Products That Are Pointlessly Gendered

In this day and age companies often feel as though they need to assign a specific gender in order to sell their product. Why? Who knows! Especially when the product is able to do the same job for both men and women. Whatever the reasoning behind these product creations, at least they are good for one thing – entertainment. Check out this list of the most pointlessly gendered products to hit the market!

Gender Loaves

You wouldn’t think that something as simple as bread could become a gendered product and yet here we are. A Canadian bakery came under fire in 2015 after they created two separate bread loves, one for men and one for women. People were not happy about the new marketing especially because the women’s bread was said to be “milder and light textured”. The woman version also was said to include more vitamin D and calcium and came in a bag with pink details. For the men, the packaging was blue (of course) and it was said to be “hearty” with protein and fiber. The president of the company, Gottfried Boehringer, stood by the product saying that it was meant to meet different “nutritional needs”. However, we are pretty sure both men and women alike need protein, fiber, calcium and vitamin D.

Glue For Girls

In 2014, the Pritt glue company released a pink glue stick that was labeled as being for girls. Of course, Twitter was up in arms about this product release and it’s easy to see why. In addition to being for girls, it is also clearly marketed for children which makes sense since the majority of individuals using glue sticks are probably elementary school kids. Needless to say, it’s really not necessary to assign a gender to glue as it definitely has the same function regardless of its boy or girl label. The company would probably be better off making the glue stick in different colors and then everyone could choose which color they like best regardless of their gender!

Manly Toothpaste

In yet another product that everyone needs to use at some point in the day category, we have toothpaste. This one is a whitening toothpaste by Signal which is aimed at men, which you can tell by the “MAN” label. It is also packaged in blue and black which are colors that have been stereotypically assigned as masculine although there is definitely no law about women enjoying the color. Either way, the toothpaste will definitely still have the same function and we are pretty sure it’s not necessary to pick a brand based on gender.

Trail Mix: Men Vs. Women Edition

Trail mix is a delicious snack. It often contains an array of snacks that will give you the energy to keep you going through everything from your run-of-the-mill workday to a strenuous hike. However, it’s a bit absurd that gendered trail mix actually exists. But it does! Here we have “Men’s Energy Mix” versus “Women’s Vitality Mix”. It would be interesting to see what the exact difference between the ingredients is but from the looks of it the men’s has more almonds and the women’s has more seeds. If that is true, it makes absolutely no sense as to why the store has increased the price of the women’s product as seeds are notoriously cheaper than almonds.

Dainty Ear Plugs

Both of these Walgreen brand earplugs say they can tune out 32 decibels of sound. However, the women’s product also claims to be “ultra soft” and also sports a hot pink color, of course. Also notice that the amount of product is much smaller in the women’s — meaning you will end up spending more to get the same amount of uses. Not to mention, earplugs literally go inside your ear and no one sees them so there is no logical reason as to why this product would ever need to be gendered.

Q-Tips: Men’s Ultimate Multi-Tool

We really didn’t see this one coming. Q-Tips?! The product that is literally for everyone who has ears. This packaging really takes it over the top as it has the tagline of “men’s ultimate multi-tool” with a silver diamond garage tile background. Surely men are capable of being more than just mechanics or carpenters? Everyone needs to clean their ears at some point and Q-tips is truly a needlessly gendered product. Even veterinarians use Q-tips on various species of animals like cleaning a dog’s ears, for instance. We wonder what the brand would come up with if they were marketing a female version of the product?

Gender Underneath It All: Skeleton PJs

Talk about getting the kids in on the game right off the bat. This one irked many Twitter users because of the fact that the products were aimed at kids and are essentially programming kids to think of each other differently based on gender right off the bat. Here we have two pairs of skeleton pajamas, one for boys which are black and one for girls which are pink. Do skeleton pajamas really need to be gendered? Interestingly, at one-point pink was associated with being a masculine color. Pink was thought to be the lighter version of red which was considered manly and was thus meant for boys.

Man Flu Is The Worst

When it comes to being sick, we don’t care if it’s a women’s or men’s treatment as long as it works. Especially in the current flu season which has been one of the worst on record, whatever claims to keep you healthy is worth a try. However, here we have a medicine brand attempting to market a flu treatment as “for men”. Even funnier is that the product is called “ManFlu”. As Twitter user priya_ebooks puts it, “man flu only for man. Women get regular flu. Bros only. Flu. Manly.” If a product was ever a tad sensitive about its masculinity it might be this one.

Girl Grooming Costs More

Here is another product aimed at children, and more specifically babies. Having a comb and brush to smooth out your little one’s mane is always a great idea. However, it is absolutely not necessary to have a gendered version. Picture are two kits that come with both a brush and a hair comb. One is white, which basically implies that it is unisex while another offered is pink which is marketed towards girls. While they are the exact same product, the girl version is listed as almost a dollar more than its unisex counterpart which is ridiculous. Also, notice that the rest of the packaging, including the baby model, is exactly the same!

Woman’s Fashion Tools

This toolset is marketed to women and it comes in a delightful shade of purple. The marketing reads, “fashion color especially for her”. Never mind that if you need tools it has absolutely no bearing as to whether you are a man or a woman. All that matters when it comes to tools is if they can get the job done. Much like the glue stick, perhaps they should offer this product in multiple shades, so people can choose what color they like best. After all, who said men can’t like purple?

