Woman acceptance factor

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The Woman Acceptance Factor (WAF) – sometimes referred to as Woman Approval Factor or Wife Acceptance Factor – is the playful estimation of the acceptance or refusal of a new acquisition or project by the significant other. It relies on the cliché that men are driven by a certain geekiness when it comes to acquisitions like home theater or PCs, disregarding the stereotypically female aspects of aesthetics, design and practical/financial considerations, let alone ease-of-use. The first known WAF reference was in a 1989 article about wives rebellion against "oversized loudspeakers."^[1]

The Woman Acceptance Factor is inversely proportional to the possible amount of conflict resulting from the different points of view. The lower the WAF, the more convincing needs to be done, or the more conflicts arises from the acquisition or project.

Potential for conflict lies in:

Questionable practical use / necessity
High initial acquisition cost and/or high running cost
Amount of time husband spends with the new purchase
Aesthetic deficiencies like large, ugly chassis or trunks of surface mounted cables
Necessary construction work like chiselling slits into walls
Constant noise from fans, hard drives etc.
Space considerations
Total number of remote controls under female control
Challenges imposed by beta-software, user-interface etc.

An example for a low WAF is a video projector with a makeshift ceiling mount and a huge trunk of black cables, which needs to warm up for 3 minutes before it can be used to watch the TV news if all the input/output selectors on the receiver and the stereo deck are set right with 3 different remote controls.

Examples with high WAF are aesthetically designed, easy to use devices like the iPod or computer furniture which hides cables and connectors.^[2]

Recently, the Woman Acceptance Factor has also been applied to non-technical stereotypical male activities like attending sporting events or "hanging out with the guys."

Around the West Yorkshire area, this phrase is short for "What A Fag" from the popular yet disgusting video about Chris Benoit, killing his family, on Youtube. The phrase itself was used in reference to Owen Hart who fell 50 foot according to the hillbilly who made it. The letters WAF are used as a secret code to describe people of high annoyance.