the one I think of immediately is that my dad would always say “stop being such a girl” when I complained about things. I picked up the phrase when I was young without thinking about it
then I said it to someone in elementary school and they said “what’s wrong with being a girl” and I was like wait yeah wtf why am I saying this
Taking a pride in my appearance beyond standard personal hygiene level is actually OK took a while to learn.
My dad used to really take the piss out of me and my brothers for taking any level of care of ourselves or making ourselves look good beyond what was functionally needed.
Hair gel, expressing a preference for clothing because it looked nice and I liked the way I looked in it, hell even those crappy skin creams they sell teenagers for spots (okay he was kinda right about the last one in that they don't work) all of that would mean he'd take the piss if he noticed. I mean yeah I probably did look a bit daft but that's not the thing you say to a teenaged boy really if you want to boost their confidence. I don't even think he did it maliciously tbh as it was learned behaviour from his dad but it sure has taken a long time to unlearn that.
I'm still pretty much a jeans, t-shirt and boots guy but have learned to enjoy wearing a nice suit, or a shirt that (I think anyway) looks good on me or whatever. Even a bit of very restrained aftershave if I am going out somewhere a bit posh with my gf. She's been a lot of help with that tbh but there's still a tiny bit of me that's pointing and laughing at myself when I type this. Took a while to learn but yeah, am far happier with being OK with making an effort to scrub up nice.
I think this is a really common one, for sure. The fact that even expressing a preference in clothes is “feminine” is wild, but it’s something I definitely experienced too.
Yeah it's an odd one alright but as you said very common.
I think you're right in that it's seen as a feminine thing to do. Weird stuff tbh.