Pink Laxatives For Women Who’ve Gotta Go

When confronted about why they created a female version of a laxative, company Ducolax said that they created the product because women are more prone to constipation than men. This may be true, however, the actual formulation used in the product is exactly the same. The only actual difference is the pink color of the tablet. Also, notice that you get more of the regular tablet as opposed to the women’s formulation although you have to pay the same price. So, we guess if you love the color pink, go for it. Otherwise, this is just another pointlessly gendered product.

The ‘Ol Doctor Versus Nurse Debate

Here is another borderline offensive gendered product – children’s scrub costumes. Notice that the pink is an RN costume and it’s targeted to girls. The green scrubs are for an MD and marketed to boys. This perpetuates the stereotype that nursing is a female occupation will being a doctor is something only men could accomplish. This is obviously something that is not true yet all too often we see it throughout various forms of media. All kids should know they can be whatever they want to be and that includes male nurses and female doctors!

Lady Protein

Here we have another gendered product: protein just for women. While women do need protein in their diets, so do men. Everyone needs some kind of protein in order to have a healthy diet. This is kind of interesting because many food products marketed to men tout extra protein in order to build the rippling muscles of their dreams. This company instead has offered a dainty packaging which seemingly targets women to increase the protein they have in their diets. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how as long as you get your recommended protein intake.

Pens For Her

This one is straight up ridiculous. Pens for women. The point of pens is simple – it’s a took to write with. Men, women, and kids in school all use pens at some point throughout their day, so to market and pens strictly to women is pretty ridiculous. The BIC For Her pen line claims to be designed “just for her” and touts a “sleek silhouette” and “jeweled accents” for style. As Amazon reviewer Jessica Wilde put it, “I gave these to all of the men in my office and they all received pay cuts a few weeks later! Thanks Bic for helping me to bridge the pay gap – at least, in my office.”

Pink Princess Goldfish

Here is yet another pointlessly gendered product targeting children. This one comes in the form of a favorite childhood snack: Goldfish. The delicious cheesy baked snack is shaped like a cute little fish. Pepperidge Farms decided to create a “Princess” version which is exactly the exact same cheddar tasting snack except this one is pink with princess packaging. Sure, the marketing is cute, but it also perpetuates the idea that all little girls want to be princesses. Not to mention, almost all princess movies in existence feature a character that is either trying to find a husband or needs to be saved by a man in some way. We think this little goldfish should be a female rocket scientist next time.

Sponge Silliness

Scrub Daddy got it start as a product on the ABC show Shark Tank and is said to be the best-selling product that has ever appeared on the show. However, even this relatively new product couldn’t help but get into the pointlessly gendered products. Of course, it was pretty much setting itself up for that with a name like “Scrub Daddy”. It’s no surprise they would make a pink gendered counterpart called “Scrub Mommy”. Although it is interesting that the original Scrub Daddy is yellow and the blue version is marketed as “colors”. Surely people would by the product even if it’s called Scrub Daddy and not Scrub Mommy.

Starting Them Early

These beginner blocks are basically like Legos for younger kiddos. While the boys are offered blocks in primary colors, girls are given pink, lavender, and fuchsia. Wouldn’t it be better if one package included all colors of the rainbow including what is available in the girls set? Studies have proven that the more colors kids are exposed to as tiny tikes, the better their brains develop. Based on this evidence, it would be a good thing to expose children to differently-colored blocks as opposed to limiting them to only being able to play with a certain color set.

Man Smells For Man Laundry

Everybody needs to wash their clothes at some point. Well, we can only hope that most people wash their clothes. Dryer sheet manufacturer Bounce took it upon themselves to create a fabric softener that is marketed only towards men. While this product claims to do everything that it’s non-gendered counterpart does, it comes in the scent of “Just Sport” which seems to be the only discernible difference. We guess some men have a problem with smelling like fresh linen or lilac. Also, what does “just sport” smell like? Why would women be opposed to smelling like this scent? Actually, we can only imagine which kind of scents the company would market to women!

Man Candles

At first glance, this looks like a total joke. However, man-scented candles by Yankee are apparently a real thing. They come in various scents including “Mmm, bacon”, “First down”, “Riding Mower”, “Movie Night” and “Man Town”. We can’t imagine anyone loving bacon enough to actually want their entire house to smell like it but we guess these people exist. Yankee Candle apparently discontinued the product in 2015. However, the company began offering “Mountain Lodge” which claimed to be the “boyfriend candle” which supposedly smells like the “perfect lumberjack boyfriend”. So, if you’re in the market for that, go for it. We guess. Although we don’t know why it has to smell like a boyfriend instead of just being appealing for the scent it is.

Lady Doritos

So, this photo is a fake. However, Doritos recently made headlines after PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi said they were interested in developing a new lone of Doritos for women. When asked why, she said that women “don’t like to crunch too loudly in public. And they don’t lick their fingers generously and they don’t like to pour the little broken pieces and the flavor into their mouth.” Women did not respond well to her assumptions and Doritos later released a statement saying “The reporting on a specific Doritos product for female consumers is inaccurate. We already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos.” Women later gathered to hold a rally on the Capitol steps where they loudly crunched their Doritos.