"Good Grips" is a brand line. "Polycarbonate" is a real material, so what is the contrast? Mothers would get glass? Mothers wouldn't get a blender? 30 years ago, I'd hazard that there wouldn't BE kitchen recommendations for fathers.

I (of course) don't dispute that gifts for mothers would be different, but this post is very light on analysis and very heavy on the "look at these jerks".

How about that the thermos is now called a "hydration bottle"?

I have to agree with Charles on this one - with a few exceptions, this list doesn't seem to be heavily masculinized. You could make a case for the meat fork, and the Mr. Bar-b-que set (why not Ms. Bar-b-que?), but by and large this appears pretty reasonable. I think the polycarbonate carafe on the blender is pretty much standard at this point, and doesn't really constitute a special, "man-targeted" marketing approach (at least in this case).

I'll agree with Charles and Jeff and say that, outside of a few items, this collection isn't really "masculinized" - the list for women would probably be different, sure, but the products themselves are fairly standard.

This post would have been more insightful (but still treading water) if it had focused on the alcohol/silly and expensive gadgets/bbq triad that generally characterizes cooking equipment targeted towards men.

As a previous commenter noted, "Good Grips" is a product line that is generally well-reviewed and (as far as I've seen) studiously degendered. Polycarbonate blender vessels are, in fact, cheap and crappy, not "science-y", and certainly not meant to be masculine (a stainless steel one, or one with a pin-up girl embossed on the side, sure, but seriously).

On the other (un-mentioned, un-analyzed) hand, men get stuck with an inordinate amount of bbq and meat-fabrication equipment. Note the "kebob" (normally spelled "kabob", I believe) skewers, the 3-piece bbq set, the steak knives, and the meat fork. *That*, along with the three items meant to deal with alcohol (margarita blender, stupidly complicated corkscrew, maybe the John Wayne tumbler/pint glass), is probably worth more comment.

This post makes me sad.

"Good Grips" is, in fact, more targeted at people with arthritis than at manly men. It's a very reliable brand name that delivers good quality and good value. I would prefer not to be with out my Oxo vegetable peeler. And I don't really imagine it's because of the "aggressive," testosterone-addled way I peel potatoes.

And then, too: an omelet pan? a margarita maker? These are aggressive, "masculinized" things?

"I would bet that cooking items marketed for Mother’s Day would look significantly different."

As it happens, we can explore that without too much trouble:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=s9_p_bw_cr02_38?ie=UTF8&applicationId=26&docId=1000355921&conceptId=38&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-6&pf_rd_r=1DBHRSPKWMK3BPMEXNTY&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1261234222&pf_rd_i=502659011

(Pardon the ugly link.)

And, yes, we do see certain shifts in emphasis. The "foodie mom" is offered cheese and chocolate as well as gadgets, espresso makers, small appliances and cookware. The "gadgets" include a microplane (science!) zester and a whole slew of good grips stuff, including a box grater, the aggressiveness of which when presented with squash or carrots I can personally vouch for. The "cookware" is heavy (heh) on cast iron. The one thing that did make me wonder a bit was the "storage and organization" page. Point there, perhaps. But if it's wrong to buy luxury chocolates for a woman you love, I can go through life without being right.

Sometimes I'm really challenged and educated by the thoughtful and well-considered work presented in this blog. Most of the time, actually. But sometimes I feel like I'm just reading a rant.

I think there's a point to the masculinization of tools typically viewed as feminine. From a marketing standpoint, there's mentioning the chemical structure of a blender bowl (an assumption that women don't care what it's made of, but men do?) and masculine images (John Wayne), but from a practical standpoint, items would be made slightly larger to fit men's larger hands, or more dureable to compensate for men tending to be strong than women. As a woman with large hands who has also broken a few items by accident while trying to use them simply because they break apart in my hands, I am quite happy to see these products for my use.

Similarly, typically masculine items re-branded for feminine use follows the same pattern. There are now lines of "women's" tools that are slightly smaller and lighter. It also means having bright pink took belts and floral painted hammers, which drives me nuts. I hate pink and don't like most floral patterns.

My husband and I joke that I'm really a man, and he's really a woman.

This really is interesting--it's good to see the "men's cooking stuff" branch out a little beyond just grilling equipment. (Just a little, though, considering how heavily meat-themed the list is.) I do wonder how they came up with this particular list of items. (A corn peeler seems like a pretty chintzy gift, for one thing.)

I think people do have ingrained cultural ideas of what constitutes a "Father's day gift," even if those ideas are at odds with actual individual practice. Here's an example: a few years ago I got my dad a tea set for Father's day. He drinks tea, he likes tea, it seemed like a good idea. He literally *cannot remember* that this tea set belongs to him--he thinks it's one of mine (I have a lot) that I left over at his house for some reason. I often wonder if the results would be different if I had given it to him for a different occasion, but I can't really do the experiment since he doesn't need another tea set.

