Pinterest is, by point of fact, used by women. I don't know if there are more women using it than men, but it has that public image.

I was googling around to find citation that Pinterest has more female users than male users, and found this article, which you might interesting. I did!

"it has that public image." - Is this perception of Pinterest generalized across the entire online population, or is it localized among small groups?

From the article linked by TPS: "I’m sure you’ve all seen..."

Like "Unless you've been living under a rock...", I usually find that such statements often precede some bit of knowledge that in actuality localized to a specific group. Much like the MeFi echo chamber, those who write such comments are then shocked to discover that, no, the general online population has not read that particular notion (or subscribes to a particular belief). I have come to identify this phenomena as the blindered illusion.

This may (or may not) have something to do with the topic at hand.

I am surprised by the perception and the numbers that seem to bear out your cousin's observation. I am a man. I enjoy looking at Pinterest but I am not what I consider a Pinterest user.

The following is true regardless of the user statistics of the site in question, and may even describe a driving force behind the phenomenon. It may also describe your cousin, and though it is critical, I don't mean it to be harsh.

People who define themselves and what they do by assessments of relative manliness or womanliness will attempt to define others the same way. They find it confusing and sometimes threatening when those who they include in their defined group participate in activities which they choose to avoid. Thus neutral activities in which they have no interest become activities for the opposite gender, since they have scant framework for understanding the world in terms other than the gendered ones they have conditioned themselves to perceive.

It is unfortunate. Many people are insecure outside of a group context, and expand or contain their circle by forcing their acquaintances to cleave to arbitrary categories based on the limitations of their own interests. Some people just want to be on a team, so they constantly rewrite rosters and court new recruits.

The best response to somebody who tries to define random activities of no consequence by whether they are man-team or woman-team pursuits is to disagree. The world is not made up of men and women, it is made up of adults and children, and perhaps he might someday choose to play for the grown-ups.

Well, the title bar is slightly pink, "Pinterest" is in a curly cursivey font. The name itself is sort of cute. I think it's marketing itself towards women a little bit, yeah. Scanning the content I see lots of craftsy/decoratey things which your average dudebro is going to recoil from because FUUUTBAAAAWWWWLLL oh sorry there, I mean the common male gender role in the US involves a very strong personal rejection of perceived-feminine things.

It's strange that the "gay rights" got mentioned. Like, scrapbooking leads to wanting to have sex with men.

I think products and marketing are gendered sure. Not just men and women but social demographics in general. Actually something that's been 'clicking' for me in the last few years is how the social makeup of a group completely defines the the norms and aesthetics of a group. You can't take norms, aesthetics, 'feels' from X and except them to work in Y if X and Y are totally different populations. Mefi is mefi because of the type of people on Mefi. Reddit is reddit cause of the type of people in Reddit. Spin magazine is Spin because of the type of people who read and write Spin

So to circle back to the point. Just the way pinterest is designed and used gives it a 'vibe'. The whole "we men don't use it" thing is just lighthearted though and I think you shouldn't try to dive too deep into it. It's just a herd mentality thing

There are a lot of ways, I think, that "manliness" has come to be defined as "not-feminine," and so people who feel the need to protect their manliness end up spending (way too much) energy making sure they don't participate in feminized things.

I hope that as more positive definitions of masculinity start gaining traction (loyalty, strength, etc.), rather than relying on the idea that manly equals not-whatever-women-currently-are, things'll stop being so segregated.