"The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness."
"Imagine that you are asked to perform a task in which you must learn how to interweave strands of material in a specific pattern. How much would you enjoy this task? How self-conscious would you feel about doing it? Would you mind if others watched while you performed it?
Now imagine that the very same task is described in one of two different ways: as a form of ”hair braiding” used by hairstylists to achieve a fashionable look or as a form of ”rope braiding” used by sailors and construction workers to achieve a rope of superior strength. Would the framing of this task make a difference in how you would feel about performing it?
Young adult men asked to perform this behavior while being videotaped reported much more discomfort when the task was described as “hairstyling” than when it was described as ”rope reinforcing” (Bosson, Prewitt-Freilino, & Taylor, 2005), suggesting that the same skill can be a point of pride or shame, depending on whether it is described as masculine or feminine. You can easily imagine how other skills might evoke similar reactions; for example, twirling a stick might make men feel more proud if it is framed as a martial arts skill versus baton twirling. Similarly, women might feel happier learning the same pattern of knee bends if they are described as ballet positions versus warm-up exercises for football players. As these examples show, the behavior itself is not as important as whether it is framed as suitable for one’s gender."
- Laurie A. Rudman and Peter Glick, The Social Psychology of Gender (via brute-reason)