are you sure the web developer one is real?? It almost seems like a parody. If it is real that's a combo of gendered and super sexist, geez

Are you sure the web developper job offer isn't satire? I'm not claiming it is, I know it could very well be real, but it just seems so much over the top...

These ads are far from pointless. They're designed to increase share of gender-defined markets. Whether they do actually increase such market share is the question, and since we keep seeing ads like this crop up among different sellers for varying products I think we've got an answer. So that's the point; they sell stuff.

Marketers don't aim to affirm social norms; they identify, study and incorporate them into their campaigns.

With the first one, the endives, I can't see any gendering - those on the left are red/purple endives, those on the right are green endives, the packages reflect the product's colour and both are called Diva.
It's pretty damn interesting though how we perceive that as gendering because we've been bombarded with it so much; now even if we see a purple veg and a green veg we think of it as gendered.

Wrist support isn't pointless. My wrists are a lot smaller than a small men's wrist. A unisex small and a ladies small are v different.

re: the pet shampoo, is it gendered for the owner or the animal? Ie, is a woman with a male dog supposed to use "for her" or "for him"?

I had a look at Futuros range of wrist supports on their website. I read the single customer review for the "Adjustable Reversible Splint Wrist Brace" which is pictured above in the yellow box. The response goes some way to explaining the brands choice of using gendered products. Although still not necessary as it only serves to invalidate some peoples experience of life.

"Would work if it fitted 12 April 2013
Bought this product believing it to be suitable for all normal hand and wrist sizes.
As the only qualification found in the item description refers to wrist circumference, it came as a shock to discover that the product will not fit a moderate to large mans's hand. This needs to be addressed before you can describe it as fully adjustable."

"Response from Futuro:
By Futuro Brand Team, 4 June 2013
We are sorry to hear about your experience with the Futuro™ Reversible Wrist Splint Brace and we have passed on your comments to our design team in the US. The new One-Size Reversible Wrist Brace has an adjustable size to fit 14-21.5cm, which does not fit the entire size range of the previous Reversible Wrist Brace which had three sizes ranging from 12.7cm to 22.8cm. We have however centered this size range based around normal population sizing and incident rate of wrist injuries (which skews toward women). We would really like to encourage you to call our customer service team on 136 136 to help you find a solution to this matter."

http://www.futurobrand.com.au/wps/portal/3M/en_AU/APACFuturo/Futuro/Products/Catalog/?PC_Z7_RJH9U5230OF800IQP32PEK08S7000000_nid=051SDD8BT0gsM631FRCR7BglD5SS2XS4M6bl

The web developer one. I don't even. If they're trying to drive away female programmers they're doing a good job.

I think the socks one is fair enough because the average woman's foot is smaller and narrower than the average man's foot. The fact that they made them pink, though.... sigh...

I wonder what an appropriately gendered product would look like? While all these products seem unnecessarily gendered, it seems that any product expressing the gender binary would reify the construct.

Does anyone else find the sausages named "Fairy Hearts" slightly disturbing? Y'know, since they're supposed to be EATEN....

Totally absurd though I do like the idea of having rosie the riveter's face plastered on things. Might force people to remember that women made all the shit that won world war two.

With respect to everything else... just... why?

Pointlessly gendered socks? Women's socks tend to run more narrow than men's socks, and in addition, the sizing of the socks is explicit. Those are 20 buck socks meant for hiking 20 milles with a 35 pound (or heavier) pack. (This brand of socks is priced the same for men's and women's versions.) I have narrow feet, and I buy deluxe women's hiking socks for really heavy duty pack use or long-distance hiking use. If I am going to be standing about watching birds in the zero F weather, maybe walking a mile or two at most, any old unisex hunter's heavy wool socks will do. The same sizing issues may apply to the wrist guards. Notably, the wrist versions are NOT priced equally. It may or may not be anti-woman discrimination - if the manufacturer sells men's and women's wrist supports in a 5:1 ratio, the pricing of the numerically smaller production runs (women?) may reflect increased cost per unit of smaller production runs.

One of my frustrations with pointlessly gendered girls' products are the emphasis on sweets like cupcakes, candy and ice cream. Primes them for this Katy Perry/cupcake bra/Pepsi kind of marketing: http://kyhealthykids.com/2013/08/23/whats-worse-than-a-woman-in-a-cupcake-bra-shilling-soda-to-kids/

The endives were not gendered. They were pink for red endives and green for organic endives.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009ZTSC20/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009ZTSC20&linkCode=as2&tag=natdee-20
A pink hand-gun shaped screw driver for women ($5 more expensive than the men's silver one!)

this is completely ridiculous, the fairy heart sausage meat is particularly egregious

to be fair, the wrist support i can perhaps see the point in (i'm not a medical expert but it is conceivable that they may need to be different shapes/whatever) but the rest is totally stupid and in some cases a bit offensive.

Sock sizes are different for men and women, so you might cut them some slack on that one. The picture did show a working woman, after all.

Check out the alphabet - boys get astronauts, balls, firefighters, kites, lions and robots - girls get apples, butterflies, fairies, kittens, ladybirds and rainbows. I mean jesus christ, who creates this shit?

So what's wrong with gendered products again? Unless they're stopping you buying it, I don't see what the problem is.

PS: "It makes me feel bad" is not a real problem.

Sweet! I can finally do yoga! - http://brogamats.com/

I've found more pointlessly-gendered things at local supermarkets, like these toothbrushes & playing cards. Where can I submit (cuz I dont have Pinterest)

I can't complain about the Darn Socks women's sock package.

Great Job guys you just made that my psychology seminar topic.

i know what the dog shampoo is actually for

I know what the dog shampoo is actually for !)