Archive: 2010

In another example of masculinizing items associated with women to make it ok for men to use them, Hope H. let us know about Hardware, a line of vegan hair and body products. The company seems to have taken Hyperbole and a Half’s satire seriously:

All the elements are there: images of tools to make sure it’s clear these are hard-working manly products, the association of men with toughness, and product names that reference hard physical labor. The different product lines include Impact Wrench, Angle Grinder, Jack Hammer, and Tool Belts (aka, gift certificates). The descriptions also refer to tools and cars:

Every perfectly balanced machine needs maintenance. No this is not a sales pitch mate. You would not skip an oil change or two in a 67 Shelby Mustang now would you.

Thus, using these non-animal-ingredient-based products isn’t about being girly. It’s about maintenance, which all machines need!

For more examples, see our posts on hair products labeled things like “maneuver,” “retaliate,” “stand tough,” “work hard,” and “bulk up”; make-up for men named with terms like“power face mask,” “confidence corrector,” “mission balm,” “battle scars repair cream,” “cream me face base,” and “blo-job bronzing powder.”; and shaving your pubes marketed with the suggestion that it will make your penis look bigger.

Anna J., a student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, sent in this vintage ad for Spirella girdles that provides a good reminder of how women are repeatedly told that our bodies are never, ever acceptable as they are, but are always in need of “improvement” through the use of products (found at The Great Fitness Experiment):

But hey, if you don’t feel like wearing a girdle, perhaps some tapeworms are your solution:

UPDATE: Reader Syd says the tapeworm ad is a hoax, though other readers disagree, and the practice itself definitely occurred. I don’t know how to find out, but since there’s at least some question about it, I’d take it with caution. However, commenter Angela pointed out that Tyra Banks recently had a story on tapeworms on her show:

As Anna points out, “It’s really interesting how ads have changed over time, but the expectation of culture that women be dieting has remained the same.”  Certainly more people wouldn’t tell women to eat a tapeworm — sanitized or not — these days, but plenty of questionable products out there still promise weight loss with “no diet” and “no exercise,” and my bet is you could pick up any women’s magazine currently on the shelf and get a range of advice on how to make sure you lose any weight you might have gained over the holiday season.

I love how these two vintage ads reveal that colors are experienced differently across time and cultures.  Both ads feature color schemes that, today, seem outrageous, even hideous.  Yet, at the time, they must have been cutting edge and quite fashionable.

Both images from Vintage Ads (here and here).

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.

Wakeboarding Santa in Hamburg, Germany (courtesy of The Big Picture):

Christmas Across Cultures

• Christmas Cultures
• Santa’s Evil Side Kick
• Black Pete (NSFW; trigger warning for images of blackface)
• Politics and the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree
• The Pagan Roots of Christianity

On Discourse:

• Have a “Gay” Holiday!
• “Christmas” vs. “Holiday”: The Rematch
• 12 “Mums” Makes the Workload Light

Racializing Christmas

• New York Times Gift Guide for People of Color
• Black Pete (NSFW; trigger warning for images of blackface)
• Holiday in the Hood
• The Hazards of Historical Amnesia

Gift Guides and the Social Construction of Gender

• Gender, Technology, and Toys ‘R Us
• Gift Giving with Gender Stereotypes
• More Gender Gift Giving and Advertising
• Another Gendered Gift Guide
• Or, you could just buy her a clothesline

Sexifiying Christmas

• Sexy Women as Toys
• O-O-Oh Santa!

Christmas Marketing

• Fun with the 2009 Target Catalog
• 1930s Ad Touting Razor Technology
• Gap Thinks Girls are Vapid

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.

