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People Are Sharing Examples Of Pointless Gendering And It Shows How Stupid It Can Be (50 Pics)
Here's a radical thought. Maybe men and women would get along better if companies and institutions stopped yelling about how different they are? I get it, everyone has their own opinion, and it's a sensitive topic but come on. Toilet paper for women? A cookbook for men? Some things are just absurd. And you can find them on the subreddit r/PointlesslyGendered. This online community is dedicated to collecting examples of the division between the two genders our society so desperately insists on, and over the years have gotten themselves quite a load. Here are some of the worst ones.
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Dinosaurs Are For Boys
The correct response towards anyone meddling in what is none of their business.
I Feel This Belongs Here
Gender-tailored marketing messages are fairly common, but research shows they can have the opposite effect and repel consumers, especially women. In fact, they often backfire to the point of dissuading women from choosing a product they would have considered if the company hadn't talked about their gender so much, a study by Harvard Business School found.
The reason for this lies in human nature. People tend to resist being categorized (or made to feel like they are unwillingly reduced to a single identity) particularly when the product they're being nudged toward evokes a stereotype about their gender.
Random Low Key Pic From 4chan
Damn You, Spaghetti Sauce. If Only I Had A Man Around! Dinner Is Ruined!
Gendering Eggs Now, Are We?
Suggesting that women will go crazy over a product wrapped in pink packaging just because some marketer assumes that all women love pink can come across as downright insulting, co-researcher Leslie K. John, the Marvin Bower Associate Professor at HBS, said.
"In a way, this project reminds me of my childhood," John explained. "When I was a kid, I had a babysitter who said, 'Leslie, your favorite color is pink.' She would put pink bows in my hair. Everything had to be pink. This project is partly a reaction against this feeling that just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I love pink! There's something very off-putting about feeling like you're being reduced to a single category of membership."
And It’s Only $49.99!
To be fair, a lot of women could buy one-for-all but don't and the variety for "male" body care grows.
Names Have A Gender?
To be fair, there are plenty of languages where names do have a gender.
What To Get My Niece For Christmas
If my aunt was here, she’d say ‘makeup’. I’m not even a girl, I was AFAB, she doesn’t know that though, and for t he past 3 Christmases and my birthdays, she’s only gave me makeup-
But where does this false notion come from? Why do companies keep trying to sell their products by emphasizing the buyer's gender? Well, the answer to this question might lie in one 2017 Pew Research Center survey.
It discovered that Americans think men and women are basically different in the way they express their feelings, their physical abilities, their personal interests, and their approach to parenting. But there is no public consensus on the origins of these differences.
Gatekeeping A Yellow Jacket, Among Other Normal Things
Shaming Elephants
"Male Doctor," "Male Chef, "Male Racecar Driver"
I think marketers know this. Maybe some of them just haven't realized that to have an opinion and to base your purchasing decision on it are two different things.
This applies to other aspects, not only gender. According to previous research, for example, even stereotypes that cast people in a positive light—such as Asians excel in math—can trigger a negative reaction from these groups.
Girls Don’t Have Ankles
ahhh i think thats worse than period pains *ow* and last time i checked... i have two ankles
Fellas, Is It Gay To Touch Your Face?
It's true, though. Holding your face together is the only thing preventing his XY-jaw from dragging along the floor, with his XY-knuckles. Plus, he has bonus nose-picking modality this way.
Sounds Very Mormon
True!
Cancer Isn't Gendered, Support Shouldn't Be Either
This Guy Gets It
In Estonian "Ta" (Or "Tema") Means Both "She" And "He", Google Translate Decides By Context
Same Items Inside... Hers Costs 30% More
Because That Is Totally How It Works
Apparently It’s Gay To See Now
Real men don't go out of their way for street signs, the street signs scarper out of the way.
This Is The Worst One I've Ever Seen
Girls Live On A Different Planet
Toothpaste For Men Only!
wtf i use that toothpaste and i use men's deodorent and its not to strong for my fragile feminine teeth or under arms this makes me so mad
Wait Until He Learns That Men Have Butt Cheeks Too
Pointlessly Gendered Shelter Caused Trans Student To Be Left Outside
Bureaucracy at its finest.....lol. Also, what a stupid shooter plan. "Look, there's a shooter! Quick! separate by genders!"
