Umbrellas: actually pretty great!

They keep me dry and unsunburnt. Cheap ones tend to break, and expensive ones tend to get lost, but all in all I'd say they're worth the trouble. Yet they're hardly as popular as you'd think at my college, considering how rainy it is here. My generation dislikes them for some reason. The kids here don't even use raincoats or ponchos; they just get wet.

So do you use an umbrella? And if not, why?
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"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee…"

I am a man. I do not use an umbrella.
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As a native to the Pacific Northwest and as someone who has lived in Seattle, I have fiercely resisted the use of umbrellas for most of my life. The only time I use/used umbrellas was when I was still going to UW and it was raining really hard and I had to walk from my apartment to the campus, since I lived about 20 minutes away on foot. After that though, just walking from building to building, I typically didn't need an umbrella.

The same applies now; I really only use an umbrella if it's raining and I'm walking from my car to work, since where I park and the building where my office is in are about 15 minutes apart on foot.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
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In heavy rain, I'll use one, but otherwise, I rather enjoy getting rained on, in an "ahhhhh nature" sort of way.
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I started using one in college, when I suddenly found myself carless and walking everywhere. Same applies for New York. I stole the one I'm using now from a valet company I worked at a couple years ago. It's got that double layer thing going, so the wind blows right on through and doesn't flip the umbrella inside out.
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Ocarinakid

@Kylo why fiercely resist?

I don't hate on umbrella users, but my motto has always been that umbrellas are for women, and men in suits. Obviously your case is an exception, as you must need an umbrella for protection from the sun.

I would take a rain coat over an umbrella for an extended outdoors journey, and unless I had something valuable that could be ruined by the rain, I would avoid using an umbrella. I may bring one in the car to be handy.

The asian population at MSU often carries umbrellas on sunny days, and I think this is for cultural reasons, perhaps to keep the skin very fair.
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SIGNATURE

Ooh I like your motto, Mark.

I kinda hate umbrellas in densely crowded areas because everyone's bumping into everyone else on account of them. If I started carrying an umbrella I'd just be part of the problem.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir

Hey, if by carrying an umbrella I can undermine gender roles, then that's just one more reason to do it.
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"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee…"

Wil's point is a valid and annoying one. The real reasons I use umbrellas or rain coats are to protect things that can be ruined by rain, which I am almost always carrying (books/electronics, but mostly books).

When I do carry an umbrella, I tend to use it as a walking stick more than as an umbrella.
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I used to carry a waterproofish bag, which solved that problem, although actually I got a grownup bag and probably should start worrying about that.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir

From: HeyDude | #006

@Kylo why fiercely resist?

I don't know, it's just a Seattle (and northwest) thing that's been ingrained into me since I grew up here. I really don't consider umbrellas that necessary. Back when I was a tour guide for UW, there were multiple occasions when it would be pretty rainy and I'd hand off my spare umbrella to an unprepared (likely tourist) family who clearly looked like they weren't having it with the rain. Sure, I'd have to go dry off afterward, but it would never really be that bad. I think I solidified my resistance to rain back when I did cheerleading back in high school, where no matter cold or wet it got, I didn't have a jacket. I think I just developed natural cold and wetness resistance back then and never really lost it.

Contrast that with my really good friend from Texas (and moved from the Philippines in '05) who -hates- the rain and especially hates getting wet while wearing street clothes. He's normally one of the chillest, most positive people I know, but if he ever gets caught in the rain, he becomes really, really grumpy. I don't really understand it... not that I really enjoy wearing wet clothes but the transformation in his attitude is like night and day.

From: BUM | #007

The asian population at MSU often carries umbrellas on sunny days, and I think this is for cultural reasons, perhaps to keep the skin very fair.

That's an accurate analysis. I have relatives that are infinitely more likely to carry around an umbrella in the sun to maintain the fairness of their skin, since back in the day (and even to this day, to some degree) in the Philippines, lightness of skin is indicative of being of a higher class.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v129/ukealii50/kylo.jpg - Thanks uke!
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/829/07kyloforce.png - Thanks Diyosa!

Or someone could market a brand of macho umbrellas. I guess they would have spikes? Kramer and Frank Costanza could argue about whether to call them "manbrellas" or "umbrollas".
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"And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee…"