I saw this ad last year but forgot to post it. What I find interesting is the way that “peace” has been both stripped of any real meaning and presented as something easy to achieve:

So while a plaid shirt might cost you $44.50, peace is free. This makes sense only if “peace” has been turned into a completely apolitical feel-good abstraction, as opposed to an end result of social and political processes that require effort and may or may not be particularly cheap. But “peace” is, here, entirely empty of political meaning, so much so that the company could use the word in an ad without worrying that they would be accused of making a political statement about, say, either of the two wars the U.S. is currently engaged in, or the Israel/Palestine conflict, or any number of other situations that a politicized meaning of peace might bring to mind.

Five readers sent along gendered gift guides.  These are interesting only in their ubiquitousness.  Let us begin:

What do women want? According to an email from Chapters.Indigo, sent in by Rajan P., they want candy, wine, fictional romance and, um, blankets (for coziness?):

Liz from Minneapolis got an email from Amazon.com with ideas “For Him” and “For Her.” Liz writes:

The gift ideas for him are manly things like a coffee mug (but described as a vacuum sealed tumbler) and barbeque tools, while gifts for her include a hideous Precious Moments figurine and a super handy plant care sensor.

Eileen B. sent a link to the gendered gift guide at gifts.com.  Apparently women want wine, love, coziness (sweaters, hot baths, and aromatherapy), cooking stuff, anything-Oprah, and men who clean (are we seeing a trend yet?):

While men want beer, golf-related items, and a giant plastic nose that snorts out your shower gel:

Both want grown-up mobiles, tiny-sauruses, and a baby book, so there’s that.

Another reader, “a reader,” sent in links to the site Shapeways which thinks women want decorations (for their bodies and their homes), but figures men want stuff to do (“gadgets” and “hobbies,” with a few hard core accessories thrown in):

Had enough?  There’s more!

Apocalyptopia sent screen shots of the gendered gift guide from Zazzle.  She writes:

We have the old, tired “only guys like History and video games” trope. I also noticed that there’s an “Animal Lovers” category under Women, but the only similar category to be found under Men is “Outdoorsman” (if you don’t count Party Animal) which deals more with killing animals than loving them. Chicks are just so sentimental, right? (Gag!) I also can’t understand why “Traveling” is found under Men but not Women.

The thing that disturbed me the most about this, though, was that for Men they have a “Veterans” category while for Women they have a “Support Our Troops” category. As the daughter of a retired female veteran of two wars, I was a bit offended. I’m sure my mother would be offended as well that they think watching her friends get blown up still doesn’t make her qualify as a real veteran and that she’s relegated to simply supporting those who are (i.e.: men).

Finally, Michelle Y. alerted us to a gendered game at the Karmaloop website. Men are told to search for a sexy lady; and ladies? A Pomeranian.

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.

Katrin drew our attention to the Christmas character of the Christkind, found in regions as diverse as Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Rebublic, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and, according to Wikipedia, “…parts of Hispanic America, in certain areas of southern Brazil and in the Acadiana region of Louisiana.”

The Christkind was introduced by the German Protestant priest Martin Luther (1483-1546).  At the time, tradition held that gifts were given by St. Nicholas.  Protestants, however, didn’t acknowledge saints, so they needed an alternative mythological gift giver.  The Christkind was originally depicted as baby Jesus, but in many places today is instead an angelic blond child or adult woman.

In Nuremberg, Germany, a Christkind is chosen every two years in a pageant reminiscent of American beauty pageants (source).  This year the Christkind is Rebekka Volland (source):

More photographs of the Christkind:

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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.

Arielle S. sent in an image of an ad for a Christmas party two years ago at a nightclub in Miami. The ad says it’s a “bad Christmas sweaters party,” but as it turns out, that’s only if you’re a guy. For ladies, it’s apparently a sexy outfit party:

Because even at a party expressly about looking silly in ugly clothes, women aren’t allowed to not be sexy.

Similarly, Save S. saw these ads for GNC at the mall that make it clear what characteristics men and women are supposed to aspire to have:

So apparently  men aren’t worried about being sexy. And women want to look…radiant? I’m not sure what product at GNC would make you radiant, but I can’t imagine it’s good for you.