Well, folks, we’ve gotten enough submissions of gendered products that I decided it’s time for another round-up. To start off, way back in February Annie J., a librarian from Vancouver, sent us this ad she saw in a mall in Surrey, British Columbia, for Movado watches. The ad labels the man’s and woman’s watches with the characteristics supposedly appropriate for their wearers:
The bolded text for the man’s watch: man of many interests, manages risks, is strong and dependable, remains flexible, always has your back. Bolded text for the woman’s watch: a contemporary woman, loves a bit if mystery, knows exactly what she wants, craves a touch of luxury, gets what really matters.
From Carrie Brennan, we get a pair of gendered klompen, which were seen at Zandse Zaanse Schans, in the Netherlands:
The pink ones are emblazoned with the word lief, which translates as sweet or lovable; stoer, written on the blue ones, means tough or sturdy.
For all the women out there who have struggled with big ole regular-sized pens, you may be happy to know (via Dmitriy T.M., Monica C., and Katrin) that BIC has introduced a pen just for us! The BIC Cristal for Her, which is “reserved for women,” is thinner than regular pens so we can handle them better:
If the website is correct regarding availability, since I do not live in Europe, I must sadly muddle along with my giant, over-sized pen. Alas!
But there’s more! Maybe you’ve been needing a wrist brace, but you worry that it’ll make your wrist look bulky. Fear not! Lauren K. came across women-specific wrist braces:
As she explains at her blog, Diary of a Messy Lady, it promises a “slim silhouette” and has a “contoured fit tailored to the natural curves of a woman’s wrist and arm.” Because the definite distinction here is between men’s and women’s arms; in no way would it make sense that the major distinction might be, say “small” and “large” or something.
Another reader sent in a link to a truly essential cookbook, Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys: Recipes, Strategies, & Survival Techniques: Bringing Back the Family Meal, by Lucinda Scala Quinn:
According to the description on Amazon, the book includes “…winning strategies for how to sate the seemingly insatiable, trade food for talk, and get men to manage in the kitchen.” It is a relief to finally have a cookbook that specifically explains how to feed men and boys, since up until now men and boys have largely gone hungry, with no one cooking them meals and regular cookbooks including recipes that only women and girls could digest. And how super awesome if, in return for being cooked just the right thing, a guy will “trade” some conversation with you!
David M. is a member of Historic Scotland, an organization that maintains a number of historic sites throughout Scotland. As a member, he receives a copy of their magazine. A while back, it came bundled with a catalog (posted at Flickr by Wish I Were Baking):
It’s for the website Presents for Men, a website dedicated to stocking a wide array of things it defines as male-specific, though there’s also a “gifts for girls” section. David was less than flattered by their perceptions of the preferences of men these days. Scrotum-shaped golf-ball holder, anyone?
Back in August, Helen L. went to the Coleman website to look at camping gear. She was greeted with a pop-up that made clear, in no uncertain terms, who they expect to be using, and inheriting, their lanterns:
Chelsea N. saw some laxatives just for women available at Rite Aid; other than being pink, it’s unclear what is gyno-specific about them:
In another case of truly pointless gendering, Grace W. was at Target shopping for body scrubbers; they may look to you like anyone could use them, but the tag under the bin said otherwise:
There were none at all available for men, sadly.
Finally, Jordan J. sent in an image of two onesies, previously available from Gymboree. Your options? You can be “smart like dad” or “pretty like mommy”:
They’re either sold out or they’ve been removed from the website.
Comments 50
Albert — November 28, 2011
I always love these. Ahh, the weird world of marketing... The lief/stoer clogs are by the way just a small part of a bigger store, also called lief/stoer, which is horribly gendering children's clothes.
uninvited guest. — November 28, 2011
Not all of them are discriminatory, some are actually right. Boys and girls were born differently and none of us gals wants to do anything with science BUT cosmetics and stuff
http://www.wildscience.net/products.html
If these things would have been sold when Marie Curie or Lise Meitner were little girls, the world would have been spared of such dangerous things like radioactivity and nuclear physics. Shame, both could have turned up to be great beauticians or hairdressers. I wish Wild Science was there for me when I was a child, too, so I wouldn't waste years to get a PhD in science, only to find no tenureships.
