6 ms·

"In the minds of many Brits, umbrella usage was symptomatic of a weakness of character, particularly among men. Few people ever dared to be seen with such a det

"In the minds of many Brits, umbrella usage was symptomatic of a weakness of character, particularly among men. Few people ever dared to be seen with such a detestable, effeminate contraption. To carry an umbrella when it rained was to incur public ridicule." This sentiment is very much alive today. I'm always surprised how I seem to be the only person carrying an umbrella in London when it rains. Especially bankers seem to prefer getting soaked.

seizethecheese 10y ago
This is definitely alive in Portland, OR. There's a pride in handling the rain.
- dmoy 10y ago
  If Portland is anything like up here in Seattle, it also doesn't actually rain that much (usually). More just a continuous drizzle for 8 solid months.
  - csydas 10y ago
    Yeah, I moved to Seattle about 6 years ago from the Midwest and was teased often by some Seattle natives for having an umbrella, which seemed to be fairly arbitrary to choose to pick on given that rubber rain boots were common enough to have fasionable variants made. Not everyone, of course, but quite a few of my colleagues would try to make it a point of pride. Tangentially, most Seattle-lites also didn't understand what I meant when I said Seattle has a lot of drizzle, but it doesn't have rain; growing up in the midwest with midwest thunderstorms, a lot of them didn't seem to understand what I meant by the smell of a storm or the greenish color of the sky as a thunderhead approaches. We all get prideful for various things, I guess though...I know far too many folk from back in WI who insist they can drive perfectly in any weather, despite having wrecked multiple cars in winters past.
    - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
      Seattle can get some bad soaking storms in October/November. Portland also! Umbrellas are taboo because you can't use them easily on your bike, so a nice rain coat (was gortex?) works better. If we did use an umbrella, it was usually the collapsible one that you could fit in your bag, full size British/Japanese style umbrellas were rare. Nothing as bad as my mom's hometown a bit further to the north (Ketchikan).
      - cr1895 10y ago
        I don't see umbrellas on bikes too much in the Netherlands, but when I do they're often this type of aerodynamic shaped umbrella: http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbrella/ http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbre...
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - michael_h 10y ago
      Smell of a storm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
- jasonkester 10y ago
  Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. I walked to work in Portland for two years, and while the streets were normally wet and it had clearly been raining recently, there were only a handful of days where I actually got wet during the half hour I was walking. I never carried an umbrella. Compare that to England, where the rain will wait until you're a few hundred yards out of your house, then attack from otherwise sunny skies to blast you from dead sideways with that particularly English tiny-dropped dense-yet-light-seeming rain that soaks your clothes completely in two minutes flat. Then it will stop and let you carry on to your destination wet. You can never leave the house here unprepared.
  - elsurudo 10y ago
    > Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. That's right, it's a constant drizzle, but rarely anything more. Lived there for just four months, but it was the fall "rainy season", and I barely ever used my umbrella.
- selimthegrim 10y ago
  Nike sells a Portland themed T shirt with "Shut Your Umbrella" below its logo.
kbart 10y ago
I doubt that it's to show ones manliness. When you are used to rain (I bet everyone that lived in London for more than a week is), you know when it's not strong enough to get you wet and when it's really time to take your umbrella or get a shelter. I usually carry an umbrella, but use it only when I see that otherwise I'm going to get soaked. Walking down a crowded street with an umbrella is often simply too much of a hassle.
- nostromo 10y ago
  The same is true in Seattle which has similar weather. Coats, hats, and hoodies are much more common than are umbrellas, unless it's raining cats and dogs.
  - fragola 10y ago
    I live in Seattle and I agree: the umbrella shame is real.
- e12e 10y ago
  When you've lived long enough in Bergen, Norway you realize it rains very few other places in the world. It's just that locals around the world whine a lot ;-) I love this (presumably automatic) characterization from: https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-precipitation-Rainfall-inches,bergen,Norway https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-precipitatio... "A lot of rain (rainy season) falls in the months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December." Yeah, sounds about right.
  - clentaminator 10y ago
    I love the rain, so I'm now considering moving to Bergen. Thanks :)
    - macintux 10y ago
      Driving in my naked Jeep in a warm summer rain is a delight. Sadly, I doubt Bergen has a lot of warm summer rains.
frobozz 10y ago
It's inconsiderate to use an umbrella in a densely packed city like London. Get an overcoat.
CalRobert 10y ago
