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Perhaps the question should be, “Why do women value gold?” Using gold for adornment seems universal. And, it seems to be the females in the culture who primari

Perhaps the question should be, “Why do women value gold?” Using gold for adornment seems universal. And, it seems to be the females in the culture who primarily wear it. Of course, it’s a chicken and egg kinda thing; do women value it (and the men who have it) because it’s valuable, or is it valuable because women like it? I’ve always liked the color of copper more. And, silver seems far more shiny. However — and this goes back to the gender issue — the men would not normally have the task of polishing the stuff as it oxidizes. In other words, while a copper necklace and a gold necklace might appear equally pretty to a man, perhaps a woman would look at the copper and see not just the color, but the work that will be needed to maintain it.

valbaca 6y ago
> Perhaps the question should be, “Why do women value gold?” No, it shouldn't. Gold has been worn by just as many men as women. I thought the blue-pink divide was arbitrary, but now gold is "only for women"? Based on what? > the females Gross. > the men would not normally have the task of polishing the stuff What incredibly specific and odd gender roles you imagine.
- lurquer 6y ago
  So, let me get this straight... Jewelry has been — for the past 10,000 years — gender neutral? And, women have NOT been responsible for cleaning and caring for their own jewelry? Do you ever step outside and interact with people? Have you had so little contact with women that you know nothing of jewelry? Women wear more jewelry than men in nearly every culture on Earth. Marketing jewelry to women is a multi-billion dollar industry world-wide. Does that offend you? If you had any direct contact with women, you would know that —- even to this day —- polishing, storing, and organizing jewelry is something far more women do than men. If that’s ‘gross’ to you, you have issues.
  - dopidopHN 6y ago
    > Women wear more jewelry than men in nearly every culture on Earth Citation needed.
    - simonblack 6y ago
      Here's one. But where would you put it? https://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/yaffadsp/images/dmImage/StandardImage/cessna_citation_cj4.jpg https://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/yaffadsp/images/dmImage/S...
  - SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
    The fact that you are trying to reduce this to a false dichotomy between one of "the females in the culture primarily wear gold" (yes, "females" ) or "Jewelry is gender neutral" shows that you are not a serious person making a serious argument. Your whole weird gender-role based argument is entirely unsupported and yes, gross.
  - osacial 6y ago
    >Women wear more jewelry than men in nearly every culture on Earth. Ssure: https://www.rolex.com/ https://www.rolex.com/
- imtringued 6y ago
  >>the females >Gross. This sort of phrasing/teminology is very common. Nobody is implying anything by it. I was surprised at first when I heard about it but it's probably because English is my second language and thinking of calling someone the equivalent in German would be very awkward. However, that's not the case in English. It's just a different language.
parsimo2010 6y ago
Sure, countries since ancient times have been using it as their basis of currency solely because women like shiny jewelry. Or maybe it’s because men like gold too and it’s not just for adornment.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  The causation is probably backwards really - relative preference bias towards women was because of the norms of ancient times. In elder strongly patriarchal cultures (including some still around today) courtship jewelery was one of the few valuables that belonged to the woman specifically as opposed to say land. It became a part of courtship and essentially an expression of commitment, ability to demonstrate ability to provide for his wife, as well as giving some insurance even if faith were broken. Relative value wise it could actually resale for sizable ammounts. If the worst were to happen - if he died or abandoned her, she would still have her jewels to fall back upon. Notable more modern cultural relics include things like a grandmother's or mother's wedding dress (industrialization helped make such one off goods viable while for masses not rich enough to wear one or more very expensive dresses once per social occasion), wedding ring, or other jewelery going to (grand)daughters specifically. Obviously the items would likely not fit the sons while also historically drawing ridicule if actually worn so that helped explain why it was allowed.
jazzyjackson 6y ago
Its men who carve the mines and go on global conquests to increase their stores. Gold watches, gold chains, men wear plenty of gold. I'm thinking of Gaddafi, or Mansa Musa, and the conquistadors. Some monumental architecture (WV captiol dome, moque domes) are painted gold, it's not to impress women, it's to project power. To your point on why women are wearing it, some cultures in India and Africa, IIRC women are in charge of house finances; without bank accounts, jewelry becomes a store of value. The aesthetic value is secondary, the important part is it can be transported on your person and liquidated, easily verified as being gold. Same as bitcoin, someone shows you a 256bit number, it's trivial to test whether that number is a wallet or not, you just check the ledger. Gold is the ultimate distributed store of value, no third party is needed to check if the value is there. PS you got a "gross" in one of the replies because some people are set off by the use of "female" when "women" would do. I don't really get it but just FYI.
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  > you got a "gross" in one of the replies because some people are set off by the use of "female" when "women" would do I wouldn't reduce the cause to just that one word. That word choice is merely the cherry on the whole cake of Gender essentialism. Deciding that _this_ unsupported irrelevance is where the conversation really needs to go is the foundation of it.
osacial 6y ago
> Perhaps the question should be, “Why do women value gold?” ...as in opposite, that men don't? https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.acMHk5wKXdR-SbwcIxcTWAHaHu&pid=15.1 https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.acMHk5wKXdR-SbwcIxcTWAHaH...

