New "Meme": Manly or Self-Sufficient?

I think the only thing I haven't done on the 'Manly' list is fillet a fish. I have to wonder, why a bolt action rifle? I've fired, disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled firearms of all types save for fully automatic, and that's only because I don't have access to them.

The second list, I'm right there with you, except I've had to fight with my previous insurance company over so much shit that I can bold that one.

Fish filleting, no problem. Never touched a gun, though. Hmm. I make myself 23/25 on Manliness (which is wildly inaccurate as to my actual life!) and probably 19/20 on self-sufficiency, with the exception being that I have not yet managed to land that tenure-track job, and hence..

..I do think that _both_ those scores are bizarrely flattering, though. And my wife would agree, at least on the self-sufficient... ;-)

Interesting that "cook a decent meal" and "sew a button or patch" are completely missing from both lists...

I'm definitely not manly - there's only 9 on that list I'm certain I could do. (Or maybe 10, #9 is ambiguous.) On the self-sufficient list, again I'm not sure I'm elite enough to qualify for #2 - especially if we're talking about New Jersey. I'm also missing the resume cover letter.

And "(if you know how to do good searches, you can find any information you need on the web)" is ludicrously untrue, and a dangerous lie at that. Unless it's a very broad definition of "the web" and a very limited definition of "information you need."

Wow, the first list is a bit, uh, ridiculously sexist.

17/25, 18/20
According to Heinlein: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
I haven't tried most of that, so I suppose I fail, with a score of 11/21.

I'm 48% manly? And 85% self-sufficient. Maybe that explains why I have so much trouble getting a date - guys don't think I need them? If so, I'm out of luck; I'm really bad at playing the helpless female.

44% "manly" and 80% self-sufficient. Although I take issue with the gendering of quite a few of the items on the Popular Mechanics list, even in the sense of "conforming to gender stereotypes in modern American society." Seriously, "touching up digital photos"? That is so totally a chick thing.

(For both lists, I rated myself as unable if my approach was "contact a knowledgeable person and have them do it," because while *I* think "Call AAA" is a perfectly acceptable means of fixing a flat tire, I don't think that's what the list-makers had in mind. (I could probably change a tire on my own if my life depended on it--I know the theory even if I haven't done it in practice--but I'd really rather not put that to the test.)

80 % Manly and 90 % Self-Sufficient. (Generously counted of course, as a Self-Sufficient Man should.)

Jump start a car? I figured out how to break into my own, crack the steering lock and hot wire it with a fork (don't ask; oh, well it was an old car so I can tell - it was possible to press past the rubber around the side window and pull the manual lock from the outside) and a knife, after loosing my keys backpacking in the mountains. Do I get bonus points?

If I had known that rescuing a capsized boater would count I would have pushed one in a long time ago. :-P Seriously, why do they figure happenstance into this?

@ #5

The first list isn't ridiculously sexist, it's just ridiculous... bleed brakes, my ass.

52% manly and 95% self-sufficient (despite several observations, I can still never remember how to jump-start a car, the whole "red/black" thing and the possibility of major electrical ramifications always freeze me up).

About 60% of the first and all of the second exept 3 and 5 .
The lists seem very american -Use public transportation to get around- is something any 10-year-old can do around here.
And bolt-action rifle - not exactly - does a 155mm howitzer count?

Same as Torbjörn. I also thought the "capsized boat" item was, well, bizarre. Are the number of people who are around boats that have a greater than vanishingly small probability of capsizing really that significant?

I can do everything of the 25 except the whole "rescue someone from a capsized boat," which is just strange. I mean, I probably could ... but I figure "swimming after your boat capsizes" should be on the list, and if they can't handle that, maybe they aren't worth rescuing. I guess.

Are you Manly or Self-Sufficient...?

I am almost legendarily non-handy. My wife scores at least a couple points higher on the first scale, and that's based just on the items I know I've seen her do. (There will be yet another point for her once we finish our basement, since she'll be doing some wall framing...)

OTOH we both score 90% or over on the Self-Sufficient scale.

I can do 100% of the things on the "self-sufficient" list and 76% on the "manly" list, but I would often rather smile girlishly and ask someone else to do them for me. Lazy-ass chick, you bet. :)

The boat thing: People who are around boats in any significant capacity know how to rescue someone because every boat safety course ever covers this to varying extents.

That being said, I am a pretty manly man given that I such a girly girl, 19/25, but 19/20 self sufficient, health insurance eludes me.

