For years, corporations and marketers have been using gender stereotypes to manipulate us and sell products. Some of the ways they go about it are pretty ridiculous. They advertise superhero action figures to boys and Barbies and dollhouses to girls.
However, why do these products have to be specifically for one gender? Can’t all people, male or female, use whatever products they would like? We think so. Sometimes, the marketers go way overboard. Just check out these 75 products that were unnecessarily gendered for no reason and you’ll see what we mean.
For example, a type of toothpaste that only men are supposed to use, and pink batteries designed specifically for women (as if all batteries don’t work the same). This list will both shock you, and hopefully, bring a little bit of laughter to your day as well. We can’t believe that these products exist.
If the bath bomb is shaped like a grenade, it’s much more manly, right? The whole concept is ridiculous. They even made sure to make it the color blue.
These sleeping bags are exactly the same. The only difference is that one is labeled for men and the other is labeled for women. Besides that, there are no differences.
As far as we know, all humans have the same type of teeth, regardless of gender. Therefore, making a toothpaste just for men seems overly specific to us. What do you think?
These men’s Q-tips are no different than any other Q-tip. However, the packaging states otherwise. Notice how they market them as the “ultimate multi-tool”. They are useful for detailing, cleaning, and building.
Here we have a little casual sexism on display in the children’s section of the bookstore. The one book teaches girls how to be gorgeous and the other teaches boys how to be clever. The books are definitely reinforcing stereotypes.
Finally, a Bible just for boys! We’ve been waiting for one of these for a long time. It has all of the “gross and gory Bible stuff” that us boys crave.
“My superhero loving 7-year-old daughter was not impressed when she spotted this sign in Tesco today,” explains the mom. We don’t blame the girl for being upset. The package says that the toy is a gift for boys.
Both of the planes are Aerobuses, however, they are marketed a little differently. One has pink hearts and the other is blue. Interestingly, no matter which option you choose, the pilot is a man.
A lot of men generally shy away from knitting. Although, this book aims to change all that. It shows a cowboy knitting while riding through the plains on a horse.
10. Gendered Coat Hangers
This seems pretty pointless. What is the reasoning behind gendering coat hangers? Whether they are labeled boy’s or girl’s, the function doesn’t change at all.
“Can’t believe that I could hold this chip bag with my little woman hands!” the woman joked. The bag of chips is “man sized”. As if people don’t come in all shapes and sizes…
The woman was not happy to find that the umbrella she was using was a men’s umbrella. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. It just looks like a standard umbrella used for keeping the rain off.
The men’s bathroom has a normal logo on it. However, the other bathroom has an image of a shoe. You have to be a shoe to enter it.
These signs have some drastically different rules. The boys’ rules include things like be brave and climb trees. The girls’ rules say to paint your nails and play dress up.
They have shampoo for you, men. And apricots, don’t worry, they didn’t forget about you either. Every piece of fruit needs to take a shower every once and a while.
These earplugs for women are pink, and apparently, ultra-soft. They are made out of the exact same material as the regular earplugs. It’s another product that was pointlessly gendered.
17. Cringeworthy Baby Bibs
According to these baby bibs, boys get to be geniuses while girls just want to take selfies. We think it could go either way though. After all, everyone loves taking selfies and most girls are very smart. Really, it’s bad marketing.
Gendering globes is very silly. What kind of marketer thought up that idea? If anything, they should just create a bunch of color options to match the room it’s going in, without involving gender.
The gift ideas shown on Amazon’s advertisements are pretty random. The image includes a box, a sheet, and an egg. We have no idea how the designers came up with those choices.
What is this advertisement supposed to mean? We aren’t entirely sure. It says that real men make self-trees.
These binoculars come in two varieties — Girly Girl or North American. It’s an interesting marketing play. Where is the boy’s option?
ManCandles are a very necessarily creation. Otherwise, men wouldn’t be able to illuminate their homes. Normal non-gendered candles just aren’t going to work.
Some products are just plain weird. For example, dog bowls for men. We’re not sure what is stranger — the fact that it is gendered or the fact people would want to eat out of a dog bowl.
Both of these laxative tablets are identical — 5mg of bisacodyl USP. However. the marketing for them couldn’t be different. For starters, women only need 90 pills while everyone else needs 100, apparently.
It’s a little goofy that they print things like this on clothes for babies. We can understand the superhero t-shirt, but “I hate my thighs”? Really?
There is a version of Pocky sticks made specifically for men. Apparently, they use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. It is less sweet than the other versions.
Poop is probably something that doesn’t really need to be gendered. Yet, that’s exactly what the designers did. They created a princess poop pillow.
It’s not just any bread, it’s men’s bread. Women won’t like it. Why? We have no idea. All of the ingredients look pretty standard to us.
We always thought that a tissue was a tissue. However, we thought wrong. It turns out, some men prefer Mansize Kleenex. It’s the original big tissue.
We wonder if male dogs would still eat these treats? They were designed for girl dogs. However, we’d be willing to bet that a male pup really wouldn’t care.
“I’m in Bolivia at the moment, where they sell water geared specifically towards women – it’s not flavoured or altered in any way – just plain old water in a pink bottle!” explains the blogger. It’s pretty crazy that some company would gender water.
No country is immune to the phenomenon of weird gendered products. Here we have a women’s pickle and a men’s pickle. The jars were spotted on a store shelf in Germany.
In the boy’s section of the toy store they sell toy assault rifles. In the girl’s section, they sell toy cleaning sets. Some people might see a slight problem with this.
These are essentially just baby wipes. However, they were packaged to be sold to grown men. They called them Dude Wipes.
All of these tin boxes are pretty sarcastic. Although, many would say they go a little bit too far. Especially the message saying “she’s still got it”, referring to aging women’s looks and stuff they don’t throw away.
