Why aren't Japanese knives popular within female buyers as end-customer?

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Paraffin said:
Maybe this point was made earlier, but we haven't exactly reached equality between the sexes in division of household responsibilities. It's still the case that women are usually the ones who cook for the family on a daily basis, who pack the kid's lunches before school, and are responsible for getting food on the table for dinner. It's a job, not a hobby. It's not something to think about when you have free time for doing something else.

Men are more likely to approach cooking as a hobby, with all the geeky tool acquisition associated with hobbies, simply because they have that freedom of choice for when to cook, or not cook.

I know this is a sweeping generalization, and there are other factors like the "knives are cool weapons" thing that boys are exposed to, in the culture. But I think freedom to approach cooking as a hobby, and not a job as a result of traditional gender roles, is definitely part of it.
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Being a "house husband" I am the one who takes on those roles and still find cooking can be a hobby even if it is an obligation. No reason for it to be mundane if you can enjoy it. I learned that from my mother, who while "obliged" to do so, loves to cook and bake. I also think this sort of thing is becoming more common but as you said, may not be the norm. But in this day and age no one partner should feel obliged to cook etc. It takes two...
 
K813zra said:
Being a "house husband" I am the one who takes on those roles and still find cooking can be a hobby even if it is an obligation. No reason for it to be mundane if you can enjoy it. I learned that from my mother, who while "obliged" to do so, loves to cook and bake. I also think this sort of thing is becoming more common but as you said, may not be the norm. But in this day and age no one partner should feel obliged to cook etc. It takes two...
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It takes two... absolutely, as an ideal case anyway! And things are moving in a better direction away from traditional gender roles. Also, once the kids are out of the house, cooking can become more of an option for fun, and not an obligation.
 
Women are not into knives the same as men because knives are not shiny, sparkley, or colorful.

If you want more female knife customers you got to do the following.

1. Deck that Watanabe with glitter and rhinstones on the spine.

2. Put a diamond laced handle on that Shigefusa with diamond dust on the blade face.

3. Spray paint the kurouchi finish with bright in your face colors.

4. Advertise that using a Geshin Ginga for just 20 minutes in the kitchen burns 800 calories.

Do these things and your next local blade show will have more women walking around than a Lady Gaga concert.
 
nastyfatdave said:
Sarcasm is seriously lost on you two Aussies, innit?
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On the contrary. If you know any Aussies, you'll know that irony and sarcasm forms a pretty important plank in our style of humour (classic Aussie ironic understatement right there). I practice irony and sarcasm every day and I reckon that I'm pretty good at picking them up.

I am glad to hear that it was an ironic remark and in that context I get it. And I'm glad that at least one of the Forum's women took it in that vein.

I guess it just goes to show that irony doesn't translate easily to text, or at least the vocal and non-verbal cues that we give to indicate irony don't exist. Maybe we need to be careful give other cues when being ironic or sarcastic in text, especially if the remark could be offensive if not recognised as ironic.
 
Nemo said:
On the contrary. If you know any Aussies, you'll know that irony and sarcasm forms a pretty important plank in our style of humour (classic Aussie ironic understatement right there). I practice irony and sarcasm every day and I reckon that I'm pretty good at picking them up.

I am glad to hear that it was an ironic remark and in that context I get it. And I'm glad that at least one of the Forum's women took it in that vein.

I guess it just goes to show that irony doesn't translate easily to text, or at least the vocal and non-verbal cues that we give to indicate irony don't exist. Maybe we need to be careful give other cues when being ironic or sarcastic in text, especially if the remark could be offensive if not recognised as ironic.
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Ironic Aussies, never. My best mate is from QLD and a few other good friends are from NSW. Ironic banter is something I would never, ever, expect to hear.
 
I like Lady Gaga

A painted saya with glitter edge and a built in smart phone

A makeup kit in a screw end cap wa handle
 
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Women like to use good knives, but don't want to go through the task of sharpening them when they get dull. Knife sharpening is a manly task. Just like fixing cars. That's why I am so glad I know how to do these things, because if I don't, I'll feel like a lady asking a man to do these things for me. Also, these tasks come more naturally to the hands of a man. Boxing also.
 
Farming is a manly task, and I feel like a lady every time I go to the grocery store. Or it might be the two-piece lace lingerie set I wear underneath my carhart jeans and camo hoodie. We'll never know for sure because garbage-posting on the internet comes more naturally to the hands of a man.
 
spaceconvoy said:
Farming is a manly task, and I feel like a lady every time I go to the grocery store. Or it might be the two-piece lace lingerie set I wear underneath my carhart jeans and camo hoodie. We'll never know for sure because garbage-posting on the internet comes more naturally to the hands of a man.
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for better or worse women don't know how to use the internet
 
shinyunggyun said:
Women like to use good knives, but don't want to go through the task of sharpening them when they get dull. Knife sharpening is a manly task. Just like fixing cars. That's why I am so glad I know how to do these things, because if I don't, I'll feel like a lady asking a man to do these things for me. Also, these tasks come more naturally to the hands of a man. Boxing also.
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Didn't you ever watch girls garage? Taught sharpening at culinary school over 7 years girls pick up sharpening just as well as men. Sometimes better. Why do you think women are used in intricate assembly jobs, they are better at it then men. I am guilty of stereotyping men as better drivers than females. Boxing some, but agree it is a male sport. Better half has no interest in boxing I like to watch the sweet science.
 