No Way
Accurate
Food Is Feminine
Pockets?!
I used to wear mens slacks for this reason and too many people thought it was a strange thing for me (female) to do
Men Can't Be Anorexic Apparently
No Bro It’s War Paint
Kinda contradicts the "You're a man you don't need a mirror" of nearby post.
Gender Appropriate "Fun"
Fruity Drinks Are Bomb
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir
Had To Share
Need I Say More
Because Sexualising Babies Is Okay...
Pointlessly Gendered Lit Sides
Low Testosterone Male Pink Tool Set
If This Ain’t The Truth
“Things To Say When You’re Staring At A Boy Trying To Think Of What To Say”
Fathering A Child? Sounds Pretty Girly To Me
having a designer bag doesn't make you afraid of not being masculine. Why do you think there are diaper bags with flowers and cute baby animals? Because the demographic they are trying to sell the diaper bag to like it.
Because Somehow Exercise And Dieting Can Be Gender Specific?
Found This Gem On Tumblr
Fellas, Is It
Green Is Man, Red Is Woman
Unclear whether this is gendering or just keeping a theme edit: Just realized these are different white people on unrelated album?movie? covers.
This Sign On The Door To Our Laundry Room
Pointlessly Gendered And Homophobic At The Same Time
Pink Bad For Rap
To be fair, I took pink plasti-dip to the handles of a lot of my tools. Buts that's not because I need pink tools for my delicate lady hands, but so the guys in my shop won't borrow them.
My dad one day in the 1970s: "Tennis is gay." .....My mom in reply: "So football is manly?"......My dad: "Hell yeah."...... My mom: "A sport where you're rubbing up against other men and sharing showers naked in a room together is manly."..... And that's when I think my dad's brain melted and he never made such comments again.
This gender BS is so annoying. I've been dealing with it my whole life. All I wanted to do as a kid was run around outside, climb trees, catch bugs, play in the mud. But my older, female cousins would insist on dragging me into the bathroom to fix my hair, do my makeup and harass me about why I wasn't wearing a training bra. I've never liked pink. I very much wanted to join the boy scouts because they got to do all the fun stuff. I hated being forced to wear dresses and I loved unicorns because putting a horn on a horse just made it even more bad ass. Now I'm an adult and trying to raise boys and am having to deal with all the problems at the other end of the spectrum. I make a point of not even introducing any of that toxic masculinity crap, but my 7 year old watches cartoons and picks up snippets of it from that. Lately he's been trying to tell me boy's hearts aren't as big as girl's, and that boys are supposed to be meaner than girls. We had a nice long conversation about that one.
I laugh at a lot of these but I did just want to put it out in the universe that while we should support men and women that subvert “traditional gender roles” we also need to show support for men and women who tend to fall into them. I had a coworker tell my boss she wanted to be a stay at home mom and raise a large family and he told her she was too smart to waste her life like that. And she was incredibly smart but her excitement about wanting to make a home and be a full time mom apparently made her goals ridiculous. We shouldn’t shame men who go to the gym and lift weights by assuming they are just “grunts” or women who enjoy manicures and shoe sales as “airheads”. Bottom line, but what you want, do what you want but also let others be too.
At the time of this comment, the article has war paint for men as a header. I’ve always referred to cosmetics as war paint. When I put on red lipstick, most people in my life know it’s a day for me to be productive...that it’s my war paint.
For gender-freak parents: a boy being feminine does not mean he will be gay. He may be masculine and gay, or masculine and straight, or feminine and gay, or feminine and straight. He may be trans and a lesbian. Gender is not the same as sexuality and stop mixing the two up!
I also hate the stereotype that girls love princesses but boys hate them, and that boys love superheroes, and girls hate them. I am a girl, and I love superheroes! Honestly, I prefer Marvel to DC, but of course, that is the business of fandom. I don't really wear women's clothing, but more men's because I find that men's are actually way cooler. I really, REALLY wish that the world didn't have to genderize everyday things!
