I'll have my coffee any flippin' way I want it!

I don't usually (ever?) blog about femininist issues and I don't really consider myself a hard core femininist, but this reallllly bothered me, and I thought I'd share it here, with all of you, so you could be bothered too. ;)

So here I am, trapped at the doctor's lab for AN HOUR waiting to take my glucose intolerance test, which explains why I'm watching local news at all. I was trying to concentrate on Detection by Gaslight - but couldn't quite manage it.

The story - news story - on the news - with real anchorpersons and everything - was this: Can the way a woman orders her coffee at Starbucks tell you if she's high maintenance. Cue eyeroll.

OK, first of all, it's not like it's the first time I've heard this. Secondly, even if it were, how is this in any way shape or form news?

They actually had a female reporter out at Starbucks asking women how they ordered their coffee. (And for the record, I take a 5 pump vanilla latte, but my husband orders a grande soy no whip mocha). And THEN, they bring in this "dating expert" to say that women should order their coffee in as complicated a way as they want to so that their date can decide there won't be a second date. ARGH!!!!!!

My thesis boils down to this: It's a FOUR DOLLAR drink. If a man walks into a bar, and orders a four dollar mixed drink to his specifications, he's debonair. If a woman orders her coffee to *her* specifications then the NEWS STATION says that she's high maintenance and men should beware.

Of course, no mention was made of how men order their coffee and this is the northwest, after all, where men drink it in just as high quantities as women. I'm still appalled - STILL APPALLED!

I'll vacuum in high heels and pearls before I order my coffee any old way so as not to send the wrong message to the opposite sex, thank you very much!

1 comments:

Kathleen said...

Rob! you know that I completely agree! I hate hate hate that stuff. There was a NY Times "article" a few weeks ago about how women should order burgers. I kid you not. "don't order a salad. he'll think your high-maintenance and weight-obssessed." (you still have to be skinny though). "Order a burger, it will show him you are easy-going, and not afraid to be yourself." (um, if I wasn't afriad to be myself, wouldn't I be ordering WHAT I WANTED?) "don't order an expensive burger. you don't want to see high-maintenance and an expensive date." (but sometimes guys like to impress their dates by ordering expensive burgers, so be impressed. Don't do it yourself.)

and on and on.

Some friends were trying to convince me it was ironic. It wasn't.

October 18, 2007 at 10:57 AM

Post a Comment