It's not just the narrator- it's the co-founder. This opinion is part of the leadership of the company. But from a realist standpoint, he probably should have run that by his PR group before he maverick'd the speech on his own.

However, it's more than just shopping- wearing nice, trendy clothes can be seen as emasculating, in North America at least. Refer to the culture of "queer eye" and the term "metrosexual" encompassing the idea that "straight, manly men" don't shop and therefore don't dress trendy and have no style.

Is this meant to be a subset or a separate idea from the typical self-fulfilling gender stereotypes of the Aggressive Male and Submissive Female?

Shopping is menial, as opposed to high-minded and lofty. That's the status aspect. I would say 90 per cent of gender "differences" are status-based, with lower-status activities classified as female and higher-status activities interpreted as male. In some cases, the exact same activity or product will be reinterpreted as higher-status or somehow "more serious" when it's sold to men - like deodorant being compared to a big, scary, important-sounding avalanche, instead of little dainty flowers. Meanwhile, cleaning and cooking are seen as menial domestic work. They're also associated with being female. Men who cook must do it outside, on barbecues, where their status as those-in-charge-of-the-mighty-grill (which has fire, and is therefore more impressive than an oven) rises to rival that of priests at Delphi.

The status issue permeates every level of male-female interaction. Jobs into which more women make inroads get reclassified as low-status over time according to at least one study I've read: "The movement of women into higher paid occupations, whether male-dominated or not, may not have the impact of narrowing the earnings gap. Social psychologists have demonstrated repeatedly that occupations associated with women or requiring stereotypically feminine skills are rated as less prestigious and deserving of less pay than occupations associated with men and masculine skills." (http://www.womensmedia.com/new/Lips-Hilary-gender-wage-gap.shtml, subhead "The Wage Gap Exists Within Occupations")

Shopping as a rule is equivalent to "fetching" things. At best, it's a minor annoyance and necessity. At worst, it's the burden of the dogsbody.

Sweet christ I hate shopping. There is nothing I hate more than shopping. I get anxious and stressed and I get an actual fight-or-flight reaction when I have to make a decision about whether to buy something. If I were male I could just be like "ho ho, of course I hate shopping" and avoid it as much as possible by buying only utilitarian things when necessary, but because I'm female it is my RESPONSIBILITY to look 'professional' and 'put together' and 'accesorise' or I am not trying hard enough. I must have a 'look' to be taken seriously. Hate it.

I really do hate shopping. Recurring conflict between my wife and me during family shopping trips is that I view it as a task to be gotten over with as quickly as possible, while she sees browsing as a leisure activity. I won't drag out the old "hunter vs. gatherer" tripe, but it does seem to be a fairly common complaint among my settled male friends.

As an ad guy I can offer the insight that for advertisers, stereotypes usually work. They allow the advertiser to reach a large number of people in a way that feels personal by using common cultural experiences. They're not even thinking about the atypical folks. They're too much work to reach in a mass-media consumer campaign.

It's not purposeful social engineering. It's just laziness.

"Shopping" seems to imply purchasing clothes, places with shopping carts, groceries, etc. But really, "shopping" is just "buying stuff". Men are sterotyped as needing the the latest the electronic device/gadget to be manly: the latest cell phone, huge ultra high def tv, nice steros, fancy cars, etc. Buying all those high tech things is "shopping" just as much as groceries and clothes. I suppose manly gadget shopping can be done online easily, thus avoids going to a store, but it is still shopping nonetheless.

I hate shopping. I hate spending money. My husband loves spending money. He might not call it "shopping around" when he trolls craigslist for things he doesn't need, but he is spending a crapton of time and money buying shit shopping.

Ugh. If we were to go with stereotypes, I'd be male, and my husband would be female, and shopping is just one of the stereotypes reversed with us. I HATE shopping, but he enjoys it. Not so much now, as his injuries make outings increasingly painful, but he's always been a bit of a clothes horse and loved to just head out, check out the stores and buy stuff we usually didn't need. I'd go along with it more because I enjoyed his company, but I've become quite ornery re: shopping in my old age. ;)

Just got back from shopping with my older daughter a little while ago. If it weren't for the fact that both of us had to buy shoes because the ones we were wearing were falling apart, we would have turned around and gone home at the site of that full parking lot. What a miserable experience. The more we actually need to get something, the less we like shopping for it. :-P

I think advertisers are making a mistake by playing into the stereotypes. It's right up there with the men/parents are dumb but women/kids are smart shows and commercials. It's condescending, if nothing else. One thing these types of commercials do is drive me away from their products and services.

My dad loves shopping and I get my sense of style from him. I think a lot of it has to do with NOT being from this country. People from other countries tend to have a better appreciation and understanding of presenting oneself through clothing.

Well, I think that women hate shopping just as much as men hate shopping. My girlfriends have never liked going shopping for computers, games, men's clothes, lumber, tools, and other things that held little personal interest to them, but in which I could get lost (quite literally) for hours. They were left perusing things that held only the smallest shred of interest, patiently waiting a quarter hour before making it obvious (to even my time-distracted mind) that they wanted to do anything else. In a similar way, I loathe going shoe shopping with my current girlfriend: women's shoes hold very little personal interest to me, but I'm happy that shoe stores inevitably do have a place to sit down (even though I'm not trying on the merchandise). I'm more interested in helping her with clothes shopping, but know that I will tire with it well before she does.

True: the idea that men hate shopping is a prevalent one, but it's also possible to see the men love shopping trope -- just go to places socially associated with being the provenance of men: hardware stores, auto supply stores, and the like. The idea that women-love-shopping/men-hate-shopping as a duality has always been problematic for me, not because it made me question my masculinity, but because it made me question the rationality of marginalizing a potential customer group.