Some of these items strike me as being more masculine in both name and the product itself: the John Wayne tumbler, the Houdini corkscrew, the Mr. BBQ set.

Others seem to exhibit a more subtle masculine tone: the blender in 'Empire Red', for instance, or the hydration bottle.

The polycarbonate jar on the blender is pretty interesting, actually. I was looking through the Foodie Mom gift suggestions that Bosola linked and I didn't see many products that mentioned a material in the title of the item itself. I trust that polycarbonate is standard these days, but I think the choice to include it in the bolded product name, rather that as a specification behind the link, is a deliberate targeting choice.

Comparing the tone of product names from the Father's Day suggestions to the Foodie Mom suggestions is a fun game:

'Twin Pro S' vs. 'Wilton Easy-Flex'
'Tom Douglas by Pinzon' vs. 'Yellow Groovy Pop Molds'

This is hardly an area in which I'm an expert, but this does seem like a place to start an interesting discussion about both the presence and depth of possible masculinization.

And isn't that what Sociological Images is about? :>

‘what's more masculine than fried food?

WTF? What does that even mean??!

I have to agree with many other comments here. Good Grips is an excellent brand and is what most of the tools in my kitchen are. I think you could have had an excellent post had you done a bit of research into what is different between the gendered lists of equipment rather than just grabbing a few phrases that seemed insulting or overly masculine to you. It's one thing to show interesting pieces of advertising that have a gender, race, or what-have-you bias that is typically just assumed to be correct, but another to harp on something you obviously don't understand.

Complaints aside, it is interesting to see how and which types of cookware are targeted towards men. Stereotypically, the woman is in charge of the kitchen while the man is in charge of the grill, and while such things are changing somewhat, gender bias in cooking is a highly interesting topic. Typically, men don't bake, but artisan bread is a man's hobby. Huge, expensive knives are aimed at men because while a woman needs a kitchen full of knives, she typically gets sets of knives to cover all of the kitchen tasks, but if a man is getting a knife, he obviously knows what he's doing and is great in the kitchen, so needs a good chef's knife for all the meat dishes he's obviously a pro at. If a woman is good in the kitchen, she's a mom, if a man is, he's a chef. My husband likes to cook and is better at it than me, and it surprises quite a few people. Major stereotypes exist, not only in the tools and how they're marketed, but nearly every aspect of food preparation.

I was expecting the same sort of stereotypes about men and food when I saw the "Tasty Kitchen" food picks for the "Dad" theme yesterday http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/06/the-theme-is-dad/

I was so pleasantly surprised to find that instead they had gone through and highlighted recipes that had been contributed by men.

Since when are margaritas considered to be hyper-masculine?

I think the reason this post is interesting is precisely because the masculinization of the cooking is subtle and uneven. The original ad doesn't precisely scream "MAN COOKING! FOR MEN! NOW WITH EXTRA TESTOSTERONE!!!!" But if you look closely, you can see small, subtle ways in which some (but not all) products are gendered "masculine."

The good grips example wasn't the best example to point out, but that doesn't invalidate the whole post.

Note that Lisa in NO WAY stated that the masculinization of kitchenware was WRONG and BAD and WRONG, nor did she call anyone a jerk. Pointing out an interesting or amusing trend is not the same as condemning it, or condeming the people who participate in it.

I'll give you the John Wayne tumbler and the "Mr Bar-B-Q" tools (though the exclusively-masculine marketing of the BBQ/grill is worth analysis of its own), but criticizing the Houdini wine opener or the "Polycarbonate" blender? I think it's a reach to automatically assume that the product descriptions indicate masculine or feminine. Houdini is a brand name - no different than the Rabbit wine opener of almost identical type. Houdini would imply more "this wine opener is so easy is magic!" than "Hey, Houdini was a famous magician so this is cool and manly!"

I think the masculinization lies in the *choice* of items on this list, not in the descriptions. I'm sure there are probably some straight-female-oriented tumblers, and plenty of barbecue tools with no gender specification.

And frankly, I'm impressed that the blender is even on this list... Not exactly a "manly" implement, if you ask me. And an omelet pan? Meh... I think you'd have to dig deep to find the gendering in this list - I'm sure with a quick Google search I could find much better (or worse, depending on perspective) examples of gendered gift lists.

When you get right down to the brass tax, though, why would it be surprising at all that a Father's Day gift list would be gendered? We're looking at a gift list designed for the lowest common denominator. If we're trying to be as neutral as possible, then we might as well not even have Father's Day and Mother's Day. Let's have one big "Parent's Day" and celebrate everyone at once. Father's Day and Mother's Day are inherently gendered, so I think it's pointless to try to de-gender them.

This post articulates something I've noticed at work. I work for an up-and-coming internet retailer and noticed that Father's day gifts revolve around two themes: meat and liquor. Apparently that's all Dad likes to consume...