I find it weird that we can talk about a city for women when pens for women ended poorly. Feminism has allowed me to see that I don't understand subtly. Would this city for women use male or female construction workers?
- Is there anything significantly different about how men and women use pens? - Is there anything significantly different about how men and women use cities? Although I have not studied the question in great detail I'm willing to suspect the answer is generally no to the first one, and generally, perhaps even emphatically, yes, to the second. As a result it is easy to feel as if the first strategy was merely an attempt to gain profit while emptily mouthing to a given cause, and the second is not. Maybe it is easy to see the need for the latter and not so easy for the former - whether or not it exists.
My initial comment had a snarky bit about women's razors that I removed - because for me, "women's razors" were those stupid round-flat Tylenol-shaped things that were about as anti-ergonomic as humanly possible. Every girl I've dated since the mid '90s has used a men's handle in the shower and when we've discussed why, they've (to a woman) said "yeah, women's razors are shit." But in looking at womens' razors these days, they mostly seem to be men's razors with slightly blobbier handles and/or slightly pinker colors. I can see why "pens for women" ended poorly - there's nothing inherently masculine about the coloration of a pen. Health and beauty products? Oh, fuck yeah. I've watched half of the skin care aisle at BBB turn black over the past 10 years as companies discover they can sell moisturizer, buff puffs, lotion and hairspray to men if they put it in a nice butch container. I've used Oxy pads since I was 14 (bad news, kidz - you still get zits at 40). They used to be in a white and pastel container. Then about '04 they started looking like something Rambo would keep hand grenades in.
This is all funny because I landed on a "pad brand" (feminine products brand) when one went rogue and made all their boxes black with bright accent colors. Maybe I'm wrong but in terms of anatomy we all have hands and they all work about the same. That's why I see pens for women failing: it's clear & deliberate pandering when no pandering need occur. I wanted to compare it to left-handed scissors except apparently some lefties do use 'em. Cities with re-vamped designs that consider the female perspective, backed up by surveys about how individuals use various parts of the city (i.e., transpo)? I'm all for that. Sure, sometimes the survey results might seem sexist and yes, we don't want to reinforce sexism so we should be careful with that, but I see dealing with the gender differences that come out at the end of socialization (like how we use cities) not to complicate or cause those differences, but to accommodate them while they exist. Like I said, like treating black males for diabetes differently than white males: sure, the diabetes rate is probably caused in part by a number of facts that, at their root, are class issues. Should those class issues be solved? Yes. Would the diabetes rate in black men hopefully then conform more with white rates? Yes. But in the meantime, the doctor should treat these results of classism/racism by varying their patients' treatment and screenings accordingly. Breast cancer rates are way higher in women than men. Women get screened more. Based on surveys, stats - not sexism but demonstrated need. Will I be happy when I start having to get mammos? No. Do I recognize based on my gender it's a little more necessary? Yes. Bright side: no dr needs to stick his latex-y fingers up my butt and check out my prostate.