valbaca 6y ago

> Perhaps the question should be, “Why do women value gold?” No, it shouldn't. Gold has been worn by just as many men as women. I thought the blue-pink divide was arbitrary, but now gold is "only for women"? Based on what? > the females Gross. > the men would not normally have the task of polishing the stuff What incredibly specific and odd gender roles you imagine.

lurquer 6y ago
So, let me get this straight... Jewelry has been — for the past 10,000 years — gender neutral? And, women have NOT been responsible for cleaning and caring for their own jewelry? Do you ever step outside and interact with people? Have you had so little contact with women that you know nothing of jewelry? Women wear more jewelry than men in nearly every culture on Earth. Marketing jewelry to women is a multi-billion dollar industry world-wide. Does that offend you? If you had any direct contact with women, you would know that —- even to this day —- polishing, storing, and organizing jewelry is something far more women do than men. If that’s ‘gross’ to you, you have issues.
- dopidopHN 6y ago
  > Women wear more jewelry than men in nearly every culture on Earth Citation needed.
  - simonblack 6y ago
    Here's one. But where would you put it? https://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/yaffadsp/images/dmImage/StandardImage/cessna_citation_cj4.jpg https://yaffa-cdn.s3.amazonaws.com/yaffadsp/images/dmImage/S...
- SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
  The fact that you are trying to reduce this to a false dichotomy between one of "the females in the culture primarily wear gold" (yes, "females" ) or "Jewelry is gender neutral" shows that you are not a serious person making a serious argument. Your whole weird gender-role based argument is entirely unsupported and yes, gross.
- osacial 6y ago
  >Women wear more jewelry than men in nearly every culture on Earth. Ssure: https://www.rolex.com/ https://www.rolex.com/
imtringued 6y ago
>>the females >Gross. This sort of phrasing/teminology is very common. Nobody is implying anything by it. I was surprised at first when I heard about it but it's probably because English is my second language and thinking of calling someone the equivalent in German would be very awkward. However, that's not the case in English. It's just a different language.

parsimo2010 6y ago

Sure, countries since ancient times have been using it as their basis of currency solely because women like shiny jewelry. Or maybe it’s because men like gold too and it’s not just for adornment.

Nasrudith 6y ago
The causation is probably backwards really - relative preference bias towards women was because of the norms of ancient times. In elder strongly patriarchal cultures (including some still around today) courtship jewelery was one of the few valuables that belonged to the woman specifically as opposed to say land. It became a part of courtship and essentially an expression of commitment, ability to demonstrate ability to provide for his wife, as well as giving some insurance even if faith were broken. Relative value wise it could actually resale for sizable ammounts. If the worst were to happen - if he died or abandoned her, she would still have her jewels to fall back upon. Notable more modern cultural relics include things like a grandmother's or mother's wedding dress (industrialization helped make such one off goods viable while for masses not rich enough to wear one or more very expensive dresses once per social occasion), wedding ring, or other jewelery going to (grand)daughters specifically. Obviously the items would likely not fit the sons while also historically drawing ridicule if actually worn so that helped explain why it was allowed.

jazzyjackson 6y ago

Its men who carve the mines and go on global conquests to increase their stores. Gold watches, gold chains, men wear plenty of gold. I'm thinking of Gaddafi, or Mansa Musa, and the conquistadors. Some monumental architecture (WV captiol dome, moque domes) are painted gold, it's not to impress women, it's to project power. To your point on why women are wearing it, some cultures in India and Africa, IIRC women are in charge of house finances; without bank accounts, jewelry becomes a store of value. The aesthetic value is secondary, the important part is it can be transported on your person and liquidated, easily verified as being gold. Same as bitcoin, someone shows you a 256bit number, it's trivial to test whether that number is a wallet or not, you just check the ledger. Gold is the ultimate distributed store of value, no third party is needed to check if the value is there. PS you got a "gross" in one of the replies because some people are set off by the use of "female" when "women" would do. I don't really get it but just FYI.

SideburnsOfDoom 6y ago
> you got a "gross" in one of the replies because some people are set off by the use of "female" when "women" would do I wouldn't reduce the cause to just that one word. That word choice is merely the cherry on the whole cake of Gender essentialism. Deciding that _this_ unsupported irrelevance is where the conversation really needs to go is the foundation of it.

osacial 6y ago

> Perhaps the question should be, “Why do women value gold?” ...as in opposite, that men don't? https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.acMHk5wKXdR-SbwcIxcTWAHaHu&pid=15.1 https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.acMHk5wKXdR-SbwcIxcTWAHaH...