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Women, pink, fluffy and not very bright?

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pinkkboardFrom pens to tablets, everyday items continue to receive the gender treatment.

It would seem women need big buttons in order to operate anything as technologically challenging as a tablet.

That, at least, seems to have been what was running through the minds of the Dubai based Eurostar company (no relation) when they launched the E-pad Femme.

According to Mani Nair, vice-resident of the company, it is “the perfect gadget for a woman who might find difficulties in terms of downloading these applications”.

The tablet, naturally in pink, comes with pre-downloaded apps that offer cooking and diet tips.

It is not the first technology item to have been marketed for women.

In 2009 Dell was criticised for its launch of  new website ‘Della’. Designed to advertise Dell’s new netbooks to women, it offered tips for calorie counting and cooking videos .

Everyday items have always received the gender treatment; from pens (Bic for Her) to earplugs, to bottled water to power tools – the list is endless.

This pinterest page,  shows a collection of items which have been unnecessarily designed specially ‘for women’.

Is there ever any justification to create a separate, gendered, version of an everyday tool?

The only example that came to mind was a bicycle:  women’s bicycles don’t have the upper bar, making it far easier to cycle with a skirt or dress. But this division (whether a bike has a bar or not) is about clothes rather than gender.

Interestingly, Boris Bikes are all without the bar. Are they an example of the ‘female’ version of an item becoming the default option?

If so, it’s a break from the masculine ‘norm’.

Therein lies the real problem with these e-pads and pens for her: the idea that, in order to operate the tools of everyday life, women need a specially adapted version of the item.

Sociological Images has explored this concept in their post, ‘Male as the neutral default’.

This trend reflects a fundamental issue Simone de Beauvoir raised half a century ago.

In The ‘Second Sex’, she said that woman “is defined and differentiated in reference to man and not he in reference to her”.

On a more immediate level, this unnecessary gendering of items also reinforces dangerous stereotypes: that women are pink, fluffy, light and, as it would seem the e-pad is telling us, not very bright.

Businesses will argue that that this is simply marketing, that women want these items and that companies are only satisfying to demand.

How do we respond?

Humour is one option – a casual glance at the reviews on Amazon for Bic for Her will reveal a plethora of witty entries where people have thanked Bic for finally enabling women to use pens.

One reviewer noted that, until then, “my dainty little hands couldn’t handle [my husband’s] massive man biros”.

Another option is to vote with our wallets – when businesses see women aren’t biting, they may stop creating these products.

Judging from the sales of the e-pad – a measly 7000 sold so far – that’s at least one item we won’t have to worry about for much longer.

  1. It’s rife throughout society. This attitude that the masculine ‘version’ is the natural, normal, standard state, and the feminine ‘version’ is something other or different, either less than, or adapted from the ‘norm’ or should I say the masculine.

    Once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere and when you think about it for more than a few minutes it just seems to be a ridiculous state of affairs.

    • vicki wharton says:

      The ‘othering’ of a group of people as outside the norm is a very important psychological part of prejudice – it allows people within the favoured group ie men, to present and think of othered group ie women as the abnormal … and therefore can be portrayed as liking all sorts of violence and abuse that most ‘normal’ people would not accept knowing it to be painful or damaging etc. Violent sex can then be rewrapped as kinky sex that freaky women like, child abuse can be blamed on the child who then is called child prostitute etc etc etc. Pinkifying products is the very very thin end of the wedge.

  2. Using colour to identify and create systems is just another form of language, as a woman I am not offended by the use of colour to differentiate and communicate products.

    Not every woman likes pink, but saying pink is not acceptable is far fetched.

    Conversely, diet tips auto loaded AND recipes!? Like body image isn’t already a sore point? This is psychologically damaging and very concerning …

  3. I agree to a point and certainly wouldn’t ban pink products. I like the basic idea of tailoring products to suit certain target audiences. Indeed it happens in many areas and is welcomed.

    What I find problematic about this sort of marketing is that it is lazy, thoughtless and childlike in it’s stereotyping and categorisation! Some women like pink, others like sleek blue, some want green with yellow polka dots! I’d rather see companies do proper market research to find out what people (not men or women) want and design to meet those expectations rather than just going ‘pink, girls like pink right?’

    And absolutely agree on the diet tips…The apps that every woman needs! BLEURGH!

  4. Alice Powell says:

    I agree – what really irritates me with this is the automatic/ knee-jerk nature of it! Women = must want diet tips, in pink etc…

    Like you say in the first comment Jem, you really do see it everywhere. I did try to think of a product that went the other way around (where there was a default product, and then a ‘male’ version was created) but I couldn’t think of one… (I guess the rise in male cosmetics is different because they were originally marketed to just women, rather than both sexes?)

  5. Cari Percy says:

    I wonder how many of the 7,000 sold were bought by men for their wives or daughters?

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