I love pink and glitter as much as the next person, but I don’t need everything that I own, including razors, power tools and underwear, to be exuding femininity. I just want them to work well and not cost twice as much as the versions designed for men!
Women on Reddit have recently been calling out all of the products and procedures they have to deal with that were clearly designed by men for women. From the discomfort of getting a mammogram or IUD to the frustration of trying to find comfortable clothes that actually fit properly, you’re likely to relate to many of the replies down below if you’re a woman. But regardless of your gender, enjoy scrolling through and be sure to upvote the things you find most infuriating!
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Every single gyno procedure and lack of pain meds given for it.
Most women's shoes are shaped to be long, thin and pointy.
My feet are not long, thin and pointy, **they are** **foot-shaped**, and shoe shopping is a*s.
Someone PLEASE put more belt loops on my work pants!
Oh, and NORMAL pockets, please and thankyou.
I still maintain that the female pocket is deliberately small to keep the handbag business going. I don't believe the fashion designers that claim it destroys the line of the clothing...
Most pharmaceuticals, unfortunately.
Button down shirts that don't account for breasts and if you CAN button it all the way up you have these huge gaps and stretching between the buttons.
I had a dress shirt once that had a button on the inside as well, to help prevent the gap right across the boobs. It was great! More of that please
Women's Genital Wash. Summers Eve, for example, is a modern brand. The vagina is self-cleaning. The fragrances and chemicals in these washes can cause infections. Do not wash inside your vagina! Water only.
Women's power tools. They are just a pink version of the men's tools, or they are just a less powerful version.
No redesign of the weight, shape, or grip size to make them easier to hold for our body shapes, just a pink tax.
Car seat belts. Mine slips up all the time, and I have it on the lowest setting. I am 5'4" tall. So uncomfortable.
Maternity leave.
I’m in the US where you’re lucky to have it and even if you do there are often ridiculous stipulations like, leave starting only when you go into labor.
There’s no way a system where the expectation is that 100% of women will be able to work until a baby literally begins to fall out of them was designed by a woman.
Birth control - because most women even nowadays still don't know it is perfectly safe not to get a period when you are on it. The 7 day pill gap was invented by men and priests back in the day so the pill would look like it keeps the normal cycle. IT does not and you don't need a period when you are on the pill.
All obgyn vaginal procedures. BARBARIC.
And they wonder why so many women would rather risk cervical cancer than get a pap smear once per 6/12 months.
Ok, this is niche, but I hate it whenever I go to sit at a bar and there are no hooks under the bar. Double points if the stools don't have a back where I can loop my purse/coat over the seat back, and I am stuck piling my purse and/or coat in my lap. Same for public restrooms - pleaseee put a hook on the door so I'm not precariously balancing my purse on my lap or worse on the floor.
Razors. I just buy the regular man-version if I wanna use a razor.
Whoever designed auto-flushing toilets. The damn thing is throwing sewage water on the back of my thighs before I can get my pants up. Wtaf?!?!.
Wasn’t there some guys on shark tank or something like it that made gloves for women to use to change their menstrual products? They were single use and pink or something?.
When you get a needle biopsy, you have to lie on a cold formica table with a sharp edged hole w yr breast dangling through it. The first time I had to do this, we (me, women docs and nurses) all commented on the terrible design of the thing.
When I has another needle biopsy a few years later, the table had been redesigned. It was now pink. ❤️.
The chainsaw. I wish I never knew this fact.
It was initially supposed to be used to cut open the pelvic bone to assist with child birth. Barbaric, and I am a man, so I can only think how much worse it must be for women....
Every public restroom I've been to that doesn't have a little trash receptacle in the stall. Having to walk your soiled sanitary products to the main trash in the handwashing area is adding insult to injury when periods suck enough. .
They did it at my work, when building new restrooms. They forgot that women would appreciate a little bin in the toilet-stall for used period products (and not to walk to the general bin close to the sinks). It took them "only" half a year to "fix" that issue. Unfortunately the toilet-stalls are so narrow that you can't really place a bin in them. Now it is a constantly shuffling to open/close the door 🤗
There is a patent for labia glue that dissolves when you pee on it do use while on your period to hold the blood in. A male chiropractor invented and tried to sell it. So that.
