Pens, For Her
There’s a real product (made by a real company) currently available on Amazon in a pack of 12. It’s the “BIC For Her Amber Medium Ballpoint Pen” and how do we know it’s “for her?” Why, it’s “designed to fit comfortably in a womans hand” (sic) and it’s got an “attractive barrel design available in pink and purple.”
Needless to say, the reviews are positive (and hilarious). Like this one:
This product cured my girly dyslexia.
Before I bought this product I couldn’t write but now I’m an engineer. Mind you, I only design pink, flowery bridges, motorways and sewers. Blue ones would be wrong wouldn’t they.
Or this one:
Sent from Heaven by the Angels
I could never write until now because I’m such a thick little Princess that I refused to. I just drew pictures of my pink little bike, with the lilac streamers. I thought I’d just grow up and let a big manly man come and marry/save me.
Now I’ve found this pen, I’ve learned to write. It’s so pretty, with its comfortable grip, not like the razor like surface on ordinary mens pens. It will help me list all my household chores and record my calorie consumption in my diary. Who knows? Maybe it will give me the confidence to take the stabilisers off my bike.
Or even this one, which makes the pen sound like something you’d find at Figging.com:
Such a useful little tool (and that’s not just a description of the man in charge of the marketing campaign)
How could I have missed my own deep inner need for such a product? It’s just perfect for ramming straight up the hogs’ eye of any sexist man I happen to be oppressed by – no more Tabasco-dipped nasty old medical catheters for the misogynists in my life!
There are many, many more. (Ain’t no fleshpile in the world like the piling-on a determinedly stupid product can get in the Amazon reviews.)
Shorter URL for sharing: http://www.erosblog.com/?p=8476
For the reviewer with girly dyslexia I must point out that “daily sex” is an anagram of dyslexia.
I know which of the two I would rather have.
Right up there with the pink handles on hammers and pliers sold for girls, usually in smaller scaled down sizes or lighter than the big smelly men’s stuff; hence hardly adequate for actual use by anybody, female or male.
While I would sympathize with any who would like to use these tools on the marketing genius that came up with this stuff, SOMEBODY must be buying these things – this is not a recent development and yet they are still available; ergo they do sell…
“they are still available; ergo they do sell…”
Possibly only to men who share the mindset of those marketing them as gifts for their loved ones.
“You want that shelf hung, honey? Here, go do it yourself.”
I’ve heard of male builders who buy pink tools to reduce the risk of them being knicked, and one female computer tech (a damn good one) who bought pink tools so her husband (also a tech-head) couldn’t borrow them and claim they were his :D
I notice pink-handled safety razors that seem to be otherwise identical to the ones in more manly colors displayed at the drugstore.
The other end of the spectrum. I don’t know which is more ridiculous.
“the ultimate power tool for the ultimate man”
http://www.gadg....html
Everybody knows that women’s hands are structured
completely differently than men’s. And I’m sure that
the mechanism has been dumbed down so as not to confuse women and contribute to their low self-esteem. The barrel had to be made attractive, otherwise women would not be encouraged to master such complex arts as self-expression and penmanship.
Forward into the past.