Sunday, 6 February 2011

Why are men so useless at designing?

This morning I decided to clean the cooker including the large and small ovens. The top is done every time I use it but the ovens are only done about once a month. Because I have OCD it means I am very fussy about some things and a mucky oven is one of them, mucky being a few splashes of fat on the door and floor of the oven.
It's easy to tell this cooker was designed by a man, one who has never had to clean a cooker or oven, especially as extra long arms are required to reach the back of it. I only bought this one when I retired about eighteen months ago and as this was the only one that fitted in the space I have (the others were all too big), I had no choice. This one is made by Hotpoint and I would certainly never recommend anyone to buy one. It is impossible to clean properly in the grill/small oven compartment because there is no removable part above the element which means that if fat splashes above the element it burns on and sets off the fire alarm at very regular intervals. The enamel coating is black which also makes it difficult to see whether it's clean or not.
The large lower oven isn't any better either as it's so close to the floor that poor old dears like me not only have difficulty getting down to clean it, but again you require arms that are three inches longer than normal in order to reach the back of it and there are too many difficult little 'out of reach' places where grease builds up. How I long for the last cooker I had which was a Creda Hallmark and was a much better design altogether. It wasn't perfect but it was pretty close and I had owned it for twenty five years before I bought this new one. I wish I had been able to keep the other one but the insulation in the doors had worn out and it didn't retain heat very well. I must admit I was very sad to see it go and the man who took it off to dispose of it remarked that it 'looked brand new' and couldn't believe how long I had owned it. He said I had obviously looked after and loved it and he was right.
The other thing I have problems with, that was also designed by a man, is my car. I love it to bits but when it comes to cleaning the inside of the front windscreen I need arms at least six inches longer in order to reach all of it. When I try, the bumpy bits that ladies have sticking out in front get squashed on the steering wheel and honk the horn and I haven't yet found a way to avoid this! As it is, I have to stand on a little stool so that I can reach to clean the top of the car and the front outside windscreen but this isn't too much of a problem.
So you guys that are into designing domestic appliances and cars, just try giving the darned things a good clean by hand and do it without stretching before you finish the design so that short, arthriticky little old dears like me don't have so much of a problem when we clean things. Just remember, our standards are probably much higher than yours and we've been cleaning things all our lives because they last longer when they are looked after properly.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Grandma,

    Once again you've hit the nail on the head. Men are clueless about things they're never going to use.
    They're too busy inventing things like "Wonder Bras" that place our breasts up front and center for prime viewing, and high heels that shove those breasts forward, yet cause cumulative damage to the feet. Many women have reported back pain and problems with spinal alignment, from the abnormal posture that high heels induce. Men are a wonder aren't they.

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  2. Hi Robin!

    I notice men never wear killer heels that they've designed! Come to think of it, they don't know that women come in different shapes and sizes either. You only have to go to buy a pair of ladies' jeans and if the waist fits, the legs are too long/too short, the hips are too baggy/too tight and nothing's right. They also make clothes too tight, tops too short, sleeves that cut the circulation off in the upper arm and yet their clothes always fit and have plenty of 'ease'. Funny! Hmmm.
    Unless we're 'eye candy' they just can't see us!

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