Scented pads, especially mint "flavoured" ones.
Scented tampons are even worse, mostly purchased by people who think they're buying regular tampons and don't necessarily know scented tampons even exist. Because they shouldn't exist. Fragrance ingredients don't serve their purpose inside the vagina, and they can be very irritating.
I had a baby and we used bottles to administer formula. The numbers and oz indicator lines were in white.
WHITE.
Tampons, considering they didn't think to test them with actual blood until last year.
What? No. Tampons were originally plugs used to fill bullet holes in WW1. Nurses saw them, figured out they could have other uses and things went from there.
Sports shorts
Search for it on google and add men or women and see the difference.
Anything that is just a pink or purple variation of the men’s version.
Hiking backpacks with a breast strap.
Poll Question
Do you believe that men can effectively design products for women?
Yes, with proper research and understanding
Somewhat, but there's often a disconnect
No, they lack the perspective needed
It depends on the product type
Ah bless, the amount of triggered man children in the comments complaining that it’s always women’s faults for these things and we need to change them. I love how they are trying to speak for all of us. 😂
I think if they LISTENED to us and involved us in the creations, they could actually create decent products for us. I feel like it should become the norm for women to design products and not have their ideas dismissed, and if men could learn to give us the space for that, and create a safe environment for our voices to be heard, many of us wouldn't feel the need to create that space for ourselves. When men get upset about the generalizations that we make about them, it can be really frustrating for us, because they're completely missing the fact that we make those generalizations to create a safe space for ourselves and other women to share the hurt and pain that we feel and our desire to feel safe and valued in society. Yes, I can see why men see it as an attack, but many of us don't actually believe it's all men, what we're saying is that when we leave our safe circles (or if we don't really have much of one) and go out into society, we lose that feeling of safety, we are focused on
protecting ourselves because if we don't, and we get hurt, the system isn't designed to take our emotional, mental, and even physical safety into account. We have no way to know if the people who say they can help us, will or can help us. We have no way to know who is going to tell us "well you didn't do enough to protect yourself so you have to take responsiblity' while simultaneuously telling the man " we all make mistakes, just don't do it again"
Mind you woman can and do design things for woman that are just as bad. Example plus size bras designed by woman who have no idea how heavy breast tissue is and how uncomfortable underwire and back hooks are (specific to nz where I was told that they don't design bras for those with mobility issues because it's not their style)
There's a s**t ton of grown men complaining in this comment section as well for your information..
Ah bless, the amount of triggered man children in the comments complaining that it’s always women’s faults for these things and we need to change them. I love how they are trying to speak for all of us. 😂
I think if they LISTENED to us and involved us in the creations, they could actually create decent products for us. I feel like it should become the norm for women to design products and not have their ideas dismissed, and if men could learn to give us the space for that, and create a safe environment for our voices to be heard, many of us wouldn't feel the need to create that space for ourselves. When men get upset about the generalizations that we make about them, it can be really frustrating for us, because they're completely missing the fact that we make those generalizations to create a safe space for ourselves and other women to share the hurt and pain that we feel and our desire to feel safe and valued in society. Yes, I can see why men see it as an attack, but many of us don't actually believe it's all men, what we're saying is that when we leave our safe circles (or if we don't really have much of one) and go out into society, we lose that feeling of safety, we are focused on
protecting ourselves because if we don't, and we get hurt, the system isn't designed to take our emotional, mental, and even physical safety into account. We have no way to know if the people who say they can help us, will or can help us. We have no way to know who is going to tell us "well you didn't do enough to protect yourself so you have to take responsiblity' while simultaneuously telling the man " we all make mistakes, just don't do it again"
Mind you woman can and do design things for woman that are just as bad. Example plus size bras designed by woman who have no idea how heavy breast tissue is and how uncomfortable underwire and back hooks are (specific to nz where I was told that they don't design bras for those with mobility issues because it's not their style)
There's a s**t ton of grown men complaining in this comment section as well for your information..