Anonymous — November 28, 2011
The scrubbers might just be an attempt to get men to buy the 5 dollar manly scrubbers from axe and bod... "engineered for men"
Anonymous — November 28, 2011
RE: gendered wrist braces
I really wonder about the success rate of some of these marketing decisions. I myself have needed wrist braces and stopped by the local pharmacy to buy them. I was looking for the right size and fit. Not once did i say to myself, "I won't buy these, even though i need them, if they aren't 'made for a woman'". And had I been presented with the same product packaged 'for her' and costing $2 more my lady-brain would have figured out that it was a scam marketing ploy and either bought a different brand all together or just bought the black ones.
Do people really fall for this crap? Do people really think that the same product, by the same company is significantly different for a woman's hand? The only difference is the color. And of course the price.
So does intentionally making a unisex (and medically necessary) product gendered, garner more sales than just selling the damn thing? I would think that if it were just in black there would be sales to both men and women (i bought two black ones despite having lady-wrists). But there is the potential to turn customers off by using this hackneyed marketing approach.
ETA: This goes for the stupid lantern marketing as well. Really? denying the presence of women during all those thousands of family campouts across the nation? Or their desire to have cool equipment for their campouts.
Karen — November 28, 2011
I hope you don't mind this little comment: Zandse Schans is actually called Zaanse Schans, since it's along the Zaan, which is a river.
Other than that, these gendered pens, braces and such always make me sad. Being apparently completely 'man-sized' myself, it is always weird that things that I am supposed to think are pretty according to my gender are available only in tiny sizes? What if I actually had a desire for odd pink, 'lovable', thin things?
Andrew — November 28, 2011
I ran across his-and-hers digital cameras on Amazon earlier in the week.
One of them, helpfully, was an identical product save for the colour and the price - manly black would cost £20 more than feminine white. I do wonder sometimes how they choose which way to assign arbitrary products in this sort of marketing...
Cirrus — November 28, 2011
That 'presents for men' site is horrifyingly hilarious. And of course, that old classic bottle-opener-with-a-woman's-thighs is a product. Wow.
Anonymous — November 28, 2011
Your sarcasm is priceless, Gwen- love it. How to get 'the boys' to 'manage' the kitchen or whatever, Ms. Quinn? Stop cooking for them. Stop cleaning up after them. At all. Start thinking about the huge amount of unpaid and unappreciated work women do all over the world. How much time and LIFE women waste being support staff for men! It's tragic. And, of course, women should have to wheedle and manipulate men in their lives to do even the goddamn bare minimum around the house. Wouldn't want to 'nag' or anything... /s Fuck that noise. Forever.
'Smart like daddy', 'pretty like mommy'?! (HEADDESK) FTP, FTP, FTP.
kinelfire — November 28, 2011
I saw the Bic pens in a supermarket a while back. They're also more expensive than the standard, presumably suitable for men, pens.
I love that the standard pack is smaller, in that there's less space for the pens to move around in, while the lady version come in a bigger bag, despite being 'slimmer'.
https://twitter.com/#!/kinelfire/media/slideshow?url=http%3A%2F%2Fyfrog.com%2Fklcrrlj
Electrically — November 28, 2011
The women's wrist braces also appear to be more expensive.
Jude42 — November 28, 2011
oforlackogawdssake.
Ann — November 28, 2011
Wait, you have problems with smaller pens and smaller wrist braces? Some of us ARE smaller and need smaller sizes. I'm similar in height and even weight to my husband, but my hands and wrists are a heck of a lot smaller than his. CRAZY, I KNOW.
Landen — November 28, 2011
The pen ad misspelled "thinner"
Emily — November 28, 2011
Regarding the pens: I would say most women are quite adept at holding big, thick objects.
SociologicalMe — November 28, 2011
I JUST saw some BIC "For Her" pens yesterday! They aren't thin like the ones pictured, but they come in a two-pack: one pink and one purple. They have fancy flowery scrollwork on the grip and on the metal tip. And they are described as "Easy Glide." Is it just me, or are they TRYING to make pens sound like tampons?
