Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Male as the Neutral Default
http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2013/02/16/male-as-the-neutral-default/We’ve posted in the past about the way in which “male” is often taken to be the default or neutral category, with “female” a notable, marked, non-default one. For instance, the Body Worlds exhibit, “regular” t-shirts are men’s, Best Buy assumes customers are male, stick figures on signs are generally male, and default avatars tend to be male.
We’ve collected several more examples of the tendency to present men as the norm, while women are a marked, non-default category. @LydNicholas tweeted us this example of a LEGO product advertised on their website. Notice that the blue version is a LEGO Time-Teach Minifigure Watch and Clock, while the pink version specifies that it’s for girls:
11 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
wow
good point golly. i dont know that i would pick up on this. i have seen it in life. i remember a conversation with son not long ago, when this was brought up with something in life. but, it did not have to do with product. interesting.
The one marketed especially for girls was pink & had significantly fewer functions than the standard computer. WTF? I'd be pissed as a little girl to get a computer that did less. 
You know, I like pink, but it's not my favorite color. To assume that all women will like/want pink is stupid.
Pink tablet for women gets mixed reception in Gulf
Apps for the kitchen and the bedroom are preloaded; women in Gulf are highly educated but only make up 20% of the workforce.
Woman in Dubai shopping mall Photo: Reuters Many wives in Dubai were probably thrilled to receive a Valentine’s Day gift of an ePad Femme Tablet, which bills itself as “the world’s first tablet made exclusively for women.”
It comes in light pink with an eight-inch screen, an inch bigger than most Tablets. The Operating system is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and it has 16 GB of ROM. It costs just $190. In the past three months, more than 7,000 have been sold.
“The Tablet comes preloaded with applications so you can just turn it on and log in to cooking recipes or yoga,” Mani Nair, the Associate Vice President for Marketing at Eurostar, which manufactures the devices told The Media Line. “It makes a perfect gadget for a woman who might find difficulties in terms of downloading these applications and it is a quick reference.”
Nair says there was no sexist intent in choosing the applications, including one called “Women’s Assistant” which offers weight-loss tips.
Apps for the kitchen and the bedroom are preloaded; women in Gulf are highly educated but only make up 20% of the workforce.
Woman in Dubai shopping mall Photo: Reuters Many wives in Dubai were probably thrilled to receive a Valentine’s Day gift of an ePad Femme Tablet, which bills itself as “the world’s first tablet made exclusively for women.”
It comes in light pink with an eight-inch screen, an inch bigger than most Tablets. The Operating system is Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and it has 16 GB of ROM. It costs just $190. In the past three months, more than 7,000 have been sold.
“The Tablet comes preloaded with applications so you can just turn it on and log in to cooking recipes or yoga,” Mani Nair, the Associate Vice President for Marketing at Eurostar, which manufactures the devices told The Media Line. “It makes a perfect gadget for a woman who might find difficulties in terms of downloading these applications and it is a quick reference.”
Nair says there was no sexist intent in choosing the applications, including one called “Women’s Assistant” which offers weight-loss tips.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=303549
