Oklahoma City is number 3 on this list of Manliest Cities, up 22 spots from last year. (Tulsa isn’t on the list at all.) The criteria for manliness amuses me. It seems to me that it’s really the criteria for “redneck” or maybe “macho”. Criteria included professional sports teams, number of pickups and motorcycles registered, number of chicken wing and steak restaurants, number of western apparel stores, number of manly occupations, etc. It’s not surprising that 7 of the top 10 are southern cities.
Of course I roll my eyes at all of this. A man who drives an economy car and reads good books and can talk about them intelligently seems at least as manly to me as one who drives a pickup and prefers to talk about sports. But I’m a woman so what would I know? When guys worry about their manliness (and they all do) they’re only concerned about impressing other men.
July 23rd, 2012 - 9:35 am
Are they doing a companion piece on the girliest cities? I’d really love to go somewhere on vacation that had a high number of tearooms, boutiques, flower shops, and cupcake shops….Or is being “girly” still anathema and not something for a city to aspire to?
July 23rd, 2012 - 9:53 am
That’s a great idea. Actually, if you scroll down to the very bottom of the page there’s a “Manly Kryptonite” list – cities that had points taken off for “the number of home furnishing and décor stores, cafés/coffee shops, sushi restaurants, “modern” male apparel stores and cupcake shops. Probably not quite what you had in mind but it’s a start.
I tried a Google search and did not find a girliest cities list. It asked me if I meant “earliest cities”. Sometimes I wish there was a way you could tell Google “No that’s not what I meant.”
July 23rd, 2012 - 10:09 am
Yeah, I tried Googling as well and only got lists of “girly” drinks (which are of no interest to me) and it asked me if I wanted “earliest cities.”
I wouldn’t care so much about sushi restaurants (blech) or “modern” male apparel (even if I had a man, I wouldn’t insist on dressing him). But I would like to see quilt/yarn shops, craft shops, antique shops….I suppose people’s definitions of “girly” vary.