Are guys more nostalgic?
 

I was thinking the other day that with all the reboots and stuff it seemed like they always reboot the things that were more popular with boys. I started thinking this because of the new Alvin and the Chipmunks. I was really excited about it because I thought it was gonna hearken back to the 80s show and when I told my wife about it she was just totally indifferent. They have rebooted Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, Transformers, Ghostbusters, G.I. Joe, TMNT, and now Power Rangers. Even the new My Little Pony seems to appeal more to guys than girls. The only "girl" thing I can think of being rebooted was Jem and my wife loved it as a kid but when I told her they might make a film of it she didn't really care at all. I know there were girl fans of all these shows that are being rebooted but generally the target audience was boys. So do you think they reboot "boy stuff" because guys are just naturally more nostalgic? Just wanted other people's opinions on it.

I don't think so...

Why is this is the Current Events section? It should probably be in the Everything Else section.

As for the question, not really. I was excited about TMNT and MLP being rebooted. I love the new Alvin show because I used to watch that as a kid and I'm excited for the Powerpuff Girls reboot that's coming out soon. So, it's not just guys that are nostalgic. It just depends on the person and the level of interest.

The male audience of the new MLP are not watching it for the nostalgia factor.

Whenever a Pokemon remake comes out I see way more women screaming about nostalgia than men.

lmao @ bubbly thinking she speaks for all women, though.

I hold nostalgia for nothing, so I can't answer the questiion

Yes. Women only feel emotions about shoes and handbags. And occasionally lip gloss.

I think it's a fair point, though.

Women do tend to be more obsessed with being "hip", "fresh", "trendy", and "in-fashion" or "in style" than guys generally are, about everything from clothes to TV to music or whatever else. Growing up and all through high school, I rarely if ever had guys tease me about anything to the point of, "You still like THAT? That is SO out of style/dated/unhip/whatever". Only girls ever played that game with me. They seem to have shorter attention spans, grow bored with things more quickly, and not look back on things as fondly, if at all.

I know what penny said was a joke, but take a moment to consider the fashion industry: Pretty much all-women, by women, for women... the entire point is to be "New" and "Fresh", and even as recently as "last season" is embarrassing ancient history not to be spoken of. Now, not to be a jerk... but men didn't come up with those kinds of ideas. We kind of generally think that's a stupid way to look at things (especially something as superficial as fashion). An industry of, by, and for women - the industry They as a whole are more obsessed with, and spend more money on, than absolutely anything else in the world - and the entire message is "Look forward, never backwards, and don't be caught dead living in the past." That's interesting, to me, and I do think it paints a certain picture - albeit a very broad one - of how women, in general, often think.

I'd argue that women in general really don't have as much of a sense of nostalgia as men do. But that's all it is, is a general assessment. Some are obviously going to be very nostalgic, and I know plenty of guys who don't like looking back as far as this morning, let alone their childhood. But I do kind of think traditionally nostalgia is more a Guys' Thing. Just seems like one'a those "wired differently" things.

But anyways, yeah, why is this thread in this spot? :lol: No kinda sense.

I think Leo may bw onto something, though certainly not in regards to all women. However, women also are more likely to keep scrapbooks, photo albums, and mementos of fond memories.

If we are, then why is it a problem?

If we're judging humanity based on how we all acted in high school, we're screwed. The vast majority of people behaved like twisted, cliquish monsters at that age.

Male designers actually dominate women's fashion. Yves Saint Lauren, Jean Paul Gaultier, Tommy Hilfiger, Valentino, Christian Loubotin, Alexander Wang, Jimmy Choo, Karl Lagerfeld, Gianni Versace, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen, Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Christian Dior, Christian Lacroix, Manolo Blahnik... etc.

That's what girls are socialized to do. Male or female, deviation from socially dominant norms isn't often encouraged - as a guy with long hair, I'm sure you've experienced that yourself. Non-conformity isn't generally a well-rewarded trait in the real world.

Well it doesn't help that some people still act that way as adults.

Really? It was the exact opposite for me. Girls thought it was cute that I had nostalgic interests, hell even now I still remind a lot of girls of their brothers and such; it was the guys that teased the hell out of me growing up.

Agreed.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/04b882e2...l0ajo1_500.gif

Interesting question.

