In case you wanted to know, I shower a lot, like a lot a
lot. Two or three times a day is a slow day. So when one showers as much as I do,
they tend to get a lot of different bathing products. So the other day I was in
the store trying to get some body wash and I looked up and noticed the body
wash Dove for Men, which as it turns out is the same thing as regular Dove only
it’s in a grey bottle and is like a dollar more.
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Then I moved on to look a razors cause you know people
shave. All of the men’s razors were blue or black and called like xtream or
intense. While the razors made for women are all pink and yellow and had names
like flowers. When in reality they are the same thing. Why is it that men will
only buy something if it literally says for men on it? How fragile is your ego?
My biggest concern was deodorant. Everyone uses it except
for the French. When looking at the deodorant, the men’s brands all had very interesting
names like Swagger, which I imagine smells like balls and your parent’s disappointment.
Some of the other names are things like essence, intense and dark. I don’t understand
why they just can’t be called what they smell like. Then they would be called
things like, locker room, sweaty socks and hormonal teenager. On the other hand
the women’s deodorant has names like Paris, which yes does smell like wine and
prostitutes. But the other names are just what they smell like, which makes
more sense.
So I decided to go ahead and buy women’s deodorant and try
it out, and maybe I just wanted to smell like cucumbers and green tea. This is
really nothing new to me, I buy women’s fragrances all the time because
sometimes I wanna smell like a pineapple because pineapples are fucking amazing.
After using the “woman's” deodorant I have concluded that it
is in fact better because I no longer smell like a locker room. And it also
works better at preventing sweat. But I still don’t understand why we need to
make things have genders, if I wanna smell like a pineapple I will and if you
wanna smell like swagger then more power to you. Why the fuck do we have to
make things like that separate. Regardless of your gender when you buy a razor
you just want it to remove hair and when you buy body wash or perfume or deodorant
you just want to smell good, and what genitals you have doesn't change the way
things smell
So I say fuck it, go buy what you want. Smell how you want.
Fuck gender roles, the only rolls I support are cinnamon.
This is actually a wonderful jab at marketing. You brought about a point I've heard the opposite of; that items for men and womena are THE SAME, but women will spend the extra dollar on something for women than men will. I'm surprised it's different in your post, but I have a feeling it's because you looked at Axe products, which I consider to be a more expensive brand anyway? but it's interesting for you to see a difference in even deodorant; I have a girlfriend that likes to use Old Spice, because she says it works better than women's deodorant, and I buy the expensive shit (thank God for Dove; they came out witha new formluated brand that costs LITERALLY HALF OF ITS COMPETITORS FOR THE SAME DAMN THING) so I can smell fucking fresh. = A =
ReplyDeleteI guess what I'm trying to say is that if you go for the more well-known stuff, odds are it's the same as the less known stuff, but we buy for logo, for the brand, not the stuff it's made out of. //shouldyouknowprobablylookattheingredientsandshit
And always smell like Pineapples; Pineapples are fucking delicious.
Preach! Totes agree with you that people should buy, smell, look, etc. what they they want without having to be criticized for it because of their gender. Also, thanks for making me want a cinnamon roll.
ReplyDeleteI agree that gender bias in beauty products is a little rediculous, especially for things like razors (it still shaves, whether it's pink or black). Personally, I think it's necessary for men's cologne to be a little stronger than women's, and this is because I grew up with an especially masculine-smelling brother (my poilte way of putting it). A lot of the blame can go to the media and society's expectations of how each gender should present themselves, which, like you mentioned about the French, changes between cultures. Personally, I like men to smell manly, but as long as you smell nice then it shouldn't matter if you're wearing Axe "Bro-in-the-Locker Room", or Dove "Paradise Flower Explosion." If a man wants to smell like pineapples, then more power to you!
ReplyDeleteI really liked your blog post here Derek! now that im writing this for the second time... i just liked how honest you were and that you are giving a central way of looking at products rather then gendering them.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely LOVE this blog post! Your examples were great ;). I agree with you 100% on gender roles and how bias they are within consumer products.
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