In Dublin, I think it's considered, if not rude, at least not the height of courtesy, to use an umbrella in dense areas where you will be bumping in to people and essentially pushing your water on to them. However, my feeling is that the real lunacy here is having very narrow pavements (sidewalks) carrying dozens or hundreds of people while having streets, which might be carrying ten or twenty people along the same stretch of road in taxis (which most cars are in Dublin city centre on a weekday morning), get 8-10x as much space. (I am much more sympathetic to buses).
- kiallmacinnes 10y ago
  Hah, yes! Theres nothing more annoying than someone sauntering along with their umbrella held low in a crowd. They rarely even apologise after smacking you somewhere with it.</rant> ;)
  - flanbiscuit 10y ago
    as a tall person walking around in NYC during the rain can be somewhat dangerous. Thankfully I wear glasses so there's one level of protection but people are generally selfish and self-absorbed. They'd rather keep their umbrella low and not get a few drops of rain on them rather than avoid hitting your face.
- rtpg 10y ago
  Funny cuz in Tokyo everyone uses an umbrella, the reasoning I heard from a co-worker being if everyone else rain jackets the trains would be a mucky mess
  - khedoros 10y ago
    And there, you've got hundreds of African men yelling "kasa kasa!" any time a sprinkle starts, selling super-cheap 500 yen umbrellas. It was odd to see, when I visited a few years ago.
- NathanKP 10y ago
  The same crowded street problem happens where I live in NYC, but it generally works out as people get into a rhythm of either raising their umbrella up over the level of the other person's umbrella or lowering it down below the level of the other person's umbrella. But then in NYC you develop a much closer "personal bubble" when you have to endure being crammed onto the train like a sardine during rush hour, so in comparison a little umbrella bumping is barely noticeable.
zhte415 10y ago
> I'm always surprised how I seem to be the only person carrying an umbrella in London when it rains. Especially bankers seem to prefer getting soaked. If you're a banker in London you're inundated with free umbrellas, as they're the gift de-facto on attending any kind of event. Nice, big, very big, very good quality, umbrellas (with said host company's logo). You're also probably wearing a decent wool suit, and decent wool suits, Super-100s and above, not that expensive, and by design of nature, are completely shower-proof. Not rain-proof, but shower-proof. When getting to the destination, they just need a bash to bounce off any droplets that have stuck to the exterior (don't wipe, doing so will force the droplets into the fabric).
k-mcgrady 10y ago
>> "I'm always surprised how I seem to be the only person carrying an umbrella in London when it rains." Weird, I'm always surprised at how almost every seems to have an umbrella ready to use in London.
- CheckHook 10y ago
  Yeah, working in central London and there's always an abundance of umbrellas in use when it rains, really not sure what this commenter is talking about.
  - Symbiote 10y ago
    Do they have tour company logos on? In some parts of central London, there's an abundance of rain ponchos, but that's unusual clothing for a Brit. I think to really get a representative feel of average London, it's necessary to survey somewhere like Ealing or New Cross.
    - k-mcgrady 10y ago
      It's definitely not tourists, it's usually business people. I'm also rarely in central London these days, and in the east (Zone 2/3) umbrellas are a common sight. I know because constantly manoeuvring my own to dodge other people's :)
celticninja 10y ago
"I do not believe the presence of moisture in the air is sufficient reason to overturn society's usual sensible taboo against wielding spiked clubs at eye level.” China Mieville - Un Lun Dun
- lostlogin 10y ago
  The recent thread on height had a discussion about the pros and cons of being tall. The only con I agreed with was discomfort while flying. However umbrella injuries are another. Society tries to blind the tall when it rains.
leejo 10y ago
Reminds me of my chemistry professor who spent time teaching in Japan. He didn't carry a brolly, much to the surprise of local residents, who would ask him "what do you do when it rains?". Answer: "i get wet".
Grazester 10y ago
This was alive and well in my small Caribbean country. When I went to secondary school I would rather get soaked than to ever carry something as "girly" as an umbrella. Most of my classmates felt the same way. It wasn't something limited to only secondary school boys but also younger males. I have long since matured past that and it seems like within the past decade things have changed a bit here
CheckHook 10y ago
This just isn't true, I work in central London amongst the bankers and they're usually the first to get out a bank branded umbrella, usually obnoxiously huge ones too.
amelius 10y ago
> In the minds of many Brits, umbrella usage was symptomatic of a weakness of character, particularly among men Why isn't driving a car, or any motorized vehicle, similarly seen as a weakness?
Chris2048 10y ago
British comedian, Jimmy Carr: " l'm not gay. Unless you're from Newcastle, and by "gay" you mean "owns a coat". "
LanceH 10y ago
Along those lines, an umbrella is not to be used in (US) military uniform.
dingbat 10y ago
for some reason its difficult to even imagine two male bankers sharing one umbrella together

seizethecheese 10y ago

This is definitely alive in Portland, OR. There's a pride in handling the rain.

