high like it currently is, not act on any sexist impulses. Besides, it's not as if we act rudely to female posters who choose to come here and participate; the few who post regularly are all well-liked. The point is that the overwhelming majority are not interested or knowledgable in this subject (which isn't in any way sexist to assume since it's inherent that enthusiasts of men's clothing are predominantly male and vice versa for women), and there wouldn't be much benefit in a forum seeking expert advice on the subject to solicit the opinions of those without familiarity of it.

 

[LA Guy]

Another point of view.

I think that having a larger female presence on the forum will have a moderating effect on some of our, um, dogmatic tendencies, especially on the main forum. Take, for example, the oft repeated contention that bowties are the only correct neckwear for black tie events. Whether that is true or not, the plain truth is that bowties have fallen out of flavour as daywear for a very simple reason, they look like crap compared to a good long tie, on most men. Does this suddenly change when we (men) put on penguin suits

In general, I've found that within the industry and without, women tend to be much less fettered by "rules" and the need to be "correct," and are more willing to trust their intuition. On the other hand, the generally conservative nature of many posters on the main forum would act to curb theses sometimes excessive impulses. Not a bad match, I think.