I think I'll say yes to this. I love throwbacks, old cartoons, old music, and the 90's in general - and I'm a guy. Most of the girls I know couldn't give half a sh*t about that older junk. Although, a lot of stuff back then was geared more towards dudes anyway...which might be part of the reason.

Haha, same.

I'm not nostalgic about anything while my sister is always bragging about how "old school" she is. It's really annoying, actually.

That's my input.

Hm, maybe guys seem more nostalgic over things because it takes longer for them to grow up? I don't know. I get nostalgic for stuff all the time. lol. Never realized it seemed more associated with guys than women.

I still don't see why it has to be a bad thing, or make a person immature. Like, how dare I have fond memories of things I enjoyed from the past.

Like its already been pointed out, men and women may just tend to express their nostalgic tendencies differently...generally.
I'd say that I'm far more inclined to get excited about these reboots than my boyfriend, who will humor me by watching with me but has zero interest himself. I also collect figures and go to conventions and make costumes and throw parties for this stuff and he couldn't care less.

Are you basing this discussion entirely on the experience you have with your wife? Lol

I appreciate people's opinions. I think Leo has a good take on it. One thing I would point out about the fashion analogy though is that it DOES tend to have a sort of cyclical nature. Like poodle skirts will go out of style and then 20 years later come back. Or shoulder pads or whatever. So there is even a hint of nostalgia in that ya know? I also would like to point out something about "why this is in this section?" The shows I pointed out that were rebooted are all CURRENTLY being rebooted or have recently been rebooted. Right? So I was using them to ask if all these things that are CURRENTLY being rebooted that were originally pretty much generally designed for boys are being rebooted because men are maybe more nostalgic. It was just a question. I mostly just frequent the figures section so I didn't even think about the "everything else" section. I hope this helps solve this incredible mystery which obviously ranks up there with the 7 wonders of the world.

Not necessarily on my experience with my wife. At my comic book store every week it's generally always men in there. I think it's mostly men that collect action figures. I think it's mostly men that get really pumped up about the new Die Hard, Terminator, Mission Impossible, Jurassic Park, Rambo, and things like that. Nostalgia just seems to be heavily "marketed" to men and you know those marketing people don't just throw things against the wall. They do things based on a lot of research.

I can honestly say that I have been made fun of quite a bit for my TMNT shirts. However, people always seem to love my Ducktales shirts. I'm 33 and I love old cartoons and am a Disney Vacation Club member and collect comic books. People aggravate me about all of those things. However, I am also a die hard Steelers fan and am obsessed with pro football and maybe that garners me a little "street cred". LOL. So when I'm around "non geeks", if you will, I just talk about those things even though I'm really passionate about all my fandoms.

Ugh. Whatever. I just think we should be able to enjoy what we enjoy without it being looked down on, and without it made out to be an issue of gender, race, religion, or whatever. Everyone else just needs to f*ck off.

Women don't have a sense of nostalgia? Um...please.

Here's the thing, our culture prizes men above women, so things that cater to men have a higher priority. Where as things that women enjoy are often dismissed out of hand or just downright looked down upon.

N*Sync toured again in 2013.
New Kids on the Block are touring now.

There's My Little Pony.
Jem and the Holograms.

And I'm not even going near the properties marketed to boys that girls loved growing up.

You see an absence of female nostalgia, because when you were growing up...you didn't see us standing next to you. And neither did the marketers.

It's not that you females don't ever have it, but just that guys have it more, and it's apparently frowned upon.

Well my question was are guys "more" nostalgic. I know that women are nostalgic. I'm just saying that maybe men are considered to be more nostalgic since their nostalgia is actually marketed to. I actually mentioned My Little Pony and Jem if you look at one of my posts. I was saying that it even seems that men are even more nostalgic toward My Little Pony. Do you have a lot of friends that are girls that like TMNT? Just out of curiosity. I knew girls when I was a kid that were fans of TMNT but most of them liked Treasure Trolls and Barbies and things like that. However, the Disney Afternoon seemed to be quite popular among both sexes.

