So Buzzfeed ran a pretty hilarious post today featuring 23 Gendered Products That Prove How Truly Fragile Masculinity Is — including the example above, of a shower puff shaped like a hand grenade, because what real man would ever use a … shower puff to wash off his manly stank?
Well, turns out I’m not the only one who thinks these gendered products are completely ridiculous; the Buzzfeed post has gone viral, getting nearly half a million hits so far and re-igniting the Twitter hashtag #MasculinitySoFragile.
Here are some of the highlights from the hashtag so far. (Click on the smaller pics to enlarge them.)
#MasculinitySoFragile even the food they eat has to be "tough". pic.twitter.com/Og1mRaoP1n
— Genie Lauren (@MoreAndAgain) September 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/stefihega/status/646807716585836544
https://twitter.com/tauriqmoosa/status/646795363542634497
#MasculinitySoFragile they need special products for housework and get to think they're a hero. pic.twitter.com/25zQMDAy7l
— 🌈 (@RoisinO) September 23, 2015
https://twitter.com/gay_desi/status/646806063644340224
https://twitter.com/Ansmellicaa/status/646805720822710272
https://twitter.com/fucking_jessie/status/646803657070014465
https://twitter.com/enright_dan/status/646819670729863170
https://twitter.com/taroteahime/status/646818150877495296
https://twitter.com/THECAROLDANVERS/status/646584422158999552
https://twitter.com/THECAROLDANVERS/status/646585159748333568
#MasculinitySoFragile pic.twitter.com/wbQR6xhVlm
— bloodshot diva (@helokabelo) September 23, 2015
This birthday card, at least, is self-aware:
https://twitter.com/AlphaDecae/status/646804956297752577
As is this dude:
Can't relate to #MasculinitySoFragile with a desk like this. Look at all that pink. My shit is invincible. pic.twitter.com/k0O37G3N4U
— jesse (@GLOHeadcase) September 23, 2015
But the hashtag has turned out to be more than just an opportunity to post pics of ridiculous products aimed at insecurely masculine men; it’s helped to spawn an interesting discussion about masculinity.
And it’s also spurred on a backlash from antifeminists, who (almost completely missing the point) have been bombarding the hashtag with attacks on “fragile” feminists.
More on all that in a future post or two.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this. I have no idea what it has to do with the hashtag but it is AWESOME.
☀ #MasculinitySoFragile in TL today made me adore the dudes who follow Dark Matters even more than I already did. pic.twitter.com/hegR3sAIrF
— Dark Matters (@DarkMattersProj) September 23, 2015
In Tesco currently:
10kg of play sand: £1.90
5kg of play sand, coloured pink: £2.10
There’s no sand that’s been camouflage-coloured, which means boys must be unable to play with sand at all. Misandry!
Pithy Pseudonym:
That is weird, cause they actually have the same scrubber under their Dove Men+Care line.
Under LUX, they make a 2 in 1 that’s kinda similar(ish) and it comes in two colors: Cobalt Blue & Radiant Orchid.
(I spent way too much time searching this stuff.)
@ljy2008:
I get so tired of it that I will buy products without much branding just to be free of it. It’s not just an insult to my intelligence, it also feels like an attempted consent violation at times.
Product: Yo, check me out. I’m expensive and taste horrible.
EJ: No thanks.
Product: But I’m associated with that video game you’re supposed to like. Boys love video games amirite?
EJ: Are you under the impression that a no can become a yes because you try to take up a new hobby?
Product: Shut up, you know you want me.
Walking away now.
Grrr. Messed up bold tag at the end.
Deadcatclub: As I often tell insecure fans of bad movies and music, doing something semi-ironically is for all intents and purposes identical to doing it for real.
Nearly all the hypermasculine stuff, particularly the ads, sits in that semi-ironic space where of course nobody thinks you need that stuff to be a man…But its existence is still both reinforcing and preying on the same concept of masculinity, so it’s all part and parcel with men feeling like they have to stifle their feelings, etc.
All of this has had me thinking, though the rest of my night at work, about stuff that’s considered “for men/boys” and “for women/girls” and how much it sucks.
it puts me in mind of a small argument i had with a drunk friend at a little party a few months back when he asserted that I listened to “girl music,” which i protested. music is music, and you should like what you like and not be ashamed of it.
now, i’m not going to pretend that i’ve managed to separate myself from it all enough that i haven’t been effected. you’re not going to find a lot of pink in my room and non in my closet, forex. i’m definitely aware of stuff that is supposed to be “for” women. but that awareness just makes it more annoying, even as i (sometimes) accede to expectations. but it still sucks. and this increase in targeted marketing toward men is just splitting things off more. how long until there’s nothing left that’s just for people, without being aimed at a particular gender?
