The Gender Equality Checkpoint

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hmm... I wonder how you know what old socks taste like.

Knowing someone who volunteers in a food bank several days a week, I hear stories about the difficulty of both getting and handling perishables. Also the purely subjective opinions of the volunteers about the attitudes of "customers" grouped by age, sex, race, etc. Who are grateful, respectful, cooperative, demanding, combative, obnoxious, etc. I won't repeat them here because they are opinions and not conclusive, but...
Lord you know it ain't easy,
you know how hard it can be,
The way things are going,
They're gonna crucify me.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I guess it depends on your grasp of history.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Wapo says, never buy the pink one.

Radio Flyer sells a red scooter for boys and a pink scooter for girls. Both feature plastic handlebars, three wheels and a foot brake. Both weigh about five pounds.
The only significant difference is the price, a new report reveals. Target listed one for $24.99 and the other for $49.99.

The scooters' price gap isn't an anomaly. The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs compared nearly 800 products with female and male versions — meaning they were practically identical except for the gender-specific packaging — and uncovered a persistent surcharge for one of the sexes. Controlling for quality, items marketed to girls and women cost an average 7 percent more than similar products aimed at boys and men.

[Clodfobble]

Supply and demand, man. Nobody wants that shit, so you're gonna pay for it.

[Undertoad]

We always get mad at the people who price things. But it's mostly the people who BUY things who are responsible for the price.

This signal tells us that the people who want to make their girls into little Princesses are absolutely willing to pay the price.

This is how it actually works. The scooter HAD to be priced that way in order to sell.

And when Princess grows up? She continues to live her Princess lifestyle of course! Don't you DARE TRY to tell an American woman that her hair and skin products are pretty much bullshit. Of COURSE they are more expensive!!! and that's because women are precious delicate flowers!!! and if she doesn't use a product that says it will ADD! NUTRIENTS!! to her HAIR!!!, she knows there's a chance her hair will smell like industrial waste and probably fall out in clumps.

[classicman]

They also made 50x more of the boy version. Production scales have a lot to do with it also. Oh, and don't forget the cost of shelf space for that pink crap which doesn't sell nearly as fast but they HAVE TO have or else the lawsuits will fly....
Yup - you want it - Pay for it.

[Undertoad]

Please. They injected a different color dye into the plastic and a different sticker on top and it flies off the shelves.

And please. Nobody is suing anyone for what scooter is not being marketed. That one is gender horror fantasy and beneath you and deserves two lol heads

[sexobon]

The pink scooter is a gateway indulgence.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I read a counter argument that this article cherry picked low priced shit, and if the entire spectrum of consumer buying is considered, things targeted at men cost more. He cited cars which are practical transportation compared to sporty cars with all the bells and whistles, and big enough houses compared to homes five times bigger than you need with a pool/tennis courts.

I don't think that's a valid argument because that's spending choices vs pricing structure, although they're both marketing, and there's a lot of factors shaping buyers choices

[xoxoxoBruce]

Roe vs Wade

[xoxoxoBruce]

This 1916 book extols the wisdom of teaching girls to use their hands for more than cooking and sewing. Of course there are always some people bucking the status quo, but I wonder about the timing here. WW I was rearing it's ugly head at us. If we got in deep, who would produce the materiel and tend the home front? I don't think that came about until WW II, but manual arts training might be good for the industrial boom coming post war. A bigger potential labor force helps keep wages down.
Or it could be some do-gooder trying to help the oppressed, although the money in that is mostly in selling the book. Cynical? Moi?

[DanaC]

Great find that, bruce.

Here's an old video that popped up on youtube links:

[xoxoxoBruce]

Islamic Gender equality.

[Sundae]

Just to be a pedant - may be a cultural issue or practical failing not a religious one (as in the woman lost/ damaged her shoes). The babies may simply be more comfortable with her. And after all, I've seen plenty of white (presumably Christian) men allow women to struggle with babies and shopping.

The walking female child has shoes after all, and is not carrying her ?sibling?

I only say this because of the many educated and successful Muslim women I've worked with, whose fathers have supported and paid for their education up to and including Masters degrees.

There are serious gender equalities in the poorest nations of the world, and many countries which are predominately Muslim, and especially where they overlap. But they don't have the exclusive right to "barefoot and pregnant".

[xoxoxoBruce]

That picture, complete with caption, supposedly came from a Brit newspaper.