All said and done, these things exist because there is a market for them. Let us be honest that our society has not reached the point where people are just people. Men, women, black, white, tall, short or whatever, doesn't matter. Hopefully I live long enough to see the majority finally discarding these nonsensical stereotypes. But it ain't looking good at the rate I'm going.
In Animal Crossing New Horizons, the carpet selling camel, Sahara, is a girl in the US version, but in Japan, Sahara is a guy. I heard it's because they were afraid that the long eyelashes would be a problem on a guy. Camels have long eyelashes to protect their eyes from the sand and other crap in the desert. But in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the lead character, Link, a guy, has to dress up as a girl to get into a city of all women. If you don't do this, you can't complete the game. And, he actually does it more than once. So Nintendo had no problem with forcing one of their iconic characters to cross dress, but didn't want to make a camel male because it had long eyelashes. That's messed up.
It's amazing how some people can be so smug with their beliefs, yet, are completely intolerant of other people's opinions.
Shoes are a big problem for (at least) kids , the female shoes are all sparkly and pink, and the male shoes are all kinds of colors. I wanted to cry when my mom said no to shoes "for boys" and made me get the sparkly crap. And she still wonders why I dont wear the shoes she gets me. Then again I could just be over dramatic-
This is why I'm non-binary. Not only because I felt really confident in that identity, but partly because of stereotypes. When you say it 'stereotypes', it seems to be just a word. However they are painfully restricting in what you can do and be accepted for. They appear so often that subconsciously our brains perceive them as normal (I even noticed it in my own thoughts. Like when i was picking a toy for my brother, i reached for blue instead of pink). It's a sad reality that harms both genders
I adore them all. We should have a permanent collection of these strangely-gendered things, and at the end of the year a Golden Tin-opener should be given to the best one.
There was an article online some time ago about men who considered it to be gay to wipe themselves after going to the bathroom. They rather had skidmarks on their clothes and bedsheets then wipe themselves or shower themselves. So disgusting. (Google men refusing to wipe because it is gay, you’ll find several...)
I buy nothing but hot pink lighters (5-packs) because they're easier to locate in the pile of crap on my desk.
They have wipes now (the kind you use after you use the toilet) that are called “dude wipes” apparently they’re bigger or something because it’s gay to touch your asshole when you s**t
I'd like to believe all this gender crap is in the past, but I know it's not.
I had trouble with my tools at work disappearing till I engraved daisies and little hearts all over them. Well one of the mechanics did take one and the other guys teased him so much that somehow it was put back 9n my desk while I was at break.
My sister and I play baseball, soccer, basketball, and hockey. Me being the more "girly" got teased by the boys on the baseball team 24/7. They would actually stand on the bench, chew up sunflower seeds, and spit the soggy shells at me, aiming at my face and getting the already chewed seeds into my mouth. One boy, in particular, would make fun of my name and change my name to inappropriate things...all because I was "girly." Later in the year I proved to be better at those sports than him and continued to be myself, and try not to react to the comments. Eventually, my coach stepped in and stopped it all together. I have 2 moms, and both of them are all for girl power and us continuing to play. They still bring us to every game, every practice, and take us to practice by ourselves. So both girls and boys, continue to be yourself and ignore these people who have no sense of direction in life and keep up doing what you love...NO MATTER WHAT!!!! 💕💕
I'm not saying that gender roles haven't always been an issue, because obviously they have, but the particular way that it hits us now is mostly due to advertising. Companies found that they sold more if they had gender-specific versions and that became the way that society saw gender. Imagine that, advertising can affect how people see their own gender. Advertising is a truly scary then when you look into it
I've stopped laughing around #20 and told a friend I've send the link to, to rather not read it, cos it has began to sound depressing not funny very quickly :(
I always hated the gender thing and bucked it as much as possible with my sons 35 years ago. It's easier to do with girls as people are more afraid of homosexuality than they are of lesbianism. Anyways, I owned a children's clothing and toy store and took great pleasure in asking every customer who walked in if their baby was a boy or girl, especially if the child was dressed very obviously. They'd look at me like there was something wrong with me if I couldn't tell the kid was a girl with a big stupid pink bow on their head.