Why aren't Japanese knives popular with women? Mostly because they don't know about them.

Several years ago I went to a conference that had some big-name chefs holding question and answer sessions. One thing that everyone wanted to know was what was a good knife. There were 2 answers: Henckels and Wusthof. If you went to any major department store, those 2 brands were the "high end" knives. We were taught to look for a knife with a full tang--that was supposed to be a sign of quality. If you wanted to find a quality Japanese knife, you aren't going to find it where the general public goes shopping. It seems like the idea that Japanese knives are a quality item only started showing up in the mainstream when Alton Brown got in bed with Shun. It's not that women don't want good knives--or sharpen them, or use the internet, or have interests beyond shoes. They just don't know about them and have been told that big, heavy German knives are the best things out there. (Probably true for most men, too.) Some people have what they feel is a significant investment in those big german clunkers--and they were told they were the best. Why would they look for anything else?

I just checked the offerings at a couple major department stores, and the predominant brand was Henckels. Only one of the 2 stores offered any japanese knives, and they were Shuns. You certainly aren't going to find out about Shigs unless you go digging for more information. And many people don't have the time to do that. I used crappy knives for years until I started cooking all our meals at home and started having problems with aching wrists. I fell into the knife rabbit hole when I found out that a good knife means it doesn't hurt to cut up a carrot.

As far as the "women don't like sharpening/carbon/only want shoes and purses" type of commens--what a colossal load of crap.
 
I'm physically ill-equipped to give a female's perspective, but I'll voice an opinion anyway. Talking crap and mansplaining out of their ass comes more naturally to a man after all...

I think Lucretia has a good point about obscurity. 10 years ago even among the culinary world Japanese knives were really obscure here in the Netherlands. In the last decade you slowly saw it drip into mainstream, and now it's slowly starting to show up in most cooking stores - in very limited quantities, and usually the 'lesser' brands. But the general 'professional' advice here even now is to just go get Wüsthof / Zwilling / Sabatier. That's all you'll see in most cooking programs, all you'll see in most stores and all you'll see even in most 'consumer advice' and reviews.

You really had to get out of your way to even get to know Japanese knives up until about 5 years ago. It's not just that they were unpopular or unknown with females, it's that they were unpopular and unknown with males as well. It's not hard to convince most people regardless of gender of the superiority of a good knife when you give them one; it's just that most never got the opportunity. If there's any 'gender-based explanation' for any gender differences in J-knife adaption it probably lies in either an increased willingness to expose oneself to hours of internet research, and/or and increased willingness to multiply a budget for what most people consider nothing but a simple kitchen tool.

When it comes to sharpening... 99% of people I know don't sharpen regardless of gender. Girlfriend would probably agree though that something as mundane as repetitively rubbing a piece of metal on a piece of rock must be a male thing... ;)

It's probably also safe to say that there might be more females than one realizes in some nerdy corners of the internet, it's just that most don't necessarily advertise the specifics of their genitals.
 
Hi,

in my sourroundings (living in a city in Germany, mid 30ies, mostly sourrounded by academics), it's an easy question from OT to answer.... Men cook, Women don't... :D

(means cooking for fun, good food, as a hobby... for just "feeding" your familiy, you don't need a honyaki gyuto ;) )

Honestly... in most of the households of my family and friends that are approx. my age, either the man is a cook or hobbycook (as it is in our household... I cook every day and I think not too bad, my wife can't make anything else than pancakes) and the women can't or don't cook or neither of both can cook, because food isn't relevant in their household...

It seems to me (just from my perspective of course), that cooking and good eating (in my age) is more a men's than a women's thing.

Therefore it does make sense, that cooking knives are more a men's thing, too...

Of course this is just my individual perspective, but it does seem to me also to be a question of age.

Looking at my parents generation for example, in most households, the woman cooks and the man can't cook at all. I think my father is one lonely exeption (he is 79) in so far that he can cook quite good actually. But mostly, my mom cooks. Bought her some decent knives over the years and she does use them (TF Maboroshi, Tojiro DP3HQ, ...) but I think that's maybe more my influence :D


Best,
Iggy
 
not to be dour but in all honesty I wouldnt be surprised if women buying Japanese knives was just as common as men, but that their participation in spaces talking about it is a lot lower because of threads like this, even when theyre in jest.

IMO at some point forum goers, if they want to stem the tide of these things dying in favor of facebook groups or whatever, have to realize that the reason forums look the way they do demographically is much more to do with how they behave than it is inherent to gender/race/etc
 
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