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Gender-specific marketing

So I'm in the shower this morning, and I go to reach for my razor. It's on the little shelf near the handle, about shoulder height, and I can usually grope for it with my eyes closed - I use the shampoo lather to shave with. Unbeknownst to me, my wife had put her razor on the shelf. She usually leaves it by the tub. Not a big deal, because I knew instantly which one was mine. Mine looks like this:



While my wife's looks like this:


Sparkles, of course, are included.

Even the names of the respective products are interesting: men get a MACH 3, and women get a Soleil. Men's razors are black, chrome, dark gray, etc. Women's razors are white, pink, sparkly, etc.

I started wondering about who makes these decisions, and why. Someone clearly thought - men want a manly, straight, thin, MACH 3 razor, while women want a curvy, gel-coated, plastic, bright Soleil razor. And they make a million of them, and sell them to the respective markets. But, why?

Then I started thinking about the Lego Movie. Now, to be clear, I love Legos. I love that kids can build their own stuff and use their imagination to create and play. It helps with spatial analysis, symmetry, pattern recognition, etc. And in general, I really liked the movie.

But I noticed something about the female lead in the movie. Her name is WyldStyle, and she looks like this:



Cute, right? She's sassy, strong, and pushing the limits of what's "feminine". Or is she?

Look at how they've altered the figure on the front of her "body". They've stuck with the normal, blocky/angular Lego plastic form, but they've painted on some curves. Subtle, but it's there. Check out her western attire:



See that? Same thing. Painted extra curvy.

Someone decided to do that. I wonder why. And I wonder what messages this is sending to our young - both boys and girls.

Even her name, WyldStyle, seems to imply that she's a bit edgy, and that in order for girls to want to be master builders, they must be a little bit edgy, too...

I'm not even going to mention the Cloud Cuckoo Land and how it was largely portrayed in stereotypical feminine ways. Princess Unikitty? Sure, very cute. But.......

I don't think anyone is looking to the Lego Movie for inspiration, per se. Like I said, I just wonder what this kind of thing says to young boys and girls about gender roles and how they are informed by such images.

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