Her Campus Logo Her Campus Logo
The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at SBU chapter.

I’ve never been a girly-girl. Yes, I wear make-up sometimes, and yes, I like wearing heels, but I’m not the girly-girl type.

I don’t like wearing dresses, skirts and other women’s clothing, and I sure as hell don’t like ‘women’s colors’. The color pink nauseates me, and I think it’s wrong that pink is associated with women. Because, fun fact, pink used to symbolize male royalty way back in time while blue was associated with females. 

I also hate acrylic nails, or getting my nails done in general. I had acrylic nails once and I absolutely despised it. Plus, they just cost way too much money in my opinion. 

Anyway, as you can clearly tell, I’ve never been the ‘typical girl’. Nor will I ever be, because I consider myself to be “one of the boys.”  

Something that guys do that really amuses me is when they try to talk in terms that they think women won’t understand.

For example, I’m a part of WSBU’s (St. Bonaventure’s radio station) sports section and when we have our weekly meetings, I’m the only woman there. Now, I don’t have an issue with that because the career path I’ve chosen is 99.9% men. I took Automotive Technology in high school, which also was mostly men, but it really pisses me off when they try to “dumb you down” by talking about something they think you know nothing about.

I hate to tell you boys, but I know what you mean when you ask, “is it going to be over or under 13 tonight?”, or when you say, “John Doe came out of LSU in the first round.” 

Another thing that I understand, and probably more so than most of the men I know and met, is cars. I went to work with my dad over Easter break for his last day of work as he retired. Well, my dad worked at a mechanic shop, and he worked with all men. I hate to say it, but I’ve never seen a female mechanic at a shop, ever. And if they do do work, they aren’t doing the work that my dad did, or the work that I can do.

Anyway, on my dad’s last day of work, all the guys were hanging out and talking with him. Since it is a mechanic shop, a lot of car, and truck, lingo was being thrown around. Obviously, the guys there know me through my dad and weren’t going to try to “dumb me down,” but I think they were impressed by the fact that I knew exactly what I was talking about. When they talked about compression ratios and brake cans, and how you got to get it “top dead center” I knew everything they were talking about. 

In conclusion, I am one of the boys. Not only do I understand everything the boys are saying and can dissect it in my head, but I can contribute to the conversation as well and actually talk with the men. Instead of being excluded and feeling left out, I can become part of the conversation, make myself known, impress men and assert dominance.

Because, let’s face it, women rule the world :-)  

Brooke Johnpier is a contributor to the SBU chapter of Her Campus. She writes about the more "manly" topics of the site, including automotive, motorsports, mechanical, technical, DIY, and anything hands-on. Brooke is also using this platform as her personal blog, of which she will talk about more personal things that she feels the world should hear about. Besides Her Campus, Brooke is a part-time motorsports journalist for Speedway Illustrated, a columnist for Race Pro Weekly and Dirt Track Digesr, and a staff writer as well as a social media promoter for The Podium Finish, where she is interning. Brooke is also a writer for TAPinto Greater Olean, WSBU The Buzz, and PolitiFact NY. Brooke is also involved with St. Bonaventure's literary magazine, The Laurel. Brooke is currently a sophomore at St. Bonaventure University where she is majoring in Sports Media with minors in Native American and Indigenous Studies & English. You can also find Brooke working as an assistant in the Koop Lab and upstairs in the office, making her money. In her free time, Brooke loves reading, going to the local racetrack, riding four-wheelers, working on cars, and riding in tractor trailers. Brooke is a music lover, and will talk about most any genre, especially her favorites which are rock and rap. Brooke is also a percussionist, a published author, and a women's rights activist. Brooke is also a member of several lineage organizations, and currently holds a national position in one of them. As well as writing for campus media, Brooke is involved with Faith in Fiction, Jandoli Women in Communication, the History Club, College Democrats, and the Indigenous Student Confederacy. A fun fact about Brooke is that she was the only female to ever be in the top 5% of the Automotive Technology class at the trade school she attended in her junior and senior years of high school.