I hope the next item on the House and Senate agenda is the very nature of those magazines, as they give room for other unhealthy relationships, based on their models, articles about how to look good ALL THE TIME, wear makeup, heels and skimpy clothes, please the man (clearly these publications have only white, heterosexual women in mind) etc: bulimia, anorexia, self-lathing, depression, suicide, murder, and the like.
MediaWatch, a non-profit organization that creates public awareness about the sexist, classist, racist, ableist perpetuations in the media, compiled this video montage of the images women see when they flip through magazines.
And while we are on the subject of gender-specific products, the The New York Times ran a piece called “To Appeal to Women, Too, Gadgets Go Beyond 'Cute' and 'Pink.” Ok. Here we go again.
According the piece, these products: a computer notebook with the keys spread out to accommodate women’s longer nails; a camera that is lighter in weight (I guess ladies cannot lift the regular one pounders); DVD players with a place to hide the cords so it does not look cluttered (men wouldn’t want this too?); and my favorite, a battery charger that “blends in with the kitchen appliances.”
The article is actually sexist in its own right, and this is too bad because from the article’s headline, it appears that the NYT was making attempts of eliminating the sexism. They highlight stereotypical views of women such as how they don’t want to read a manual, or how they don’t want a huge TV, but rather, just one to accent the room.
Basically, companies are looking to dumb down products in order for women to buy it, but let’s see the stats. I think first, that women who live in our TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD today would buy gadgets no matter what weight or color they were. More, I would contend that men and women alike want products that make their lives easy – this is not only a feminine ideal.