@ # 5
> Wow, the first list is a bit, uh, ridiculously sexist.

Self-evident statement award. Could a 'manliness' list be anything else? (loose interpretation of 'sexist' here)

It's not to say some of the same items couldn't be on a 'girliness' list, is it? But perhaps that would be sexist too?

Nevermind, men and women are exactly the same, obviously.

Wow, the first list is a bit, uh, ridiculously sexist.

It's Popular Mechanics, and a list of specifically male skills. If anything, I share Pam's amazement that "retouch digital photos" made it on there. It probably narrowly edged out "butcher a hog."

Kate noted, off-line, that the list of "Skills Every Man Should Know" really ought to include "how to use a condom."

Not that that's limited to men, of course, but yeah.

As for the general concept of the _Popular Mechanics_ list, here, see my eyes rolling: @@

As Jesus' General says, "An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender".

Know how to ride a bus counts as a life skill???
Not "Know how to drive a bus", or "Know how to clean the injectors on a diesel engine"?

"Know how to use public transportation to get around" strikes me as not significantly beyond "Know how to cross the street by yourself". Does enumerating this skill imply that there are large numbers of people who don't know how to ride a bus?

Maybe this is a generational thing - (...heck, maybe it's a class thing...) - but I was tuning engines before I was old enough for my learner's permit. So I'm with #9 and #13: "Jump start a car"??? Add me to the list of people here who have sawn through the steering lock in order to hotwire a car.

Well, there are a couple things on the lists that I know how to do only in theory (e.g., I've never given real, live CPR; and, while I've never cleaned a gun, I've torn down and rebuilt a carb, so I'm reasonably certain that the skillset would carry over). So by the standards of these exams, heck, I must be at 200% or so.

They must have their offices in Los Angeles. I've lived around here most of my driving age life and quite a few of us (me included) are incapable of using a bus schedule. I can handle the London Undgerground, but buses elude me, and it's something I've never seen a guide for. Something that explains what a 'transfer' is and where I get one.

Iron? Who NEEDs to iron? I learned how as a kid, and have done it in "emergencies" such as a dress shirt or wedding gown having something spilled on it and need a pressing before facing cameras-- but no ordinary item of clothing needs more than proper drying to be wearable. I gave away my own iron in the 1970s, and have never felt the lack.
I can do most all of that other stuff, though. Leaned most of the "manly" while in Girl scouts or as a theatre techie.

23/25 Manly Man. 18/20 (I'm not USian, so I know SFA about health insurance issues) on Self Sufficient.

And I'm a girl.

Hohn: The whole red/black thing doesn't matter so much, as long as you MATCH the colors. It's not like the copper knows what color the insulation is.

Both lists can be summed up as exercises in common sense and basic logic that a teenager should possess.

Hey Jamie! Great to see you around. Thanks for the tip, but the part that always stumps me when it comes to "go time" is what color to attach first to what car, and whether one of the clamps should be on the frame, and all of these other things that send me scurrying for cover while I call AAA. ;-)

52% manly and 95% self sufficient. Search engines are my downfall: more than once I've had to abandon Google searches for a person because said person happened to have the same name and other life details as a much more famous person.

I also agree that several items on the "manly" list are a matter of circumstance. I got boating-related merit badges as a Boy Scout, so I know how to rescue someone who's capsized, even though I haven't been boating in years. But I flunk "Hook up an HDTV" because, since I don't own and have no plans to acquire a TV, that skill has never had any value for me. And of course there are several others on the "manly" list that I have never had occasion to try, but I could probably muddle through if I had to: mixing concrete and fixing a dead outlet, to name two.

Apparently, I'm 96% manly and 85% self-sufficient. Fortunately, my wife is quite knowledgeable regarding nutrition, insurance forms, employment benefits and CPR, (as well as most of the other things on both lists.) I occasionally clean an antique bolt action rifle that belonged to my father, though the piece hasn't been fired in decades; otherwise I would only be 92% manly.

Both. 85%/100%.

God, I AM a geek.

I dunno, seems like both set a pretty low bar to me. I mean seriously, who doesn't know how to patch a bike tire?

On list two though, #3 and #5 seem to double up a little bit and WTF with #17? some sort of balancing gender stereotype question?

Patch a radiator hose? You never patch a radiator hose. If it has started to leak, the whole hose is almost certainly trash. You *replace* a radiator hose, and while you're at it, you replace the other radiator hoses, because they're just as old, and probably just as trashed. Checking the belts at the same time is a good idea.