What is the worst case of 'pointlessly gendered' that you have seen?

[PathosBathosEthos]

Just now, daveb said:

No worries.

For all I know maybe males do it more.  

(I never have, but I'm not a car person; I just drive one as needed)

Whoever does it, I don't get it. 😂😂

[Mult]

Leather work gloves.

 

Do you know how hard it is to find any sort of work gloves in my size??? Everything is Large, X Large and maaaaybe Medium, but I have Small hands.

 

I saw leather gloves at the store in Small! They were pink...which is fine, but they were this soft and delicate goat leather...those won't last a week...

 

I will say that at least the pointlessly pink women's work clothes do immediately indicate that they might be in my size, but pink is so easy to dirty and stain. I work with sewage, I would like brown, navy blue or black please.

[nickolekuebler]

On 11/10/2023 at 10:20 AM, daveb said:

No worries.

For all I know maybe males do it more.  

(I never have, but I'm not a car person; I just drive one as needed)

I am a car person but I do not see a point in naming my car. the idea of naming my car seems like something you only do if you are like completely obsessed with your car. 

[ElloryJaye]

3 hours ago, Mult said:

Leather work gloves.

 

Do you know how hard it is to find any sort of work gloves in my size??? Everything is Large, X Large and maaaaybe Medium, but I have Small hands.

These, maybe?  They've got others if those don't suit—welding gloves, mechanics' gloves, and some coated types.  Princess Auto is more common on the Prairies, but they have a scattering of brick-and-mortar stores in Ontario if you're not comfortable ordering on-line.

[Mult]

8 hours ago, ElloryJaye said:

These, maybe?  They've got others if those don't suit—welding gloves, mechanics' gloves, and some coated types.  Princess Auto is more common on the Prairies, but they have a scattering of brick-and-mortar stores in Ontario if you're not comfortable ordering on-line.

The link doesn't want to work for me but I do know of Princess Auto though I've never shopped at one, so I'll have to check it out and see if they sell my size 

[ElloryJaye]

2 hours ago, Mult said:

The link doesn't want to work for me but I do know of Princess Auto though I've never shopped at one, so I'll have to check it out and see if they sell my size 

Yeah, their site isn't the best coded that I've ever seen.  The product I linked was the standard grey+yellowy-beigy cowhide work gloves you see just about everywhere, with size marked as "small".

[ThePapercraftingCat]

Christmas gift guides. Or not just necessarily Christmas, but just gift guides in general. Although it's at around this time of the year you see all the 'gifts for her' and 'gifts for him' guides and it's usually the same thing -'gifts for her' is usually make up, jewellery, and homewares and 'gifts for him' is usually DIY, beer and sports. These gift guides just go off gender stereotypes. I'm sure that there are women who would love to get a tool set for Christmas and men who would love to get a makeup set. Why can't we have gift guides by interests rather than gender?  

[Phalena]

1 hour ago, ThePapercraftingCat said:

Christmas gift guides. Or not just necessarily Christmas, but just gift guides in general. Although it's at around this time of the year you see all the 'gifts for her' and 'gifts for him' guides and it's usually the same thing -'gifts for her' is usually make up, jewellery, and homewares and 'gifts for him' is usually DIY, beer and sports. These gift guides just go off gender stereotypes. I'm sure that there are women who would love to get a tool set for Christmas and men who would love to get a makeup set. Why can't we have gift guides by interests rather than gender?  

It is also sad because it shows that enough people choose gifts by assuming gendered interests rather than putting in the mental effort of finding a gift that the person in question might like. Which might also mean that they also don't seem to pay that much attention to what the gift receiving person is interested in. I mean, it's kind of rare that people have to find gifts for aquaintances or strangers, right?

[ThePapercraftingCat]

4 hours ago, Phalena said:

It is also sad because it shows that enough people choose gifts by assuming gendered interests rather than putting in the mental effort of finding a gift that the person in question might like. Which might also mean that they also don't seem to pay that much attention to what the gift receiving person is interested in. I mean, it's kind of rare that people have to find gifts for aquaintances or strangers, right?

