The other day I snapped a photo of this lotion I saw for sale at the grocery store:
We’ve often posted on pointlessly gendered products. This, as far as I can tell, is a pointlessly pregnancy-related product. I couldn’t see a thing about it that was different than other versions of the same brand except that it says it’s for the life stage “pregnancy & motherhood.” If it at least said something about stretch marks that would make some sense, but it didn’t. On the back it just referred to dry skin and being formulated for a pregnant woman’s “special needs,” which were entirely unspecified, as was the way in which this bottle of lotion could address them.
I went to the Curél website to see what other life stages they identify. The website at least mentions stretch marks for the pregnancy/motherhood formula, so that’s an effort to pretend there’s a point to it. There were two more types: “first signs of aging” and “menopause and beyond.” A chart showing the effectiveness of the anti-aging lotion:
Of course, we have no idea what the baseline is, and while I presume the y-axis is %, it doesn’t actually say that. And apparently all women were going through a reverse-aging process that week, since even the untreated ones had a positive change.
So apparently women get to look forward to three stages, all of which have unique hydration needs: you have a baby, you notice signs of aging, and then you’re old. I have so much to look forward to.
Comments 19
Emily — September 22, 2009
Evidently not many others were buying it either, I'm guessing the red tag means it's on clearance?
Jillian C. York — September 22, 2009
I think my favorite part is the Curel baby naming tool: http://www.curel.com/name_your_baby.asp
"So mommy, how did you choose my name?"
"Well dear, it happened with the help of my favorite pregnancy lotion!"
Evan — September 22, 2009
Not to mention, pregnancy is apparently a life stage of all women.
Emily W. — September 22, 2009
I'm not positive on the definition of "life stage," but I always thought that it was something that you were definitely going to go through in your life. Like, being a teenager could be considered a "life stage" because you need to go through those physically adolescent years before becoming an adult (physically).
So, saying pregnancy is a "life stage" for women makes it sound as though that it is expected that all women will go through pregnancy at some point in their life, as if it as expected of a caterpillar to become a chrysalis to become a butterfly. There is no second option, it simply happens, and everyone expects it too.
MeToo — September 22, 2009
That's some messed-up fake-study graphing there. Unfortunately, I bet only a small fraction of the population could definitively identify it as fake and explain why.
(I also hate the equation of stretch marks with pregnancy.)
thisdesertlife — September 22, 2009
I'm always confused by the term "first signs of aging." does that mean when I got my first period or started growing boobs, I'm supposed to use their products, because those are signs of aging. Put on a product every time I look in the mirror, because I am older than when I last looked? A perfectly ridiculous concept, in my opinion.
rachel — September 22, 2009
Nevermind that motherhood goes right along with pregnancy. You stop being a mother once you start aging and going through menopause. Your offspring just...spontaneously combust and there you are, not a mother anymore...
A Random Claire — September 22, 2009
What if I'm pregnant and noticing signs of aging? I'm confused! Will the world end if I use the wrong lotion?
Annoyed — September 22, 2009
I always thought lotion was a scam. I don't use it unless my skin feels dry. There are a lot of women that get really upset when I tell them that. In fact, once I told one acquaintance how old I was. Her response was that I looked so good for my age, she never would have guessed, and I must moisturize. Of course I told her I didn't. I proceeded to get an hour lecture on why I should moisturize.
kate s. — September 22, 2009
not only does that chart not represent any real data, but of the "data" is tries to represent all it says is that using the product made skin (and im assuming thats what they mean, because the chart doesn't specify)"more hydrated" -- wouldn't ANY lotion do that?
it took a second look for me to realize that it said "dermaLab" because at first i read "dreamlab" which is probably a little more accurate. some mythical lab were they dream up results to non-existent studies.
Eve — September 23, 2009
Isn't it true, though, that lotion helps with the stretching of the belly as a pregnancy progresses? The skin gets itchy - I would think lotion would help with that. On the other hand, I'm sure plain old Vaseline Intensive Care or something would be fine; no need for special pregnancy lotion.
Rutkowski — October 1, 2009
This is a good example of when sociology offers incomplete explanations. While there may be some gendered meaning implied or involved in this package, more than likely this labeling occurred in response to FDA regulation. The FDA is a stickler for product claims on skin care products, and it is extremely difficult and costly to meet FDA standards for being able to make a claim regarding a stretch mark treatment. Follow the money - the shifty language on this bottle helps to sell more product in an FDA compliant way, and doesn't necessarily imply anything else.