In China, alpha males carry designer purses
latimes.com
latimes.com
Petrifying though that may be, that's only months. We saddle ourselves with six years of payments for the status symbols we can't afford.
This roundly shows the hypocrisy of those from the west making snide comments about Chinese engaging in signaling. It's a part of North American culture to engage in such signaling as a matter of course. The majority of all retail establishments would lose a big chunk of their profits without such tendencies. It's the same sort of thing as people criticizing ghetto kids for buying Nike shoes. I wonder how many of those critics save enough for their own retirement?
After all, that's exactly the criticism that I was making; I had no idea that spending money you don't have on luxury goods would be a popular idea on Hacker News.
For the record, since people seem to assume otherwise, the only debts I've ever had in my life were a small auto loan and my large student loans, both of which I sacrificed to pay off before I turned 24 while putting away 15% of my salary into a retirement account.
What decade do you think this is, the 1940's? Can't afford tap water? This is the kind of racism that people have to worry about, not stuff like censoring Mark Twain. Notions of the lower class of another nation does more damage than directly addressing issues ever will. Much of the cities in china are just as industrialized, if not more so, than counterparts in the USA. The upper middle class is a growing section of the population that produces a demand for more flashy products such as diamond rings or handbags. Doubly so as for the diamonds; the western nations is not above signaling with SUVs and other gimmicks (well gas guzzlers are less of a concern in europe, but not my point here). Pointing out that people not in a western country will save for a few months to buy an expensive item smacks of hypocrisy, especially when such people often demonstrates that they don't know the concept of saving in the first place. (Living within their means, anyone?)
I think this is an important notion. The Chinese view themselves as the most sophisticated culture in the world. The Chinese view the currently dominant economic power of the West as having an unfortunate side effect. It hinders the rest of the world's understanding of the true value of Chinese culture.
How North Americans view the Chinese notion of cultural ascendancy is very instructive, because it's a mirrored by how the Chinese view a North American's notion of cultural ascendancy.
North Americans are well advised to consider this, as it's likely that China will soon have double the economic output of the US.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-13/chinese-women-milli...
Seems in the West men buy sports cars and women buy luxury handbags, and it's the reverse in the East.
It probably doesn't come down to any significant cultural differences either. Buying expensive things is a way for some people to feel more confident about themselves, or to spoil themselves, or some area in between. Basically, it's a curious statistic, but ultimately a non-story for actually doing business.
China certainly has been liberalizing its gender laws at a faster clip than the west, which took the Women's Suffrage Movement several centuries.... but it's never been ahead of the curve.
After 1950 men were not permitted to own land either. :P
edit: In some ways China should really be looked at as two distinct demographics, urban and rural. They have vast different values that makes the country completely bipolar. The gender attitude among the urbanites are much more progressive, in some ways even more so than the west, while in the countryside they still practice infanticide.
It may have to do with the fact that the communist ideology campaigns mostly targeted the cities, because Mao feared a bourgeoisie counter-revolution, while he already had grass root support from the countryside, so he took it for granted.
No, the infanticide is not well-grounded, just reports.
I'm Chinese btw. I actually don't know anyone who buys these bags, I only see them on the streets occasionally. Giant wallets/strapless hand bags seem to be much more common among the middle-aged men. Most young people wear regular messenger bags.
The likelihood is that the men will be absorbed into some type of military action, whether state-sponsored (invasion) or non-state (terrorism).
Horny young men with no conceivable outlet tend to listen to anyone who tells them what they want to hear.
My original point was that equality should begin from start where infanticide shouldn't be allowed in this regard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sex_ratio_total_population...
Edit: check out that big red country on this one...: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Sex_ratio...
Not saying things might not be generally 'equal' for women in China now, but things are generally 'equal' for women in the West. For certain values of generally.
Seems to me societies have traditionally objectified/oppressed women world over.
One unequivocally positive outcome of the communists winning over the nationalists that even an ardent anti-communist like Jung Chang will attest to was their gender equality reforms. The first and most symbolic act was a serious crackdown on foot binding.
My point wasn't that reform hasn't happened, my point was objecting to the casual generalization of China as currently superior to the West in gender equality--by demonstrating the concrete sexism of the past.
Having ruled out the past since both West and China infringe gratuitously, what do we really _know_ about gender equality in China in the present day?
And I am the sort of person for whom a gender equality rating is strongly influenced by high ratings in tolerance for homosexuality and other non-gender-norm labels.
A third of China's millionaires are female. We know concrete facts like that. Guanxi rules business in China, so it would have been very easy to keep women entirely out of the higher echelons had the culture been predisposed to do so. That said, there is still, for example, plenty of low-level sexual harassment against women that wouldn't be tolerated in most of the West.
My point about foot-binding might have been off-topic, actually; I was trying to demonstrate that both cultures have, err, regrets about gender inequality in the past.
One has to be careful comparing these things on a linear scale. But yes, I agree. Beyond the context of our immediate discussion, the equality of men and women in China is noteworthy because it contradicts the still-commonplace orientalist conception that Asian women are submissive.
Now we're getting a bit off-topic, so I'm going to close with the idea that women in China could still be considered largely submissive if the ratio is a third instead of a half if one were to really press the viewpoint asking "In what ways could gender equality improve?" but that's a bit of devil's advocacy I'm ready to let fall silent. ;)
I ask because the image in the article showed what looked to me like a soft briefcase with a long shoulder strap.
Incidentally, here is a random link demonstrating that Indiana Jones carried a purse: http://thesatchelpages.com/keeping-up-with-the-jones-bags/
[0] https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Satchel_%28ba...
While hackers may just use their phones it is unusual to see a wealthy banker, talent agent or lawyer without a nice watch. I would assume it is more prevalent in jobs that require a lot of signaling for negotiation.
Hence, not a status symbol.
To that generation that "gets it", though, then perhaps watches are status symbols.
A status symbol that people have these days is their house. Most people pay way more than they can afford, mostly to make themselves feel like they "fit in" with a "more elite" crowd. (I noticed this because I rent what someone with my income can afford, but the people I live with make a lot less money than me. They are using their housing as a status symbol; I am using it as a place to sleep and shower.)
You don't have to know the list price of a sports car to tell it is expensive. It's obvious just from looking at it.
They're pretty cheap.
For many, an old Mazda MX-5 is a superior track-day car to many newer vehicles costing several times as much.
The Ariel Atom is especially instructive, as it achieves higher performance by dispensing with the sheet metal -- which is the primary medium for an automobile's signaling.
[1] At one time, the maximum load permitted by USPS regs. And yes, they got that heavy. Especially when e.g. Time and Newsweek Tuesday (and a few other glossy rags) coincided with a Spiegel catalog (ugh).
Although I do consider it a minor victory when I can make it out with just iPhone, keys, and wallet in pockets.
Should set off some bullshit flags on their methodology for classification.
I was expecting closer to 0, unless they include things like messenger and laptop bags.
Regarding the "7% of men in the U.S.", I wonder how many of that sample bought them as gifts for women? I mean, I've stepped into Coach once to buy a wristlet, but it was because my sister had it on her wish list as a gift.
Then again, Coach does make men's accessories. I have a belt from coach, which my sister gave me as a gift. To be entirely honest, it's held up far better than any other belt I've ever owned.
alternatively, you can also look up WHY the country is cash based. it's an interesting read.
The reversal of colour gender association in the mid 20th century is a great example which is often very surprising to people.