The Bizarre World of Pointlessly Gendered Products

The worst gendered product I’ve come in contact with is for sure “Pinky Gloves”. It was a product on German Shark Tank and essentially a pink one-time-use plastic glove to remove a tampon with (of course, it was pink), so women wouldn’t have to touch their ‘gross’ hygiene products and (of course more importantly) so men didn’t have to see a tampon in the bathroom bin. The male sharks were ecstatic and called it revolutionary, but after the episode aired, the company had to backtrack and apologise pretty quickly. So yeah, women apparently need pink gloves in order not to touch their own bodies or make men feel uncomfortable. Hooray!

i had a girls bible as a kid and i hated it. it was weird, objectified women, and told girls how to behave. it said stuff talking about women like “her thighs were lined with lilies” and told me to pretty much not show my feelings or emotions because saying my opinion was disobedient and would disappoint god. it also tried to hide that sex was a real thing but saying only boys and girls can be together at the same time💀

I spent a decade convincing my dad that dermatologists weren’t hacks, plastic surgeons or like ‘female’ doctors?? He had rosacea on his forehead my entire childhood and complained about it daily. I would mention skincare to him but he was convinced shampoo & dove soap had him set for life. He was using bar soap on his face for his entire adult life i’m surprised he had any skin left on his face frankly. Finally he went to the dermatologist and they prescribed him something for his rosacea, which magically he said helped and he should have gone years ago wow shocking. The dermatologist & I convinced him to use facial soap and moisturizer but I had to buy them in ‘masculine’ bottles so he would actually put them out on his sink & use them (shoutout Clinique for having a dark grey ‘boy’ skincare line for all the fussy men in our lives).

I work retail in fashion and we sell a lot of neutral baby clothes, pastels, brown, green, yellow, grey (sad beige as they say) but at the register, sometimes it gives off specifics when scanned. Like it’ll say “nightime bodysuit” or “stretchy rompers”. One day this elderly couple bought a little white fuzzy bodysuit with a bear on it, and it scanned as “girl’s bodysuit”. The HORROR on their faces. They looked at eachother and then asked me if that was an error, if it was also designed for boys, and more importantly “is it masculine enough?” I had to reassure them it was completely neutral, the most important thing was the materials etc. they sat there thinking for 5minutes, then decided not to take it. It honestly made me sad to know they were so indoctrinated in this ridiculous gender separation, that they couldn’t buy a 4€ onesie that would get filled with shit regardless of what colour it was.