@brian: The existence of products that are “just for people”, as opposed to being aimed at a specific group, is anathema to the marketing profession. Their entire industry would vanish like a mirage if products “for people” became the standard. As a result, marketing relies upon persuading people to identify with stereotypes and be led by those stereotypes rather than simply pick-and-mix which products and services they’d like.
This is why it is very important to never break bread with anyone who works in marketing, because they are vile human beings who are actively profiting from making society a less consensual place.
Apologies for the rant. I observe that this is a topic I find quite triggering.
This hashtag is really blowing up. Better prepare for the MRA butthurt to follow, it could be a real doozy!
This stuff is *hilarious*. It’s just as bad and stupid and funny as the Bic For Her pink pens. Both sets of unnecessarily gendered items definitely feed off patriarchal ideas. Soap is soap. A pen is a pen. Not everything needs this MANLY!!! or ~*girly*~ bullshit.
PS: I totally want those grenade bath bombs and a grenade loofah(one that isn’t made by Axe) and I’m a girl. Those are just win, even with the silly MASCULINE labels.
Huh…. I’ve never heard of most of these products. While I can’t speak for any other men, I actually WOULD laugh at these extreme, “men’s” items. Although, I don’t give a shit what you call it or who it’s aimed at, a barbecue scented candle is something we can all enjoy and I fucking want one! 🙂
I liked the Axe rubber ducks they had put out. They looked like little douchebag ducks and they were awesome.
The female ones were kinda meh. They’re pretty much stereotypical blonde cheerleaders, but somehow also rubber ducks?
http://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/311170461208-0-1/s-l1000.jpg
A couple things.
The Dr Pepper 10… Did they give it 10 calories because no calories was just toooo feminine? What’s different about it and Diet Dr Pepper? Just the 10 bold calories?
It’s not so much the manly scented candles that weird me out, it’s that one apparently has the “Fart” scent. Why would you have that candle??? What the heck?
That AXE shower-pouffe is labelled as a ‘Detailer Shower Tool’ with both soft lathering side and scrubby side for manly rough skin. Because washing yourself is only manly if you imagine that you work in a garage and your body is a car.
i would exclude the yogi man tea. i think it aims more at assumed differences in body functions like different hormone-levels and so on and is not about gender-roles. But that was only my impression of their intention, because they advertise health and body-love.
EJ (The Other): not all marketing ppl are on the wrong side: check out Kameron Hurley!
All lip balms should be packaged like those ‘flat’ CHAPFIX balm sticks. Not rolling away and laying flat in your pocket is good design. But is it marketed at men because men are afraid of having ‘visible lip balm lines’ in their pants pockets? Yes, apparently it is. This from their website:
“We developed a sleek, patented design that lays flat in your pocket so your lip balm doesn’t bulge in your pants.
The flat design lets CHAPFIX stay on a desk or table without rolling.
Grips on the sides of CHAPFIX allow use in any conditions, like on the ski slopes or while on a run.
Plus, you’ll never have to stick your finger into a messy pot of lip balm ever again.”
@guest
When I was 12 or so, my mother informed me that the male ego was a very fragile thing. I was incredulous. Men, it seemed to me, had egos that were waaay too large. At that time I didn’t understand that too large and fragile are not mutually exclusive.
I want to thank the makers of Dude Wipes for giving me a new, easily deployable insult for when both dudebro and asswipe are appropriate but the object of my scorn only merits a single word of my time. “Dudewipe” will now be a featured player in my vocabulary for a while, I’m sure.
That card looks more like a joke, but it still proves a point.
It is pretty funny to think though, that masculinity is such a fragile thing, manly men sure get offended easily.
I use the axe scrubber. However that’s to tell it from the other scrubbers in the shower. And it’s rough enough to get rid of all the dead skin on my fat ass. I have to be gentle or it strips the first couple of layers of my skin leaving it kinda sensitive. Also I do like the tactical grip on the soap. That just makes sense. The rest, just flat out pandering.
Are you sure that’s not actually a cheese grater?
That’s… hilariously accurate.
Generally I’m more annoyed when they try to hijack a specific human emotion/moment. The ones that are trying to pander to mayunly men just make me laugh.
Like, that absurdly deep bellowing voice they use to sell ‘manly’ products?
But feminism is totally not about hating men.