I think a lot of the "frowning upon" stuff is more just about being macho and all that. I don't really have anything to prove. I'm married. I have kids. It's not like I need to impress people. Someone once tried to give me some jazz about a TMNT shirt and how it was a shirt for "little kids" and I said "Obviously, since they make it in adult sizes." LOL. I've also found it to be a sort of "pack mentality" with dogging on nostalgic fandom. GROUPS of guys are more likely to pick on something like that but when it's just YOU and THEM they sorta tend to talk about how they always loved TMNT back in the day and then share their memories of how cool they thought it was. I've had that happen before. Have you experienced that as well?

Meh, if we're only talking entertainment media, look at the material. Things aimed at the boys (but, mind you, still had their share of female fans) probably just make better reboot material.

I mean look at the newer things aimed specifically at girls of the current kid generation. How much of that would even make a good reboot in twenty years. Any? I have my doubts.

Did not most in high school or later go through that nostalgic phase with peers, talking about the shows and whatnot everyone used to watch, etc? I remember those discussions being pretty gender equal actually. Years later though when people are older... I dunno. I think maybe it's just more socially acceptable for guys to remain kids at heart and be excited for things like that while women are encouraged to grow up and focus on things we're told are more important for adults to pay attention to, else we're not adult enough. Girls/women have always been somewhat discouraged from fun stuff in some ways (not that we listen though!), too often fun and having it appears to be seen as belonging to the guys; games for example.

Not sure I'd buy that guys are "more" (do guys always have to be "more" about things...?), but much of the material aimed at them was better, worth better reboots, and naturally are the ones such reboots will be aimed at most.

There's certainly things I'm nostalgic about, and not limited to just shows and movies.

Come on... Labyrinth, Neverending Story, Fraggle Rock, Dark Crystal, Gummi Bears, Teddy Ruxbin, Pound Puppies, Popples, Glow Worm and all the toys that were common (Sit 'N Spin how I miss you, only a Tilt-a-Whirl comes close), Hungry Hungry Hippos (we eventually played it to death lol), anyone else ever remember the Shirt Tails cartoon? Pinwheel, Romper Room, the early days of Nick... You Can't Do That on Television (WE - well those old enough - remember where the Nick slime started!), Out of Control, Are You Afraid of the Dark, SNICK, and everything else possible. We had the good stuff.

Can't stick TMNT in there really, because thankfully they're still thriving. :) But there is nostalgia for watching them (first series) every day after school. I wouldn't mind seeing a reboot of that schedule however.

Personal non media/toy things... my grandparents home, the smell of the basement playroom on rainy days, my fascination with credit (and other) cards and the mystery why adults had all those cards in their wallets... I loved those fakes ones that would come with credit card junk mail. Making fake birds nests with my sister. Wearing racoon tails on a shoe string around our waists, tangling over our rears, and climbing the only climbable tree in the front yard... :lol:

Yup, not nostalgic at all.

What's funny is my little boy and my little girl actually love all things Disney Jr. but Jake and the Neverland Pirates are probably their favorite. I often wonder if someday when my son is in his 30s if he will still wanna try and get an adult Jake shirt or try and recover the Jake toys he opened by collecting them MIB or will that show and others like it just not have the "staying power" or whatever. Some people tell me that if I had known how much my He-Man toys would be worth now I could have kept them in the box but I always say that they were meant to be played with then and are meant to be collected now and I wouldn't trade my memories of playing with them for anything. It is the fact that I played with them that makes me want to collect them in the first place. So I never buy my kids toys with the feeling that maybe someday they will be "worth something" and then buy one just to keep in the box. If they want to go back and find them when they become vintage I will not take that experience away from them because I know how much I enjoy it ya know? Also I loved most of the toys you mentioned and still have an original Teddy that can still talk!

I won't even attempt to speak for individuals, I've just been predominantly surrounded by women over men my entire life. I just call it how I observe it. In general, if I'm talking to a guy, I could bring up some obscure 80s cartoon and we could have a ten-minute conversation out of it, but with girls, most of the time there's little to discuss after "Oh, yeah, I remember that!" It just seems that in the broader sense, women don't spend as much time reflecting backwards.

And this forum probably isn't a good barometer since this is where all the Cool People hang out. :lol: Of course the data is going to be skewed.

1) Female is an adjective, not a noun. Knock that obnoxious sh!t off.

2) You're saying that men and boys are more nostalgic for things that were made specifically with them in mind, than women and girls are because they were purposely left out of the equation.