This kid was very confused. He wanted the stamp set and couldn’t understand why it said it was for girls. We have to say, it’s a pretty good question.
There’s not really a good reason to gender sprinkles. Although, this brand decided it was a good idea. It would have been better to simply label them what they are — blue and green sprinkles, and pink sprinkles.
Blue sponges are for men and pink sponges are for women. They are also different shapes. We aren’t sure why men and women would need different shaped sponges, however, that’s the reality.
Some Disney movies are targeted towards girls and some are targeted towards boys. It’s no surprise, however, we don’t think it should be made as clear as labeling them for girls or boys. That’s taking it too far.
It’s the first time we have ever heard of a man-birthday. We always thought everyone just had birthdays. Now we’re wondering if woman-birthdays are a thing too?
Here we have a gender-specific Lipton tea designed for women. It’s in a rosy red wrapper. And apparently, it’s irresistible to ladies.
Here’s something that you don’t see every day — gendered hammers. They are made for ladies and feature bright pink handles. When buying hammers, we always seek out the most fashionable one we can find.
We’d be willing to bet the only difference between these anti-chafing products is the packaging. However, we would have to inspect the ingredients to verify that. Interestingly, they are also priced differently.
A lint roller for men is a little bit of a peculiar product to make. Picking up lint isn’t a gender-specific activity. We don’t really understand the logic here.
These instructional origami books feature different tutorials for men and women. It’s a pretty unnecessary gender divide. Apparently, women don’t want to make origami fish…
Little girls get dressed up in beauty salon outfits, while little boys get dressed up in doctor outfits. Technically, the outfits aren’t labeled girl’s and boy’s, however, the pictures show otherwise.
When food items are gendered, it’s definitely kind of silly. We know plenty of women who would love jalapeño popper dip. Labeling it as man dip is nonsense.
“My 5-year-old boy really wants a secret diary but all the ones sold are pink and full of princesses and puppies. Letting boys and girls down again. Why can’t it just be a diary?” asks the mom. She makes a very good point.
Every parent needs to use their corresponding sponge — either a Scrub Mommy or a Scrub Daddy. A normal sponge just isn’t going to cut it. It’s a pretty random concept.
You can choose to be a champion or an angel. Make sure to choose wisely. You can’t choose both.
Kinder eggs are egg-shaped chocolates with toys inside. They aren’t universal toys though. One egg is for girls and the other egg is for boys.
Wine in a bottle just isn’t manly enough. We need wine in a can. It’s so much better than drinking wine out of one of those delicate wine glasses…
This brand of laundry detergent was put in a container that makes it look like it’s engine oil for a car. It’s more masculine than normal laundry detergent. Or at least, that’s the idea.
What a great invention! Girly tape! It’s another product that has been pointlessly gendered for no real reason.
This credit card is ladies only. Why the company doesn’t want men to spend money with their cards is anyone’s guess. It seems like a bad business strategy to automatically alienate half of the population.
There is zero difference between the wipes for girls and boys. Thus, gendering the packages is pretty unnecessary. A baby wipe is a baby wipe.
The girl’s beads are for making flowers. The boy’s beads are for making monsters. Yet, they are the exact same beads. Only the colors are slightly different.
The design of all tweezers is more or less the same. However, if you want to sell more tweezers than the other brands, try saying that yours are designed for men. That’s what this brand did.
Some men might have an aversion to using regular hand sanitizer. However, this product solves that problem. It is labeled for men.
Here we have some gender-specific eggs for kids. It’s a pretty unusual idea. Especially when you consider that most kids aren’t really cooking eggs to begin with.
It turns out, the only way to convince girls to be safe is to add sparkles to the safety equipment. That’s what this display implies. The first aid products offered are extra sparkly.
Cast iron cooking isn’t just for women anymore. Now, men can do it too. They just need to buy this Man Law cast iron skillet.
It definitely wasn’t necessary to gender it. It’s the same as all of the other snap blade knives. The only difference is that it is pink and displayed in this cute package.
“Hope the manly, cheaper red ones will fit my little lady ears,” writes the woman. It’s a risky buy. We hope that she is right!
Luckily, there are pink work gloves for girls. How else would girls get any work done in the garden? It would be terrible if they had to use blue gloves!
These gendered chewing gums are currently being sold in Turkey. The flavors are different depending on whether you are a woman or a man. All women like one flavor, and all men like the other, apparently.
67. Birthday Cards Display
Is there such thing as a gender-neutral birthday card? There doesn’t appear to be any on these two racks. It is a big oversight.
Yogurt is a pretty standard food item. Adding labels like men’s and women’s to the containers just complicates things. It’s really just a marketing play.
It’s time to add pens to the list of pointlessly gendered items. For some reason, Bic felt the need to make new pens specifically for women. It’s as if all pens don’t write the same…
Be careful women. This toothbrush is for men only. If you use it, you might end up hurting your delicate teeth. The whole idea is incredibly ridiculous.
It’s a little confusing what the difference between these two trail mixes is. They look the same. However, one is for women’s vitality and the other is for men’s energy.
72. Men’s Toenail Clippers
It’s fascinating to us that someone would think it’s a good idea to make toenail clippers specifically for men. It says it cuts through tough toenails, but don’t all nail clippers do that?
The ABC’s are now gendered in some children’s books. It seems the classic alphabet song just isn’t good enough anymore. We now need gender-specific examples for each letter.
Stocks and bonds are about as gender-neutral as it gets. At least, that’s what we always thought. However, not anymore…
This book contains “everything a girls needs to know about playing guitar”. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. Whether you are a boy or girl, the methods for learning how to play the guitar are identical.
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