Are you afraid of bed and breakfasts because you are a dude?

Posted at 11:46 AM Nov 18, 2009

By Andrea Grimes

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What does a guy vacation look like? Las Vegas, maybe--strippers and Jager shots and Ed Hardy shirts! Or a trip to the Grand Canyon! What's more duderiffic than climbing stuff and sleeping outside and being in big nature things? But we do know what a dude vacay doesn't look like: a frilly, doily-laden bed and breakfast filled with antiques and lady things! Gross! Everyone knows men hate old stuff and only like new awesome things like Blackberries and technology, while women love shopping and ribbons. Especially shopping for ribbons.

Which is why bed and breakfasts are, according to The New York Times, trying to "man up" their appeal. Thank god we now have more information on where and how to spend our recreational time in accordance with our genitalia:

In Pittsburgh, the Mansion at Maple Heights, owned by a former Pittsburgh Steeler, Chukky Okobi, offered a $995 two-night Gridiron Getaway this football season that included two tickets to a Steelers game, a ride to and from Heinz Field and Saturday college football viewings in the B & B's theater room with 119-inch HDTV and surround sound. Whispering Pines Bed and Breakfast in Dellroy, Ohio, where rooms are outfitted in antique furnishings, recently started offering a Guys Getaway package that includes $10 coupons for a nearby clay pigeon shooting range, boat rentals and dinner at a local restaurant. And the six-room Forty Putney Road in Brattleboro, Vt., has its own pub on the premises.

I mean, everybody knows women don't like high-definition television, sports and dinner at local restaurants. Things things are for men.

PEOPLE. It is a freaking OLD HOUSE where you go to have SLEEP and EAT DELICIOUS BISCUITS IN THE MORNING.

Seriously?

But it's also a way to tap into a long-ignored segment of the B & B market. The "feminine and frou frou" labels that bed-and-breakfasts have collected tend to turn men off, said Nina Laramore, publicist for the Camellia Inn in Healdsburg, Calif., which started offering a Men Only Package about a year and half ago. "I've heard men say, 'Oh, gosh, I thought I would be a traditional bull in the china shop, knocking into knickknacks," she added.

While the inn is fairly traditional with floral bedspreads and a pink exterior, it isn't crowded with tchotchkes, she said. All rooms have Wi-Fi and some have iPod docking stations

Sounds to me like bed and breakfasts are just trying to be relevant and interesting--this lady with a vagina right here both uses the internet and owns an iPod, and would like access to those things on vacation. Why is keeping up with the times and offering people a range of activities an appeal to men? Do only men care about comfort, amenities and mental stimulation?

Then, way, way down at the bottom of the article, the NYT acknowledges that this is completely stereotyped bullshit that is not actually true or interesting.

Sure, some of these man-oriented marketing moves are just as clichéd as the stereotypes they seek to dismiss. And there are plenty of women who are just as turned off by dolls and doilies and who would prefer a good pint of beer to a cup of tea. But innkeepers say their efforts help men feel more welcome.

Look, these gender roles are not going to reinforce themselves, amirite? Why write about interesting, nuanced people when you can just throw everyone into two categories and call it a day?