Enjoy a new round-up of examples in which men = people and women = women. The tendency to include women as a special type of human being, alongside men who get to be regular people, is a specific example of a more general phenomenon in which some people, but not others, are marked as a specific kind. We see this with race, routinely, in cases where there are “people” and “black people,” “families” and “ethnic families,” or when the skin tone of white people is substituted for the very idea of “skin” tone. And we’ve covered many examples of this in regards to gender; see our posts on the Body Worlds exhibits, avatars, fitness equipment, rulers, and this collection of many additional examples. Here is a new set of instances submitted by our Readers:
Michelle P. took this photo of two card games in Salem, MA at The House of the Seven Gables gift shop:
Jennifer discovered that her local zoo was selling “binoculars” and “girly girl binoculars”:
froodian sent along a set of guitar straps for sale. There are “guitar straps,” “giggin for god guitar straps,” “kids guitar straps,” and “girls’ guitar straps” in pink, purple, and baby blue:
Sarah J. noted that the website www.healthcare.gov features sections (along the bottom) for “healthy individuals,” “individuals with health conditions,” and “women”:
Finally, Leigh sent along Technorati’s odd effort to appeal to women. Their main site has a highlighted yellow tab to press if you’re female, labeled “women.” And, if you do, you get girly content, plus pretty flowers!
The main site:
The woman site:
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 73
kaileyverse — April 24, 2011
This is why we still need feminism.
Mazarine — April 24, 2011
I noticed that on the Technorati site yesterday, and I was frankly appalled.
They obviously think that women are all
1. Moms
2. Interested in breast cancer.
it's really sick, the way technorati is all, "let's throw them a bone" and make a website they think will appeal to "women" in general.
Why wouldn't women be interested in sports? In writing? In Music? In art? In just about anything that men would be interested in?
Way to go Technorati. Your flaccid site is very toilet.
Anonymous — April 24, 2011
To be fair, the Health Care example isn't quite the same.
Women face very different challenges in health care in the US, especially in regards to pregnancy.
Under the 'women' section on that site it addresses concerns such as women being denied coverage due to previous pregnancies and paying higher health care costs because of pregnancies. Men have no comparable issues.
http://www.healthcare.gov/foryou/women/index.html
There's a difference between women being considered as lesser or as something less notable than men, and separating men and women based on biological facts and issues that are exclusive to one gender. The healthcare.gov site does bring up very real issues of discrimination against women, but it does so in an effort to combat it and protect women from further discrimination.
J — April 24, 2011
Why there are so many magazines for females than for males? They are probably doing that for "commercial reasons" rather than "social discrimination." They did it because "girls" want it.
James — April 24, 2011
What I think, is that the "women" section was created by thinking of giving women a fair representation in the site. I don't see men as interested in the health issues particular to our sex (prostate cancer, what else?) as much as women do (pregnancy, breast cancer, vaginal infections).
So these people were thinking of giving fair treatment to women, not of differentiating them from "normal people" through some obscure deconstructivist sexist spell.
Sunny — April 24, 2011
Also, science pretty much ignored research on women for a long time, and now that we know the particulars of how diseases effect women specifically, it seems a good idea to highlight it. For example, when looking for the symptoms of a heart attack, you will find that many sites give generalized symptoms (left arm pain, chest tightness, etc.) which are the symptoms common to men, but could happen in women. Now we know that women can experience heart attacks very differently from men, and very often do. Is it really that bad to have a special place to put that information, since we didn't even have it for such a long time?
PJ — April 24, 2011
And don't you wonder why something like a guitar strap has to be labeled as a "girl's" guitar strap because it's pink? I am fairly certain that there are some boys out there who would LOVE a pink guitar strap!
thewhatifgirl — April 24, 2011
In regards to the health section, the idea that women have unique health needs and therefore need a different health section doesn't even hold up. Women are half of the entire human race; our needs are not unique, they are universal for one half of the human race. The idea that a uterus and ovaries must force a person to be considered divisible and separate from "normal people", and that "normal people" are assumed to be male, is the issue here, not the idea that different body parts require different types of health care.
Luna — April 24, 2011
Obviously there's a lot to be said about the issues and problems here, but I wanna point out that I own the "authors" deck, and there are two women in it.
Karyn — April 24, 2011
Anyone else find it weird that the image for "Healthy Individuals" is a white man, while the image for "Individuals with Health Conditions" is a black man? Perhaps not purposeful, but I think it sends a message nonetheless.
Why is it that I get really nervous talking to pretty girls and is that lack of confidence? | game for girls — April 25, 2011
[...] Examples of the Marginalization of Women and Girls » Sociological … [...]
Ekate — April 26, 2011
BTW,Can't men use pink regardless of their sexual orientation? A little bit tired of so many stereotypes! Growing a girl/woman was tough for me but I don't think "becoming a man" is easy either...what if we try to get rid of stupid colour schemes together (where possible)?
Mancao Joyce — August 11, 2011
shaggggggggggggggggggggggggg
cutieeeeeeeee — August 11, 2011
its better that you can give some examples about marginalization........so that the readers should understand more about it.
Bellandr — October 21, 2011
So what's wrong with a guitar strap that says "Giggin for God"?
The default human — March 13, 2012
[...] (or comediennes), as if being female means that you need a rider to describe you. There are authors and “women authors” because authors are male by default. And of course, in the same vein as that last link there are [...]
kay — January 8, 2014
The game called "Authors" has male and female authors in it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1572814454/ref=mw_dp_mdsc?dsc=1
Marginalization and Gender – Rethinking "Reality" — February 22, 2015
[…] Lisa Wade professor of sociology, best describes marginalization as “the tendency to include women as […]
Dudecommon — January 25, 2017
Realize how all the comments are from women
Lesson 23: Conflict, Cohesion and Inequality | HSP3C with Ms. Maharaj — April 21, 2017
[…] https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/04/24/35201/comment-page-1/ […]
Calafia — January 29, 2019
Psssst...it's this really strange thing called "market-ing". Target marketing, niche marketing, whatever you want to call it. I think that really IS it. I'm a woman of color, and we are the new feminists. So look out world, it's about to get real interesting ;-).
Jane — February 2, 2019
I'm a mature woman; mother, grandmother, widow, divorcee. I definitely have different issues in my life than a man does. And while we might share some common interests, we are each unique. Physically, emotionally mentally. Maybe all this anger and resentment could be solved by simply adding the label "men" to a column/tab and including generalized sports and political topics in the women's sections. Why are some women so threatened or angry being called a woman or being given something specifically for women? Don't you know how special you are? Women have run the world since the beginning of time. Wasn't it Eve who talked Adam into eating the apple? We are not victims, ladies. We are survivors.....no matter what size, shape, color or sexual orientation. Stop complaining about being treated differently as a woman. There's nothing wrong with being special. And you are.
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Catie — June 2, 2019
The most marginalized in our society are incarcerated women. I work with them and they are treated as “less than” in every possible way. Marginalization is more serious than last pink guitar straps.
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