I was also going to make this point but I forgot to as I was writing my post on the train and I was at my stop. But, yes buying a gift for someone just based of their gender shows lack of care. Gift guides can be useful if it's listed by interest (like gifts for people who like cooking, gardening, DIY ect.) because it can help give you suggestions if you don't know what to get someone who is interested in a particular interest or hobby. But gendered ones aren't useful as it's basically just makeup for women and beer for men. 

[Barbio]

I remember buying a Swiss army knife for myself online once, and I noticed it had "gifts for men" as one of the tags, which really confused me at first because I had never thought of pocket knives as being a gendered thing before. (And when I think about it, that just rubs me the wrong way because knives are technically weapons, so that plays into the whole "weapons = masculinity" stereotype. That just isn't cool for a whole host of reasons).

 

And... when I got my knife, I opened the blade, and I saw that it's inscribed with "Will always be your little girl". WTF does that mean?! (Everyone I show it to is confused by that, LOL)

[Acing It]

10 hours ago, ThePapercraftingCat said:

men who would love to get a makeup set

If they did sell that it would probably be in 'man size' black boring bottles 😂

[Acing It]

2 hours ago, Barbio said:

And... when I got my knife, I opened the blade, and I saw that it's inscribed with "Will always be your little girl". WTF does that mean?! (Everyone I show it to is confused by that, LOL)

Sounds like a birthday present to a 'dad' that was sent back and resold as new?

[ThePapercraftingCat]

17 minutes ago, Acing It said:

If they did sell that it would probably be in 'man size' black boring bottles 😂

Makeup 'for men' does actually exist. It's basically regular makeup but with a really 'manly' brand name and it's in black packaging. I think it's called 'War Paint' or something to that effect. Cause you know, if a man buys a regular bottle of foundation, he's not a man anymore. It's ridiculous as makeup has no gender, it's for everyone. 

[Ahimsa_Raven]

Dude Wipes are just... why?

[Barbio]

3 hours ago, Acing It said:

Sounds like a birthday present to a 'dad' that was sent back and resold as new?

Could be, actually. I did buy it second hand. (Still, that's a weird inscription...)

[Skycaptain]

Sports shoes (training shoes or for the USA sneakers) in particular. Why make virtually identical shoes and mark one size range as men's and one size range as women's, especially when they overlap?

[nickolekuebler]

23 hours ago, ThePapercraftingCat said:

Christmas gift guides. Or not just necessarily Christmas, but just gift guides in general. Although it's at around this time of the year you see all the 'gifts for her' and 'gifts for him' guides and it's usually the same thing -'gifts for her' is usually make up, jewellery, and homewares and 'gifts for him' is usually DIY, beer and sports. These gift guides just go off gender stereotypes. I'm sure that there are women who would love to get a tool set for Christmas and men who would love to get a makeup set. Why can't we have gift guides by interests rather than gender?  

I completely agree with this. I am a woman and a mechanic, I love getting tools. I also think that its so dumb to automatically assume that any pink tools are for woman. I do like the color pink but so do plenty of men. I also know a ton of woman who hate pink. 

[ThePapercraftingCat]

4 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

Sports shoes (training shoes or for the USA sneakers) in particular. Why make virtually identical shoes and mark one size range as men's and one size range as women's, especially when they overlap?

The men's styles are usually plain, black or grey or blue and the women's styles are usually embellished and pink or lilac. Heaven forbid a man wear pink trainers. Also women don't have big feet (or at least that's what the manufacturers think). Even through I'm a UK size 7(US women's 9-9.5), and my mum's an 8 (US women's 10) and we're part of that overlap with men's sizing in the UK. But finding typically feminine style shoes in those sizes is an impossible task as they don't make a lot in those sizes for women's shoes. It's really frustrating trying to find nice shoes.

[ElloryJaye]

5 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

Sports shoes (training shoes or for the USA sneakers) in particular. Why make virtually identical shoes and mark one size range as men's and one size range as women's, especially when they overlap?

