By Joey Chung
I live in a dorm with three other guys, all of whom happen to belong to engineering departments. When I met them their first question upon hearing my name and department was, “There must be a ton of hot chicks in your department right? It must be great basically ‘swimming’ with girls every day.” The same questions, the same responses, and the same lopsided goofy grins that pop up on their faces. And this has happened to me and my fellow guy classmates almost every single time we meet another red-blooded male–to the point that we started taking notes, just exactly what these stereotypes and preconceptions were, and most importantly, what they meant towards our department. First off, what do guys, who make up around half of our school’s population, think of our department? After asking around (I’m sure the answer is very predictable without asking) the answer is: “Girls! Girls! And more Girls! They seem to be everywhere!” The shortest skirt, the most eye-catching top, or the prettiest face in a crowd, they think, is always from our department. “I would die to live in this gold mine, having so many to choose from!” It’s like the school’s bank for potential girlfriends, where everyone wishes one day to “withdraw” if possible! On the other hand there are certainly other opinions, and perhaps some negative ones. Other departments with fewer Y genes than ours respond a bit more rationally, often asking me seriously whether the students in our department are richer. We study foreign languages, hence we should be able to travel abroad, and it takes money to travel and to buy exotic things from other countries. Plus, judging from the way the girls dress and primp themselves–with all their clothing, jewelry, and perfume–it does seem like our department looks more posh and well brought up. So maybe this stereotype is true after all. Which leads us to the result of all this asking and analyzing: that these girls must be a difficult catch. The girls in our department are the ultimate goal for a guy, it seems, something every guy wishes to have, but due to the girls’ high standard most guys don’t even dare to imagine doing something about it. The girls are in a league that is unreachable and thus guys can only stare and fantasize from a distance. Perhaps girls from our department sometimes seem cold and distant, compared to girls in other departments. People think of them as just sitting, tossing their hair, arguing whether or not to go shopping tonight or tomorrow night or, what the heck, why not both nights? And finally, what about the guys in our department? The reply from most outsiders is: “Guys? What guys?” The guys that are outnumbered 10 to 1? The guys that are basically bumping into fellow girl classmates everyday yet still can’t get a girlfriend? The guys that are envied by almost every single male mammal in our school yet at the same time ridiculed for being non-engineering students and thus not a complete man? The most common stereotypes are that we are sissies. Or nerds. Or eccentric. Or all of the above. And basically we are forgotten, just the side effect of the 90 pretty girls. We are insignificant, merely amusing, not yet annoying, but nothing important either, just something to laugh at by the “real men.” Everyone is so excited about the girls yet never bother to ask about the guys. Have you ever heard a girl screaming at the top of her lungs, ripping her shirt to pieces, over-flowing with life and anticipation wanting to date a guy from our department? Does any one ask whether our department has good looking male specimens? Of course not, or so the stereotypes go. All the girls are peeping at the Electrical Engineering basketball game or off shopping with their new Study Buddies, while the guys are all hiding in their dorms trying on makeup. So what’s the conclusion? Of course, these are just surface views, remembered vaguely without any deeper thought. They are supposed to be amusing, but do they also tell us something? Do they have some truth or reason for being? Perhaps they offer an important mirror for us to see ourselves. But until then, I’m sure our girls will continue to raid sales, killing those who dare to grab the clothes they wanted to buy, while we guys will all hide in a dark corner whispering and giggling and swatting each other in our little girl voices as we excitedly try a new Lancôme product. a
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May 2024
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