{"id":6026,"date":"2011-10-26T11:45:24","date_gmt":"2011-10-26T16:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=6026"},"modified":"2013-03-02T03:56:33","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T08:56:33","slug":"pink-earplugs-for-your-beauty-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/10\/26\/pink-earplugs-for-your-beauty-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Pointlessly Gendered Products"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christie W. sent in an idea that inspired me to revive our pointlessly gendered products post. \u00a0It’s \u00a0a fun one. \u00a0I’ve added Christie’s submission — a super-pink for-her version of a continuous positive airway pressure\u00a0machine for people with sleep apnea.<\/em><\/p>\n

————————<\/p>\n

At this point, the gendering of things like phones doesn’t surprise me, such as this set, sent in by Ben C.:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But really…pink ear plugs?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We seriously need our own earplugs that are “silky soft”? Starchy G., who sent them in, says:<\/p>\n

I’ve been told that these things have the extra-feminine side effect of dying one’s earwax pink.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Lovely.<\/p>\n

Feminist Philosophers<\/a> found this delightfully marketed pair of earplugs for, um, I’m gonna guess working class men:<\/p>\n

\"Picture2\"<\/p>\n

Gendered tape, also from Feminist Philosophers<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Picture3\"<\/p>\n

Lee D.-T. found these sandwich bags for sale at a Safeway store in Melbourne, Australia. Sandwich bags<\/em>, people!<\/p>\n

\"13082009028\"<\/p>\n

Original Will sent in this image of pink computer cables, found at\u00a0boing boing<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NEW! (Mar. ’10):<\/strong> Marjolaine N. found pink and blue\u00a0chocolate Easter bunnies<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Michelle at The Red Pill Survival Guide<\/a> took this photograph of gendered lollipops.\u00a0 But not just any lollies: “Girls Enchanted” and “Boys Adventure” mixes.\u00a0 Sigh:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Em wanted to download Style XP to customize Windows XP, but had to decide between men’s and ladies’ versions:<\/p>\n

\"-1\"<\/p>\n

Em says,<\/p>\n

The Man theme “gem” and the Lady theme “gucci” look pretty much the same. Still I’m glad it’s called “gucci” so I know it’s for me. Me and my lady friends are going to giggle about it then go online shoe shopping together. I just hope they’ve added extra-easy installation instructions to that version.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christie W. sent in a pink version of a\u00a0continuous positive airway pressure\u00a0machine, and related items, for people, er women, with sleep apnea:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over a dozen more ridiculous examples, after the jump.\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In another example of gendering, Alicia T. sent in an image of a “ladies'” tool set (for sale here<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\"30\"<\/p>\n

She points out, “if you actually use it, the pretty flowers start to wear off on the head.”<\/p>\n

A couple of years back my sister gave me a small tool set where everything was pink. All the tools were pretty flimsy and useless. I guess if you really liked pink, they were great, but if you wanted them to work<\/em>, not so much.<\/p>\n

Lindsay C. sent in these two images about a McCullough brand cordless screwdriver marketed to women, sold at Ollie’s Bargain Outlet<\/a> in Cary, NY. The screwdriver is “designed by a woman for a woman” and comes with a manicure set:<\/p>\n

\"by<\/p>\n

Dammit! My mom gave me a Black&Decker cordless drill two years ago, but it must have been designed by a man, because it didn’t come with a manicure set or hair brush or face moisturizer or anything! If I’d known, I would have returned it for this one.<\/p>\n

And here’s an ad for it, emphasizing that it’s lightweight for our delicate, weak hands and the “smaller jobs” we women do:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/p>\n

But it turns out that the product wasn’t very popular. The text over on the side:<\/p>\n

Folks, the guys at McCulloch had a great idea for ladies – ‘Lets [sic] make the cordless screwdriver kit and also include a ladies [sic] manicure kit.’ \u00a0So they did and SURPRISE – it did not sell well, so now you can get this unique kit at about half the big box price!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A cordless screwdriver with a manicure set didn’t sell well? Shocking.<\/p>\n

In another example of gendered marketing, lauradhel of Hoyden about Town<\/a> pointed out these pink and blue cancer fundraiser scooters:<\/p>\n

\"3602294013_c67e48ab39_o\"<\/p>\n

Robyn G. found a new girls’ version of Kinesys sunscreen<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\"spf30spraygirl\"<\/p>\n

Apparently something is for girls if you add vanilla scent.<\/p>\n

Shannon C. pointed out that Simmons Beautyrest<\/a> has different mattress-buying tips for men, women, and couples:<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

Ondi let us know about REV. epsom salts<\/a>, which come in blue and pink versions:<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

Notice the women’s version provides a “mood lift,” whereas apparently the men’s is only good for aches and pains.<\/p>\n

I was surprised, however, that the version marketed “for athletes” on the webpage featured a female athlete:<\/p>\n

\"Picture<\/p>\n

Dmitriy T.M. sent in this photo of gendered Snuggies:<\/p>\n

\"photo\"<\/p>\n

A<\/span>nd I took this picture of gendered giftcards at Target:<\/p>\n

\"100_2753\"<\/p>\n

Jo W. sent in these:<\/p>\n

\"-2\"<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9e Y. sent in a picture of Nivea chapstick on sale:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Christy R. sent in a photo of these two deodorants on sale at Whole Foods. As far as I can tell, they’re identical…except for the package color:<\/p>\n

\"Photobucket\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kathe H. sent in these photos of gendered disposable cameras.\u00a0 Notice that the price tag on the post specifies whether the camera is for girls or boys.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anne Marie found us another pair of gendered ear plugs:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An anonymous sender-inner let us know about a product that makes fun of (we think) the pointless gendering of products by needlessly pointing out that doggie poop bags are unisex, but sort of gendering it at the same time:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jessica J. sent along gendered versions of some weird game where (we think) the idea is to search through beads for plastic treasures.\u00a0 There’s a sports-themed version and a glitz and glamour-version (notice that the latter is also branded with the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Pointlessly gendered sleeping pills at a CVS in Burbank, CA:<\/p>\n

\"20130224_192354\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\nGwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christie W. sent in an idea that inspired me to revive our pointlessly gendered products post. \u00a0It’s \u00a0a fun one. \u00a0I’ve added Christie’s submission — a super-pink for-her version of a continuous positive airway pressure\u00a0machine for people with sleep apnea. ———————— At this point, the gendering of things like phones doesn’t surprise me, such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[373,2124,55,2096,2087,23703,293],"class_list":["post-6026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-color","tag-foodagriculture","tag-gender","tag-gender-femininity","tag-gender-masculinity","tag-marketing","tag-social-construction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6026"}],"version-history":[{"count":44,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7673,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6026\/revisions\/7673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}