I hate this anti-Mormon Bullcrap Edit: the anti-Mormon posts, not the whole post.
I'm a girl who loves pink - does that mean there's something wrong with me?!
I've seen pink boxing gloves for women. If I was into boxing I wouldn't want pink gloves.
So...late reaction from my side. But here is the problem. When is - except from the obvious- is someone being a jerk? Isnt it possible that you make a - perhaps misplaced- joke? Does it mean that you ARE a jerk? In other words who has the monopoly on judging somebode on making mistakes?
This isn't gendering. Pink is for females. Blue is for males. They're sexes, not genders. This is sexing.
Listen, I'm 100% be who you want to be. If my boy wants to wear a pink sweater or even a dress, we're going dress shopping. That being said, I do get why some items are pink for Girls. It's just bc most Girls like pink. And yes, it's stupid that the pink or blue objects have 'boy- or girlwhatever' on the box.
Good points but, often, poor expression. Several people here seem to forget that not everyopne in their potential audiemce is the same age as they are and equally tolerant of the promiscuous use of the F-bomb. Maybe more people would hear you if you left that out? Also: use of the term 'straight people' as an all-inclusive is as offensive as, for example, 'all gays' in that ignores individuality.
The only really wrong things I saw up there were the reaction of the mom with the Kinder eggs (poor little boy) and the different pricing of differently coloured identical item. Nobody can really tell you which item to choose for yourself and buy. Companies are simply trying to provide a bigger variety for all the different people. People (no matter if they are for or against it) are the ones who think something is for girls if it’s pink. Pink is a colour. If we get this in our minds then we won’t be that annoyed by the variety. Why do you need to pay attention whether it says “for boys” or “for girls” on the pack. At the end, the companies will produce whatever people would buy and stop producing whatever they don’t buy. I think we are reading too much into these items. It is a problem if we try to make a problem out of it. There will always be guys that like pink and girls that hate it, same for all other colours. I vote for diversity in people and items.
I don’t know...some of those were really unnecessary gendered, but others...I think people just got way too “sensitive”. Downvote me as much as you want, but I don’t see the huge problem with animations. I am sick of having all the classics from my childhood ruined because someone finds them gender or race offensive. Better pay attention to what you do now than looking for problems in the good stuff from the past. EDIT: I see all of us who tend to thing differently (don’t see a problem with some of the above photos) are benign downvoted. I am not okay with people pressuring others to have things gendered, but I also don’t like people being pressured for liking gendered things. Or what? Is this site (or at least this post) ruled by snowflakes?! Seems like it.
To be fair, I took pink plasti-dip to the handles of a lot of my tools. Buts that's not because I need pink tools for my delicate lady hands, but so the guys in my shop won't borrow them.
My dad one day in the 1970s: "Tennis is gay." .....My mom in reply: "So football is manly?"......My dad: "Hell yeah."...... My mom: "A sport where you're rubbing up against other men and sharing showers naked in a room together is manly."..... And that's when I think my dad's brain melted and he never made such comments again.
This gender BS is so annoying. I've been dealing with it my whole life. All I wanted to do as a kid was run around outside, climb trees, catch bugs, play in the mud. But my older, female cousins would insist on dragging me into the bathroom to fix my hair, do my makeup and harass me about why I wasn't wearing a training bra. I've never liked pink. I very much wanted to join the boy scouts because they got to do all the fun stuff. I hated being forced to wear dresses and I loved unicorns because putting a horn on a horse just made it even more bad ass. Now I'm an adult and trying to raise boys and am having to deal with all the problems at the other end of the spectrum. I make a point of not even introducing any of that toxic masculinity crap, but my 7 year old watches cartoons and picks up snippets of it from that. Lately he's been trying to tell me boy's hearts aren't as big as girl's, and that boys are supposed to be meaner than girls. We had a nice long conversation about that one.