The lacquered lady — November 28, 2011
I really don't mind gendered products when it comes to size - typically, women's wrists and such are smaller than men. What I thought was more interesting was that the wrist splint that was not "for women" was actually meant to be unisex, rather than just for men. Notice that one of the hand models for the gender neutral product version is a female hand. Also, the packaging on the "for women" version wasn't bright pink - though it did have pink accents.
Also, I would totally buy those "female" pens, if only they weren't in that ugly pink color. I find regular pens to be uncomfortable in their thickness after a while - and I do alot of writing.
Patrickjpine — November 28, 2011
If the woman's laxative is sold in pink, what color is the men's laxative sold in????
Wait, wait, don't tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MKDC — November 28, 2011
A little bit of poking around on the Gymboree website shows that baby boys have a clothing category of "Activewear" (http://www.gymboree.com/shop/dept_category.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374306258462&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524446000747&bmUID=1322541647132) and baby girls don't. Instead, they have dresses.
vmlojw — November 29, 2011
My tiny daughter wears the "smart like dad" shirt, especially when her daddy is having doubts about his current studies. It does, however, amuse me greatly that most strangers assume she's a boy, and all my acquaintances assume that he bought the shirt for her. I bought it, in preference to the (admittedly gorgeous) sweetpea-themed dresses they had in the store. I didn't see the companion shirt, but I doubt that I could have bought it had I had a son. I'm glad I have a girl because I feel that I have greater leeway in clothing choices than I would have for a boy. Is this a double standard on my part?
Babyymamaxfuego — November 29, 2011
The watches I could get, women may like smaller different styles but they don’t have to label them as male and female; So again, that is stupid.
the shoe are stupid, however it doesn’t really say MALE & FEMALE shoes, it says SWEET OR LOVEABLE and TOUGH OR STURDY, I mean how many men would wear the red’ish ones given the way people in our world think now a days but they could if they wanted to, no one is stopping them..And women could wear the blue ones IF THEY REALLY WANTED TO.
A special pen for women -______- give me a break, I’m so not even going there ...
The gendering of the wrist brace, again just because they make them doesn’t mean you have to wear them. I am a women and I have the black one that is gender natural.
The food, I don’t really have an issue with that.
The presents for men and boys is crazy, a lot of things on that picture i know women use/
The lanterns -_- , yeah because us women never go camping or need to use a light!!!!!!!! *rolls eyes*
The laxative for women I can understand because most women need meds that are gentler on their stomachs. So I have no issue with those
the bath sponges being just for women , that just stupid, everyone in my house uses them!
I have SO MANY issues with gender specific baby clothes especially when it’s things like SMART LIKE DADY PRETTY LIKE MOMMY. That is saying my daughter is only pretty, not smart when in fact she has always been both. When we go clothes shopping I let her pick from both what is known as the boys side and girls side. It’s just clothing!!!!!! Nothing gender related will ever get me mad like it does involving children.
Finally, it all comes down to YOU, dumb companies may make these things but YOU are the one buying it. No one says you HAVE to buy the pink one over blue because you are a women/ Men, you can buy pink all you want ( sadly in our society men buying pink isn’t normal ) well f* them, do what makes you happy.
I really wish more people could think the way I do!
eeka — November 29, 2011
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com/2009/02/ladies-tired-of-those-ill-fitting.html
Women's earplugs!
ju_les — November 30, 2011
I really feel like writing the cooking book "Mad Hungry. Feeding Women and Girls" and there will be NO SINGLE salad recipe in it. Ha!
Link Dump: #53 | Pussy Goes Grrr — December 2, 2011
[...] How gendered can products get? [...]
Anonymous — December 3, 2011
"She was greeted with a pop-up that made clear, in no uncertain terms,
who they expect to be using, and inheriting, their lanterns:"
Actually, the pop up is not at all clear about the gender of who will be buying and using the lantern.
The only thing that the pop up is certain about is that it's not like your dad's lantern and that whoever buys it is going to pass it on to their sons, for some unstated, odd reason.
lajoiedevulva — December 21, 2011
And then there's the gendering of soda. Guess my lady bits and I cant drink Dr. Pepper!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuG1OpnHP8
PDS — August 28, 2012
Amazon reviewers are teaching BIC a lesson: http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B004FTGJUW/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_helpful?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0
Probably someone has tipped you off already, but I just had to post this here.