It may be a stereotype, but it seems to be a stereotype that has actually significantly impacted/swayed male behaviour. I have no scientific evidence of course but...wow, there are a lot of very, very poorly dressed men out there. It's disgusting! C'mon guys, a little bit of effort never hurt (and whoever made being stylish "effeminate", I'd like to have a word with him. Grrr....)

So glad my hubby is stylish; some people think he's gay, but when they find out he's European, all is "forgiven". Yet another stereotype...

My male fiance and I enjoy shopping together, for clothes for either of us, or anything else. I very much appreciate that he has his own sense of style.

I think it's interesting that the man who sent in the clip mentioned his dad telling him ways to not "lose his manhood" while shopping. I am trying to imagine a scenario where a mother might warn her daughter of ways to not "lose her womanhood" while...I don't know, attending a sporting event? Girls are not warned of such dangers. I find that interesting.

By the way, I am female, and I HATE shopping.

I feel that by framing a men's dislike for shopping as a disease, the way the first example does, it doesn't seem to reinforce the idea that men shouldn't like to shop, but rather acknowledges the media's expectations, and attempts to reverse it by stigmatizing it. Because a jeans company would want men to shop - it's how they make money.

I enjoy shopping for leisure items (clothing, electronics, CDs/movies, books, etc.) and dislike shopping for more menial items (cleaning supplies, etc.). I would imagine that it is this way for most people, regardless of gender.

I wonder if women have to learn to "like" shopping more than men partly because clothes shopping for women is such a miserable, difficult experience. My dad can get clothes as gifts no problem -- they all fit decently (and they aren't supposed to be particularly form-fitting to start with) and the measurements are pretty standard. But with women's clothes you're stuck trying on every damn individual item because who the hell knows what "size 10 curvy regular stretch boot" means in this particular store (the only guarantee is that it will be different from what it means one store down) and women's clothes can be pretty unforgiving, fit-wise.

So maybe you get a bunch of women gritting assurances to themselves, past clenched teeth and glassy eyes, nails digging into their palms, "...gee isn't shopping so fucking fun yep this is great I don't at all mind having to spend 3 hours trying to find a single pair of jeans ha ha shopping is great, god knows it must be great because I just spent all day doing it..." until we poor bastards believe it ourselves. :p (I'm not saying no woman genuinely enjoys shopping, I'm just saying there is plenty of cognitive dissonance that requires resolution and "loving" shopping is one way to do that.)

this is gross. yeah, let's fight to make pissing money away an equal opportunity adventure. this isn't about skirts and pants, material consumption isn't just some silly thing that doesn't really make a difference one way or another. the country is still in an economic crisis, shopping as recreation actually has consequences. people go into debt and lose their lives for it if they're poor, and the people at the top continue to exploit the working class to fund their 'leisure'. this is really a poorly thought out post. i mean, shopping is greed in these scenarios. we're not talking about how women get suckered into grocery shopping and men don't, we're very clearly talking about shopping as a leisure activity. a more interesting and useful post would have been to point out that shopping enthusiasm is most explicit in children. perhaps, the answer isn't to not break young boys of this gimme-gimme habit, but to break young girls too.

Anyone who's following the Diary of Samuel Pepys (http://www.pepysdiary.com) knows well that shopping was one of Sam's favorite hobbies, after music and "good discourse"; hardly an entry goes by without his mentioning a visit to his tailor, his shoemaker, his wig-maker, his shirt-maker, his instrument-maker (there seem to be two: one "viall maker" and one who makes scientific instruments), his bookseller, his bookbinder, his watchmaker, and apparently every bookshop he sees, not to mention his wife's tailor, a haberdasher, a jeweler, a silversmith, and a "case-maker" to make a special display case for the stone he had cut out of his bladder. Also, he dearly loved to have his and his wife's fine clothing admired in the streets, and liked to write of wearing "my new silk suit, the first that ever I wore in my life", or "my new coat of the fashion, which pleases me well", or "my new camelott riding coat to my coloured cloth suit".

I'm a 30 year old guy who very much enjoys shopping with my girlfriend--in fact, I enjoy shopping for clothes for her more than I enjoy shopping for clothes for myself. There's no end of ads and tv shows that imply that enjoying shopping is Not Something That Real Men Do, and it's very frustrating. And in fact, I don't see very many men in Ann Taylor or the women's sections of Banana Republic, Gap, Express, H&M, etc, and most of the few men I see don't seem to want to be there. They hold the bags and sit in the chairs and look bored. I have sensitive feet and get footsore toward the end of a full day at the mall and in the last few stores I usually need to sit and rest my feet while my girlfriend looks around, and I always worry the the other people in the store are going to think I'm one of THOSE boyfriends who doesn't want to be there. Or worse, that any men who don't want to be there will think I'm one of them. Real men love shopping.

Help is on the way for the clueless male shoppers. The book “The Ultimate Shop Manual: A Man’s Guide to Shopping for and With Women” provides both practical advice and humor to guide males through the shopping maze.

You can order the book online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon. Women will love the book too!

Check it out before you go out holiday shopping this year.

Totally addicted to your blog, its amazing! I don't like stereotyping so I do think theres many many many men who do like to shop. I think shopping as a process has changed over time, as I've described in my complex shopping trip framework.

http://sssourabh.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/a-complex-shopping-trip-the-challenges-of-consumer-behavior/

With regards to men, I think you are right, the trend is changing towards more shopaholic men; after all so many product lines are now male focused (not the case a decade ago), and fashion weeks worldwide have now mandated mens only lines (a first in 2010 for some, actually). So I think its a good trend, honestly. Related to it you may want to check out 10 habits of stylish guys, and see what men are up to!

http://sssourabh.wordpress.com/2010/10/11/10-habits-of-stylish-guys-upgraded-and-evolution-ized/