Bic pens "for her"

[kiwilrdg]

When pink handcuffs were first put on the market they were expected to be bought by female officers and by civilians (alternative uses)
It turned out that more are bought and used my male officers as a way to ensure you get your cuffs back when you turn over custody.
Another thing that has really changed in the gender coding is that all of the positive male roll models have been replaced by bad guys or Homer Simpson types.

 

[Kishtu]

Here's a funny one - you can (as I'm sure many parents are aware...) get JCB reward stickers, with little holographic construction vehicles and messages like "Good Job!" and "Well Done!"
One of the vehicles is a definitely- feminine loader of some nature, complete with long eyelashes and from memory some kind of pink bow about her person.
The odd thing though is that the stickers are definitely male specific. "Good Boy!"

This thread has just reminded me to email J C Bamford and mention this fact. Girls not allowed to like diggers, then?

 

[David Conwill]

When pink handcuffs were first put on the market they were expected to be bought by female officers and by civilians (alternative uses)
It turned out that more are bought and used my male officers as a way to ensure you get your cuffs back when you turn over custody.

I have a friend that paints his tools pink for exactly that reason.

Another thing that has really changed in the gender coding is that all of the positive male roll models have been replaced by bad guys or Homer Simpson types.

It is frustrating to watch television and be continually bombarded with the egotistical, incompetent male figure being bailed out by the savvy kids/wife/dog - especially in advertising. The only place you find a strong male figure anymore is Viagra commercials, and those guys are clearly meant to be compensating for something.

 

[sheeplady]

My middle nephew was almost a year before he had anything but pink since he'd inherited his older sister's clothes. I can't say that it seems to have affected him much one or the other -- these days, he mostly wants to play football (or as you would say, soccer) and pretend he's Spiderman. He still likes pink, though. [huh]

The fact that he likes pink is evidence that he has been horrifically fouled by being forced to wear pink clothing.

I hated pink as a girl as I was a little tomboy. My kindergarten teacher told my parents I would end up a lesbian because of my dislike of girly things, the fact that I hated girly colors, and the fact that I played with the boys pretending I was an architect, etc. Needless to say, I'm straight and haven't worn a pair of pants in over 2 months- so much for a child's attributes at 5 years old determining their sexuality or femininity/ masculinity.

 

[Flicka]

I don't even think I ever even saw pink as a child since pastels were non-existent here in the '70s. My favourite colour was blue, though, rather than red which girls were supposed to like.

The fact that he likes pink is evidence that he has been horrifically fouled by being forced to wear pink clothing.

I hated pink as a girl as I was a little tomboy. My kindergarten teacher told my parents I would end up a lesbian because of my dislike of girly things, the fact that I hated girly colors, and the fact that I played with the boys pretending I was an architect, etc. Needless to say, I'm straight and haven't worn a pair of pants in over 2 months- so much for a child's attributes at 5 years old determining their sexuality or femininity/ masculinity.

I found this pretty good article on the history of pink and blue clothing, including the death of gender neutral clothes in the past decades, from the Smithsonian: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html

 

[LizzieMaine]

As a baby I wore yellow most of the time -- the idea of buying gender-coded baby clothes would have been seen as wasteful in our family, because there was a 50 percent chance you wouldn't be able to hand them down to the next kid in line. Hence, yellow.

 

[Undertow]

Call me a paranoid cynic, but this smacks of "guerilla" and "viral" marketing tactics that have been adopted/emulated by big corporations.

Rather than spend any money on traditional advertising, a company such as Bic creates a splash with a bogus product, or Twitter post, or Facebook post, etc, that catches the media's attention and increases their air time. For free.

Sure, this is probably a legit product using the traditional marketing approach of, "Let's create a solution to a problem that didn't exist", i.e. women want pens created just for them. But having seen companies using the viral and guerilla marketing techniques, I've become all too cynical and disgusted.

 

[kiwilrdg]

I have never really worried about the color/gender bias for myself (even though I am trying to get the guy in my re-enactment unit that has a jeep to paint it in a pink LRDG camoflauge pattern).

It is really funny to see some peoples perceptions fall apart on gender related items. Once after a historic timeline event I was going out to eat with a bunch of reenactors. We stopped at a fabric store before we ate. It was great to see the reactions of the people that were shopping in the store as they watched a mass of burly, bearded men were begging our wives to let us buy more cloth and lace.

 

[Flicka]

As a baby I wore yellow most of the time -- the idea of buying gender-coded baby clothes would have been seen as wasteful in our family, because there was a 50 percent chance you wouldn't be able to hand them down to the next kid in line. Hence, yellow.

Unless of course you do what my sister did and hand the clothes down no matter the gender...

 

[kiwilrdg]

I think the pink and green was one of the best US Army uniforms.