My family thought it was weird that I had an interest in washing machines and dryers. My mother and anyone else who did laundry always shooed me away. "Get away from there", "Go outside and play", "What are you DOING?", "Don't touch that!" etc.
But I was also interested in technical things like the Color TV, the vacuum cleaner, the motors in the cars, etc.
One time we were in a neighbors 57' Ford going somewhere. This was the first car I had ever seen with power windows. I was told DO NOT TOUCH the window controls! Of course after 5 minutes what do you think I did? Well, the woman who owned the car was driving and she got SO upset that she pulled over got out of the car, came around to my side in the back, put the window back up and proceeded to chew me out like a bitch! When we returned home she told my mother (who came along) that I was NEVER going to get inside her car again!
Now I can fix a lot of things and I am very handy! I think this comes from my earlier interests. Believe me guys, ladies LOVE a man who can fix things! So many of their husbands haven't a clue!