And even when we did show an interest, we were shamed for it. We're still shamed for it now!

It's like saying well we made this great toy for dogs, but for some reason cats don't like it. Cats must not like toys!

"This is where the females play huh? Look at the noun, "female" We ain't no female":P

(Leo will get this)

Along those lines, the other day I bought myself TMNT pajama pants I'd been eyeing at Walmart for a bit (and hoping they'd have a sale... nope - figured either by them now or never since the stock will prob soon change seasons), was wearing them the next night and my mother asks where I'd gotten them.

Thought they were cute and thankfully she's fine with my being a fan again - unlike the opinion she held twenty years ago and I still have a fear that attitude will return - but her immediate thought was they'd probably come from the boys section. She was surprised (seemed pleasantly surprised actually) to hear that no, they're from the women's/juniors pajamas section, they really are ladies pants. Not that there is anything wrong with buying something from any section you want, including kids, including boys, if it fits you... but I wish it wasn't a surprising thing that something of TMNT was actually made for women, nor automatically assumed what I own was not intended for women/girls.

Yeah, and it's a shame that is so often the case. I usually buy most of my tee-shirts in the boys section, and not just because of size issues. I just like the designs better, generally. Rarely do I ever find a TMNT shirt or pajamas or whatever in the girls'/womens' sections. Although there was a cute set not long ago- but sadly, not in my size. I've noticed SOME nostalgic stuff aimed at girls, but it's generally in the vein of "Hey, you remember when this was big? So do we!" and usually plays on the property from a girl's angle of "I'm cute for liking this!" (See also: I only date ninjas, I *heart* TMNT, etc....) Everything else aimed at nostalgia for ladies is- Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, and other things that MOST girls were never "into" in the first place! It's "fake" nostalgia just for the sake of "cool" factor. Because it makes you hip, chic, cute, or whatever. And it's silly, because they make it for girls to LOOK like they are included. Or for the select few who actually ARE into whatever property it was made for.


Edit- Also, female IS also a noun. As in: "the female of the species", "a male or female" "females congregating"..... English is a complex language, folks. Words DO have multiple uses!

I didn't say I speak for all women. I'm speaking as a woman who does get nostalgic and looks back at certain things to point out that it's not just guys who get nostalgic about things and I said that it depends on the person in general. Some people get nostalgic and some don't and that goes for both genders. Sorry you didn't understand that, but you seem to have a hard time grasping a lot of things.

And I saw a TMNT retro shirt in the women's pajama section the other day, so they are made for women. I do like the boys' section though and the shirts they offer, too.

I've seen some really cool TMNT stuff for women at Wal Mart. Also at Target. They have a TMNT bra even. At Wal Mart I've seen a cool nightgown and some cool pajamas too.

I was at Wal-Mart the other day, they actually have more TMNT shirts in the girls than guys section. I didn't get a good look at which had better designs, I just noticed there was a wider selection in the girls' section. NJ's weird though, I'unno. Just sayin'.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-ZNOrKud4s0/hqdefault.jpg
"Big Sexy enjoyed your obscure inside reference. Move ahead four spaces." :lol:

There is some film theory thing for ages ago from like Arkoff or somebody that basically goes something like "a woman will usually go to a movie made for a man but not so much vice versa, and a kid will watch a movie made for young adults but not so much vice versa, so just make movies for young men and everyone will watch it". I think a lot of pop culture operates off of that, and this might just be a side effect of that sort of thinking.

Somehow, I'm seeing this discussion as another one of those "stupid things guys do" discussions.

Like these? :) The ones I just got.


Now what I'm annoyed at, is Walmart has a whole bunch of cute athletic/jersey type shirts with the stripes across the sleeves for different superheros and a few other topics. A couple even have like "Batman" or "Superman" across the upper back. Do they have one for the Turtles?? No. :ohwell: Want.

And yes, Jersey is weird, been like my weird neighbor forever, prob why so many who live there seem to hang out over here to get away for a few. lol :P

No I hadn't seen those but they are really cool. The ones I seen were like a set with matching tops and bottoms. The nightgowns were like just an extended shirt that was sorta purple and green. The bra I seen was at Target and had Donnie's head all over it. I've also seen TMNT panties as well.