Everybody Gets Oppressed by Color Day

You know, gender roles are just not that great much of the time. One of the things I most appreciate about my parents is that they managed to get out of adolescence and into adulthood without being screwed up about gender roles (and other demographic prejudices), and thus had not screwed-up-edness to indoctrinate into my brother, sister and I. Good stuff. However, once out of the enclave of hippiedom and freedom, man, you continually run into The Shit That Makes You Go "Zuh?" and it covers the range from weird to offensive.


I never know how sensitive men are to this stuff. I think in general, there is so much indoctrinated "girls like this, boys like that" crap that if you're not irked by something at least once a day, you're probably not paying attention, but I think women are more sensitive to misogyny because for a long time it simply wasn't okay to not believe the stereotypes were true. Sadly enough, I do think that women are kind of just now realizing that ass-kickery isn't just for a couple rogue women like Marie Curie and Elizabeth Blackwell, it's for anyone (and I include men in this) who feels like owning their own personal power and using it for good instead of whining. Which is great! Hooray equality! Hooray CHOICE!

Oh, except for the parts where society and in particular retail marketing people aren't really okay with that because then they can't target you on gender. One of the many awesome things about my Dad is that he bought me a toolbox when I went away to college, and when he gave it to me he said, "it's not a full tool set but it all works and it'll get what you need done." The tool set was exactly as promised...not a slick comprehensive tool inventory upon which to base one's entire do-it-yourselfing career, but a collection of screwdrivers, a little saw, some hardcore scissors, a staple gun, and some other assorted crap that is totally sufficient for a college kid. The case was grey and blue, and the handles of the tools were blue and black.

By contrast, my friend across the hall got something like this:

Now, my friend who owned this loves pink, and I am pretty sure would live INSIDE the color pink if it were somehow possible, but this does not exist because the cool chick I knew in college likes pink. It exists because Girls Like Pink is a pillar concept of marketing. I...don't like pink. I occasionally wear it, as all people SHOULD - yes I said people, get with the pink already boys, you won't be sorry - because it makes everyone's skin look great no matter what color said skin IS. No lie, people. You have to find the right variety of pink and all, but I promise you the result will be fabulous. Anyway, I wear it occasionally, just like I also wear other colors that look good on me, but I don't buy things like TOOLS because they are pink. Dear Marketing People of America; WOMEN LIKE COLORS THAT ARE NOT PINK, TOO. Love, Common Sense.

Normally, I'm too busy being aggravated by having pink thrown at me to remember that the guys get the same crap in the form of black and neon green being hurled at them. My favorite current example of this is this picture from Feministing.com.

Not sure if you can see really clearly, but yeah, those are black bath poufs. GOD FORBID YOU NEED TO APPLY YOUR AXE LATHER OF MANLINESS WITH A PINK BATH POUF. I would like to interject here that I am so, SO endlessly glad that Speed does not use Axe, because I have yet to find a scent that isn't eleventy billion times stronger than necessary and similar in scent to a frat boy. Does that make sense? I just feel like of all things your BODY WASH should not be so strong that you can use it to stun cattle. I love the black pouf though...I just imagine the store peeps opening a box with black poufs in it and going "AHA! FINALLY, something for the men."

Society is odd, isn't it?