Top 10 Unnecessarily Gendered Products

Top 10 Unnecessarily Gendered Products

Men and women are very different... but do their products have to be? Welcome to MsMojo and today we’re counting down our picks for Top 10 Unnecessarily Gendered Products.

For this list, we’ll be looking at everyday items that have gone through slight changes in order to be marketed specifically to one particular gender.

#10: Yogi Tea

It seems that men and women need to be drinking different teas. The argument is that men and women need different nutrients and these gender specific teas will help. Unlike other companies that sell similar products, Yogi tea uses gender based marketing tactics. It sells a variety of tea to women that will allegedly help them with various stages of their menstruation and fertility cycles. There are teas to help with pregnancy, enhance breast milk, promote healthy menstrual cycles and so on. There are also teas that will allegedly help men increase their virility, or in the case of ‘Men’s Tea’, help with erectile dysfunction and increase your sex drive. Nothing like a hot cup of tea to get things steamy… of course, we’d need foolproof evidence that herbal remedies actually work first.

#9: Tablets for Women

Ladies, have you ever found yourself struggling to use regular tablets? Are they too heavy or do the colors throw you off? If yes, then look no further! The United Arab-Emirates based company Eurostar has created the ePad Femme, a tablet “made exclusively for women.” It’s pink, so there’s no confusion as to which gender it’s for, * ahem * and conveniently, already has all the apps you could ever want pre-downloaded for you. Need a recipe? Use the cooking app. Are you shopping, pregnant, losing weight or doing yoga? The apps are already there for you, because we all know how hard downloading them are... With the epad Femme, you’ll never have to use a regular, non-feminized tablet ever again.

#8: Brogurt

This just in, yogurt isn’t just for girls anymore. You heard correctly, there is a yogurt specifically for men, or ‘brogurt’ if you will. The idea started when the yogurt company Powerful realized yogurt was primarily targeted towards women. So they created Powerful Yogurt just for dudes. It basically provides the same health benefits as regular yogurt except it has a few more grams of protein than similar products – as well as a manly bull on its “hardcore” black and red packaging. The advertising boasts that this new manly yogurt helps with digestion, builds muscles and is PACKED with protein. So basically does and has the same things as plain ol' lady-yogurt. Except that with brogurt, bros can experience a healthy snack without fear of losing their masculinity. Cool story, bro.

#7: Glue for Girls

Don’t you hate when you need to use glue and all you have is the regular, non-gender specific glue? Fear not ladies, Pritt has heard your cries and they’ve answered you with glue “Just 4 Girls.” The only thing that makes it different from regular glue is that it’s pink. And in case that wasn’t enough, the packaging that it comes in has lots of flowers. That way it’s absolutely clear that this is girl glue and not regular glue. With products like these, it’s no wonder that some gender stereotypes ...stick?

#6: Gender-based Bread

These days, it’s not enough that men and women use different items, but apparently they need to eat different foods too. The Canadian bakery Stonemill released a brand of gender-based bread in 2015. The women’s bread is wrapped in a pink packaging and is described as being ‘light-textured.’ It has nutrients such as Vitamin D, Calcium and Iron for women. Meanwhile, the men’s ‘hearty’ bread contains protein, fiber and zinc, wrapped in a green package. If the colors of the wrapping didn’t alert you to its gender-based advertising, the clearly marked words ‘men’s’ and ‘women’s’ on the bags will. However, due to customer complaints for gender stereotyping, Stonemill quickly withdrew the colored labels and now advertises the bread for its health benefits and not who it’s targeted for.

#5: Manly Facial Tissues

These man-sized tissues are tissues that look exactly like regular tissue… except they’re stronger and larger. Apparently regular Kleenex isn’t enough for men. Though you’d think there would be Kleenex advertised for women and children as well, but nope, they’ve only got them for men. But the real kicker isn’t that there are large mansize tissues, but that they’ve actually been around in the United Kingdom since the 1960s! What’s even more interesting is that people elsewhere in the world are starting to discover the man size Kleenex and want them to be sold in their own countries as well. Both women and men alike are starting to use these giant Kleenexes. Sounds like size really does matter sometimes…

#4: Laxatives for Women

Apparently women’s colons prefer the color pink, which is why Dulcolax has created laxatives for women called Dulcolax Pink. In case you were wondering, it’s a pink laxative, which is also the only difference between Dulcolax Pink and a regular laxative. When it comes to function, they have the exact same active ingredients and perform the exact same task. What’s the reason this company made a laxative for women that works the same as a regular one? It’s because women are more likely to suffer from constipation than men, which is obviously why they need their own pill. But that’s beside the point, because everyone knows women don’t poop… right?

#3: Earplugs for Women

By now it’s clear from the items on this list that multiple companies seem to think men and women are completely different species- from color-coded colons to an iron-infused carb-based diet. And this is probably why both of the so-called “genders” need earplugs all of his or her own, right? Well, according to a company called Hearos, they do, since it’s released a brand of earplugs for women called ‘Sleep Pretty in Pink’. According to the packaging, they’re ‘silky soft’ so they won’t damage your delicate ears. However, aside from the bright pink color and that they cost more than regular earplugs, there’s no difference between ‘Sleep Pretty in Pink’ and regular earplugs. Guys, if you’re feeling left out, don’t worry. While the women get pink, the men get blue earplugs that offer ‘Xtreme Protection’, you know, because men’s ears are built from hardier substances, unlike women’s soft and sensitive ears.

#2: Girly Beer

For all the women who can’t handle the intensity and brute force of ‘manly beers’, look no further. A new lager called ‘Chick Beer’ was created by the Maryland-based Shazz Lewis with the specific intent to market the beverage towards women. Its pink label, little black dress logo, case designed like a purse, and the obvious word ‘chick’ written across leaves no question about who the target audience is. This beer has a lighter taste so that it doesn’t actually taste as much like beer. It’s also low on calories and carbs, because everyone knows, that when women drink, they also want to watch the calories – that’s sarcasm, of course. Regardless, there ARE some women who enjoy the fact that there is a beer meant just for women.

#1: Ball Pens for Women

Having difficulty writing with those large, gender-neutral writing utensils? BIC has the answer, with their line of pens designed specifically for women, also known as the ‘BIC for Her’. It’s designed to have a sleeker design with a slimmer barrel so that it’s easier for women to hold. They also come in a variety of pastel colors, just to make it clear that these pens are different from the clunky man-pens women used to use. These pens received a huge backlash on the Internet, from sarcastic reviews to snarky social media posts, proving that women are more than capable of getting their opinions across without having to use BIC for Her.

Do you agree with this list? What are some other unnecessarily gendered products? For more entertaining top tens published everyday, be sure to subscribe to MsMojo.