I've actually had the opposite reaction, especially from some women.
The past year, I've had a problem with a few tendons in my left hand. One operation last year on my thumb, and another tomarow. I've been using pocket fixed blades because folders have become an inconvienient pain in the hand for me to deal with. On the few occasions I've taken one out to cut something, I've gotten very possitive comments from a few of the womenfolk. At first they seem curious, and ask "What's that?" and I expect a sheeple outburst. I show them the knife and they take it and look at it, really look at it, and they like it. Sometimes it's my Mike Miller pocket fixed blade with the girraffe bone handles and mosiac pin work in the bone handles, sometimes it's been my little Roselli grandmothers knife. Once in a while it's my Buck Hartsook. One woman made the comment about the Miller knife on how 'pretty' it was, and another liked the fact that there was no blade to open and nothing to manipulate. They all liked the idea of one in thier purse. Somebody else made the comment that they thought it made more sense than a folder, easy to clean up after use. Like a small parring knife.
One friend of my better halfs loved the Hartsook so much, I bought her ne for her birthday. Now it lives in her purse as her mail opener, orange peeler, and plastic blister package opener. It made a convert out of a non knife female in liberal Montgomery county Maryland. Go figure.
I think it depends on the knife.