I laugh at a lot of these but I did just want to put it out in the universe that while we should support men and women that subvert “traditional gender roles” we also need to show support for men and women who tend to fall into them. I had a coworker tell my boss she wanted to be a stay at home mom and raise a large family and he told her she was too smart to waste her life like that. And she was incredibly smart but her excitement about wanting to make a home and be a full time mom apparently made her goals ridiculous. We shouldn’t shame men who go to the gym and lift weights by assuming they are just “grunts” or women who enjoy manicures and shoe sales as “airheads”. Bottom line, but what you want, do what you want but also let others be too.
At the time of this comment, the article has war paint for men as a header. I’ve always referred to cosmetics as war paint. When I put on red lipstick, most people in my life know it’s a day for me to be productive...that it’s my war paint.
For gender-freak parents: a boy being feminine does not mean he will be gay. He may be masculine and gay, or masculine and straight, or feminine and gay, or feminine and straight. He may be trans and a lesbian. Gender is not the same as sexuality and stop mixing the two up!
I also hate the stereotype that girls love princesses but boys hate them, and that boys love superheroes, and girls hate them. I am a girl, and I love superheroes! Honestly, I prefer Marvel to DC, but of course, that is the business of fandom. I don't really wear women's clothing, but more men's because I find that men's are actually way cooler. I really, REALLY wish that the world didn't have to genderize everyday things!
All said and done, these things exist because there is a market for them. Let us be honest that our society has not reached the point where people are just people. Men, women, black, white, tall, short or whatever, doesn't matter. Hopefully I live long enough to see the majority finally discarding these nonsensical stereotypes. But it ain't looking good at the rate I'm going.
In Animal Crossing New Horizons, the carpet selling camel, Sahara, is a girl in the US version, but in Japan, Sahara is a guy. I heard it's because they were afraid that the long eyelashes would be a problem on a guy. Camels have long eyelashes to protect their eyes from the sand and other crap in the desert. But in Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, the lead character, Link, a guy, has to dress up as a girl to get into a city of all women. If you don't do this, you can't complete the game. And, he actually does it more than once. So Nintendo had no problem with forcing one of their iconic characters to cross dress, but didn't want to make a camel male because it had long eyelashes. That's messed up.
It's amazing how some people can be so smug with their beliefs, yet, are completely intolerant of other people's opinions.
Shoes are a big problem for (at least) kids , the female shoes are all sparkly and pink, and the male shoes are all kinds of colors. I wanted to cry when my mom said no to shoes "for boys" and made me get the sparkly crap. And she still wonders why I dont wear the shoes she gets me. Then again I could just be over dramatic-
This is why I'm non-binary. Not only because I felt really confident in that identity, but partly because of stereotypes. When you say it 'stereotypes', it seems to be just a word. However they are painfully restricting in what you can do and be accepted for. They appear so often that subconsciously our brains perceive them as normal (I even noticed it in my own thoughts. Like when i was picking a toy for my brother, i reached for blue instead of pink). It's a sad reality that harms both genders
I adore them all. We should have a permanent collection of these strangely-gendered things, and at the end of the year a Golden Tin-opener should be given to the best one.
There was an article online some time ago about men who considered it to be gay to wipe themselves after going to the bathroom. They rather had skidmarks on their clothes and bedsheets then wipe themselves or shower themselves. So disgusting. (Google men refusing to wipe because it is gay, you’ll find several...)
I buy nothing but hot pink lighters (5-packs) because they're easier to locate in the pile of crap on my desk.
They have wipes now (the kind you use after you use the toilet) that are called “dude wipes” apparently they’re bigger or something because it’s gay to touch your asshole when you s**t
I'd like to believe all this gender crap is in the past, but I know it's not.
I had trouble with my tools at work disappearing till I engraved daisies and little hearts all over them. Well one of the mechanics did take one and the other guys teased him so much that somehow it was put back 9n my desk while I was at break.