dmoy 10y ago
If Portland is anything like up here in Seattle, it also doesn't actually rain that much (usually). More just a continuous drizzle for 8 solid months.
- csydas 10y ago
  Yeah, I moved to Seattle about 6 years ago from the Midwest and was teased often by some Seattle natives for having an umbrella, which seemed to be fairly arbitrary to choose to pick on given that rubber rain boots were common enough to have fasionable variants made. Not everyone, of course, but quite a few of my colleagues would try to make it a point of pride. Tangentially, most Seattle-lites also didn't understand what I meant when I said Seattle has a lot of drizzle, but it doesn't have rain; growing up in the midwest with midwest thunderstorms, a lot of them didn't seem to understand what I meant by the smell of a storm or the greenish color of the sky as a thunderhead approaches. We all get prideful for various things, I guess though...I know far too many folk from back in WI who insist they can drive perfectly in any weather, despite having wrecked multiple cars in winters past.
  - seanmcdirmid 10y ago
    Seattle can get some bad soaking storms in October/November. Portland also! Umbrellas are taboo because you can't use them easily on your bike, so a nice rain coat (was gortex?) works better. If we did use an umbrella, it was usually the collapsible one that you could fit in your bag, full size British/Japanese style umbrellas were rare. Nothing as bad as my mom's hometown a bit further to the north (Ketchikan).
    - cr1895 10y ago
      I don't see umbrellas on bikes too much in the Netherlands, but when I do they're often this type of aerodynamic shaped umbrella: http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbrella/ http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/dossiers/archive/senz-umbre...
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - michael_h 10y ago
    Smell of a storm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrichor
jasonkester 10y ago
Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. I walked to work in Portland for two years, and while the streets were normally wet and it had clearly been raining recently, there were only a handful of days where I actually got wet during the half hour I was walking. I never carried an umbrella. Compare that to England, where the rain will wait until you're a few hundred yards out of your house, then attack from otherwise sunny skies to blast you from dead sideways with that particularly English tiny-dropped dense-yet-light-seeming rain that soaks your clothes completely in two minutes flat. Then it will stop and let you carry on to your destination wet. You can never leave the house here unprepared.
- elsurudo 10y ago
  > Portland and Seattle are interesting though. It rains a lot, but it never seems to rain on you. That's right, it's a constant drizzle, but rarely anything more. Lived there for just four months, but it was the fall "rainy season", and I barely ever used my umbrella.
selimthegrim 10y ago
Nike sells a Portland themed T shirt with "Shut Your Umbrella" below its logo.

kbart 10y ago

I doubt that it's to show ones manliness. When you are used to rain (I bet everyone that lived in London for more than a week is), you know when it's not strong enough to get you wet and when it's really time to take your umbrella or get a shelter. I usually carry an umbrella, but use it only when I see that otherwise I'm going to get soaked. Walking down a crowded street with an umbrella is often simply too much of a hassle.

nostromo 10y ago
The same is true in Seattle which has similar weather. Coats, hats, and hoodies are much more common than are umbrellas, unless it's raining cats and dogs.
- fragola 10y ago
  I live in Seattle and I agree: the umbrella shame is real.
e12e 10y ago
When you've lived long enough in Bergen, Norway you realize it rains very few other places in the world. It's just that locals around the world whine a lot ;-) I love this (presumably automatic) characterization from: https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-precipitation-Rainfall-inches,bergen,Norway https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-precipitatio... "A lot of rain (rainy season) falls in the months: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December." Yeah, sounds about right.
- clentaminator 10y ago
  I love the rain, so I'm now considering moving to Bergen. Thanks :)
  - macintux 10y ago
    Driving in my naked Jeep in a warm summer rain is a delight. Sadly, I doubt Bergen has a lot of warm summer rains.

frobozz 10y ago

It's inconsiderate to use an umbrella in a densely packed city like London. Get an overcoat.