For US-style sizes, women's shoes are slightly narrower at the same numeric size (B-width, as opposed to D-width for men's).  Whether there's actually enough difference in average foot width to justify that is another question, and I don't know whether it holds for UK or EU sizes.

 

[Guest]

I was in town yesterday and needed to buy some hair mousse. I couldn't find it and proceeded to ask an employee of the shop where they keep hair mousse and they start applying gender to it straight away by saying "men's mousse". I told them I didn't need it to be men's hair mousse and only mousse.

 

They may add different scents according to gender but I find that stupid. Putting things into categories by gender clearly does bug me.

[nickolekuebler]

On 11/23/2023 at 4:48 AM, ThePapercraftingCat said:

The men's styles are usually plain, black or grey or blue and the women's styles are usually embellished and pink or lilac. Heaven forbid a man wear pink trainers. Also women don't have big feet (or at least that's what the manufacturers think). Even through I'm a UK size 7(US women's 9-9.5), and my mum's an 8 (US women's 10) and we're part of that overlap with men's sizing in the UK. But finding typically feminine style shoes in those sizes is an impossible task as they don't make a lot in those sizes for women's shoes. It's really frustrating trying to find nice shoes.

The struggle is real. I wear an 11.5-12 in us woman's shoes and trying to just find them to fit let alone anything cute is a night mare. I a lot of times have to order them online. 

[Gentle Giant]

Lume deodorant coming out with Mando deodorant for men. Same thing but now has a stronger scent and masculine packaging. Who would even want either the original version or Mando? When I first saw a Lume commercial it was so disgusting and not funny either, which they were trying to be.

[ThePapercraftingCat]

On 12/25/2023 at 5:55 PM, Gentle Giant said:

Lume deodorant coming out with Mando deodorant for men. Same thing but now has a stronger scent and masculine packaging. Who would even want either the original version or Mando? When I first saw a Lume commercial it was so disgusting and not funny either, which they were trying to be.

I've heard about Lume. It's not available in the UK, but I've heard about it's questionable marketing. Questionable marketing as in it saying that you need deodorant for 'down there' (you don't, and if there is a smell 'down there' you should probably go to a doctor or gynecologist), and perpetuating the myth that the female genital area has a 'smell' and needs perfumed irritants to cover it up. 

[daveb]

I was selecting new glasses last week, and once again it struck me that eyeglasses are needlessly gendered. Just as with socks, shoes, colors, and many other things, what makes one pair of eyeglasses women's and another pair men's? I honestly can't even tell which are which for the most part in the store without finding the signage that says this section is women's and this section is men's. Someone could swap frames around and I doubt most people could tell, at least for most frames.

[ElloryJaye]

On 2/26/2024 at 12:23 PM, daveb said:

I was selecting new glasses last week, and once again it struck me that eyeglasses are needlessly gendered. Just as with socks, shoes, colors, and many other things, what makes one pair of eyeglasses women's and another pair men's? I honestly can't even tell which are which for the most part in the store without finding the signage that says this section is women's and this section is men's. Someone could swap frames around and I doubt most people could tell, at least for most frames.

I . . . wasn't even aware that was a Thing.  The display section at my optometrist's shelves them by frame brand name, which is mostly useless for finding what you want but not sexist.

 

[nickolekuebler]

nothing is labeled like that at my optometrist, she just says pick what you like. and as im looking around she will give me her input on how I look and such. she doesn't really use gendered pronouns for glasses though unless you ask for something more feminine or masculine. 

[KVA1983]

I know in regards to Specsavers they don't tend to have their glasses selection labelled as masculine or feminine. Which in my opinion is great because just like the clothes we choose to wear - it's what makes us comfortable and how we choose to express our individuality that matters more.

 

My glasses are technically masculine but I'm blind in one eye so when I try on any new pairs I can't really see to well 😂 If they are comfortable I take them, though even after adjustment they do tend to slip off the bridge of my nose, I've wee bridge bumpers to keep them in place 

[nickolekuebler]

Mine are like a super cute matte purple color on the outside and a matte pink on the inside. but looking at them they don't look really masculine or feminine on their own it would be someone opinion of the color.