My sister and I play baseball, soccer, basketball, and hockey. Me being the more "girly" got teased by the boys on the baseball team 24/7. They would actually stand on the bench, chew up sunflower seeds, and spit the soggy shells at me, aiming at my face and getting the already chewed seeds into my mouth. One boy, in particular, would make fun of my name and change my name to inappropriate things...all because I was "girly." Later in the year I proved to be better at those sports than him and continued to be myself, and try not to react to the comments. Eventually, my coach stepped in and stopped it all together. I have 2 moms, and both of them are all for girl power and us continuing to play. They still bring us to every game, every practice, and take us to practice by ourselves. So both girls and boys, continue to be yourself and ignore these people who have no sense of direction in life and keep up doing what you love...NO MATTER WHAT!!!! 💕💕
I'm not saying that gender roles haven't always been an issue, because obviously they have, but the particular way that it hits us now is mostly due to advertising. Companies found that they sold more if they had gender-specific versions and that became the way that society saw gender. Imagine that, advertising can affect how people see their own gender. Advertising is a truly scary then when you look into it
I've stopped laughing around #20 and told a friend I've send the link to, to rather not read it, cos it has began to sound depressing not funny very quickly :(
I always hated the gender thing and bucked it as much as possible with my sons 35 years ago. It's easier to do with girls as people are more afraid of homosexuality than they are of lesbianism. Anyways, I owned a children's clothing and toy store and took great pleasure in asking every customer who walked in if their baby was a boy or girl, especially if the child was dressed very obviously. They'd look at me like there was something wrong with me if I couldn't tell the kid was a girl with a big stupid pink bow on their head.
I hate this anti-Mormon Bullcrap Edit: the anti-Mormon posts, not the whole post.
I'm a girl who loves pink - does that mean there's something wrong with me?!
I've seen pink boxing gloves for women. If I was into boxing I wouldn't want pink gloves.
So...late reaction from my side. But here is the problem. When is - except from the obvious- is someone being a jerk? Isnt it possible that you make a - perhaps misplaced- joke? Does it mean that you ARE a jerk? In other words who has the monopoly on judging somebode on making mistakes?
This isn't gendering. Pink is for females. Blue is for males. They're sexes, not genders. This is sexing.
Listen, I'm 100% be who you want to be. If my boy wants to wear a pink sweater or even a dress, we're going dress shopping. That being said, I do get why some items are pink for Girls. It's just bc most Girls like pink. And yes, it's stupid that the pink or blue objects have 'boy- or girlwhatever' on the box.
Good points but, often, poor expression. Several people here seem to forget that not everyopne in their potential audiemce is the same age as they are and equally tolerant of the promiscuous use of the F-bomb. Maybe more people would hear you if you left that out? Also: use of the term 'straight people' as an all-inclusive is as offensive as, for example, 'all gays' in that ignores individuality.
The only really wrong things I saw up there were the reaction of the mom with the Kinder eggs (poor little boy) and the different pricing of differently coloured identical item. Nobody can really tell you which item to choose for yourself and buy. Companies are simply trying to provide a bigger variety for all the different people. People (no matter if they are for or against it) are the ones who think something is for girls if it’s pink. Pink is a colour. If we get this in our minds then we won’t be that annoyed by the variety. Why do you need to pay attention whether it says “for boys” or “for girls” on the pack. At the end, the companies will produce whatever people would buy and stop producing whatever they don’t buy. I think we are reading too much into these items. It is a problem if we try to make a problem out of it. There will always be guys that like pink and girls that hate it, same for all other colours. I vote for diversity in people and items.
I don’t know...some of those were really unnecessary gendered, but others...I think people just got way too “sensitive”. Downvote me as much as you want, but I don’t see the huge problem with animations. I am sick of having all the classics from my childhood ruined because someone finds them gender or race offensive. Better pay attention to what you do now than looking for problems in the good stuff from the past. EDIT: I see all of us who tend to thing differently (don’t see a problem with some of the above photos) are benign downvoted. I am not okay with people pressuring others to have things gendered, but I also don’t like people being pressured for liking gendered things. Or what? Is this site (or at least this post) ruled by snowflakes?! Seems like it.