In Luisa’s latest lecture we explored gender and identity within ecology, and also talked about the gendering of products. One of the tasks set in the lecture was to partner up and between us find and research 2 products that could be seen as gendered/sexist or that carry a gender bias and then question how and why they could be gendered and from that write 200(ish) words in which we explain why and how the objects bear a gender connotation in our eyes.
The Yorkie bar is famous for its former sexist tagline of ‘It’s not for girls’, as well as other taglines such as ‘Not available in pink’ and ‘King size not queen size’, which have been printed on their shiny packaging since the beginning of their production in 1976. This shocking slogan stayed on the packaging until 2012, after many years of slander from the public. Nestle (their manufacturers) claimed the bar was marketed at a specific demographic, tradies and men on the go, therefore instilling the idea that only men would need this chocolate bar. The bar become known as a joke and this casual sexism actually knocked down their sales leading Nestle (their manufacturers) to ditch this sexist slogan and rethink their morals. The “It’s not for girls” tagline and the no women sign were removed from the packaging in 2012 and has now been replaced with the word ‘Original’ printed on the side.
Kleenex recently suffered backlash for their casual sexism featured on their well-known mansize tissue boxes. Kleenex Mansize first launched in 1956, offering an alternative to large cotton handkerchiefs that were still popular at the time, and claiming to “stay strong when wet”. Throughout the years their advertisements have been heavily sexist and misogynistic. Making the public question what something means to be ‘mansize’.
On Twitter in 2018 discussion arose over Kleenex still using the term mansize, and a flurry of Twitter users took to Kleenex’s page to encourage them to change it.
Yolanda Wafaquani’s Graphic Design Blog 