CalRobert 10y ago

In Dublin, I think it's considered, if not rude, at least not the height of courtesy, to use an umbrella in dense areas where you will be bumping in to people and essentially pushing your water on to them. However, my feeling is that the real lunacy here is having very narrow pavements (sidewalks) carrying dozens or hundreds of people while having streets, which might be carrying ten or twenty people along the same stretch of road in taxis (which most cars are in Dublin city centre on a weekday morning), get 8-10x as much space. (I am much more sympathetic to buses).

kiallmacinnes 10y ago
Hah, yes! Theres nothing more annoying than someone sauntering along with their umbrella held low in a crowd. They rarely even apologise after smacking you somewhere with it.</rant> ;)
- flanbiscuit 10y ago
  as a tall person walking around in NYC during the rain can be somewhat dangerous. Thankfully I wear glasses so there's one level of protection but people are generally selfish and self-absorbed. They'd rather keep their umbrella low and not get a few drops of rain on them rather than avoid hitting your face.
rtpg 10y ago
Funny cuz in Tokyo everyone uses an umbrella, the reasoning I heard from a co-worker being if everyone else rain jackets the trains would be a mucky mess
- khedoros 10y ago
  And there, you've got hundreds of African men yelling "kasa kasa!" any time a sprinkle starts, selling super-cheap 500 yen umbrellas. It was odd to see, when I visited a few years ago.
NathanKP 10y ago
The same crowded street problem happens where I live in NYC, but it generally works out as people get into a rhythm of either raising their umbrella up over the level of the other person's umbrella or lowering it down below the level of the other person's umbrella. But then in NYC you develop a much closer "personal bubble" when you have to endure being crammed onto the train like a sardine during rush hour, so in comparison a little umbrella bumping is barely noticeable.

zhte415 10y ago

> I'm always surprised how I seem to be the only person carrying an umbrella in London when it rains. Especially bankers seem to prefer getting soaked. If you're a banker in London you're inundated with free umbrellas, as they're the gift de-facto on attending any kind of event. Nice, big, very big, very good quality, umbrellas (with said host company's logo). You're also probably wearing a decent wool suit, and decent wool suits, Super-100s and above, not that expensive, and by design of nature, are completely shower-proof. Not rain-proof, but shower-proof. When getting to the destination, they just need a bash to bounce off any droplets that have stuck to the exterior (don't wipe, doing so will force the droplets into the fabric).

k-mcgrady 10y ago

>> "I'm always surprised how I seem to be the only person carrying an umbrella in London when it rains." Weird, I'm always surprised at how almost every seems to have an umbrella ready to use in London.

CheckHook 10y ago
Yeah, working in central London and there's always an abundance of umbrellas in use when it rains, really not sure what this commenter is talking about.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  Do they have tour company logos on? In some parts of central London, there's an abundance of rain ponchos, but that's unusual clothing for a Brit. I think to really get a representative feel of average London, it's necessary to survey somewhere like Ealing or New Cross.
  - k-mcgrady 10y ago
    It's definitely not tourists, it's usually business people. I'm also rarely in central London these days, and in the east (Zone 2/3) umbrellas are a common sight. I know because constantly manoeuvring my own to dodge other people's :)

celticninja 10y ago

"I do not believe the presence of moisture in the air is sufficient reason to overturn society's usual sensible taboo against wielding spiked clubs at eye level.” China Mieville - Un Lun Dun

lostlogin 10y ago
The recent thread on height had a discussion about the pros and cons of being tall. The only con I agreed with was discomfort while flying. However umbrella injuries are another. Society tries to blind the tall when it rains.

leejo 10y ago

Reminds me of my chemistry professor who spent time teaching in Japan. He didn't carry a brolly, much to the surprise of local residents, who would ask him "what do you do when it rains?". Answer: "i get wet".

Grazester 10y ago

This was alive and well in my small Caribbean country. When I went to secondary school I would rather get soaked than to ever carry something as "girly" as an umbrella. Most of my classmates felt the same way. It wasn't something limited to only secondary school boys but also younger males. I have long since matured past that and it seems like within the past decade things have changed a bit here

CheckHook 10y ago

This just isn't true, I work in central London amongst the bankers and they're usually the first to get out a bank branded umbrella, usually obnoxiously huge ones too.

amelius 10y ago

> In the minds of many Brits, umbrella usage was symptomatic of a weakness of character, particularly among men Why isn't driving a car, or any motorized vehicle, similarly seen as a weakness?

Chris2048 10y ago

British comedian, Jimmy Carr: " l'm not gay. Unless you're from Newcastle, and by "gay" you mean "owns a coat". "

LanceH 10y ago

Along those lines, an umbrella is not to be used in (US) military uniform.

dingbat 10y ago

for some reason its difficult to even imagine two male bankers sharing one umbrella together