Media in the New Millennium

Posted by Lisa Metzger

For those of you that know me, you know I have a lot of opinions. A. Lot. These opinions are usually strenuously expressed and are sometimes unwavering and set in quick-dry cement.

But, perhaps another, more positive way of looking at it is to say that I have a lot of pet peeves. Again: A. Lot. Tomatoes, toMAAAtoes, opinions, pet peeves. Whichever.

Here’s a pet peeve that brings on a fever of eye rolling and “as ifs!” from yours truly:

http://springwise.com/style_design/gc4490/

Really? Are there really men out there that WOULD iron IF the iron was all chromy, steely and macho? Are there really men out there that are saying, “You know, honey, I WOULD iron my own shirts but, frankly, this non-gender-specific iron you’ve provided me puts my sexuality in question and I JUST CAN’T DO IT!! Now…if they just made an iron that was really BUTCH, then we’d be talkin’…”

Would a pretty, sweet and soft pink one with bows and ribbons make the chore any less of one for women?

(And, as a side rant: the fact that Philips is marketing this to men based on the assumption that men want “more power, more steam, more performance” in their irons, implies that women…ummm…don’t? Yes. That’s true (insert dripping sarcasm here). I, for one, when shopping for an iron, am only concerned with the cuteness factor and not its performance features.)

I don’t think either gender is so fragile and, frankly, stupid.

It’s a little like the scene that goes on every day when I reach for my multi vitamin “designed for women” and wince at the fact that the pill is a muted shade of mauve’ish pink. (I’ve taken the non-gender specific variety made by the same company…which is a non-descript shade of beige, thank you very much…so I know the hue is a gender’ized marketing tool.) Is the men’s version blue? And, really, Centrum, just checking, but am I to assume by the addition of the girlish dye to mean that you “understand” me and my sister-friends oh, so much better? Because that’s what marketing is: niche finding, niche reaching, niche relating.

If so, I have to say that the leap is a bit big, don’t you think?

I have two children – twins, a boy and a girl – and from MINUTE ONE they have been my very own little gender experiment. I believed it before I had my darling squirrels, but I REALLY believe it now: Males and females ARE DIFFERENT (THANK GOD!! And, bless those differences, every one…okay, MOST of them, anyway!). We navigate, negotiate, manipulate and respond to the world around us as differently from each other as cake and sauerkraut. So, of course, the way one markets to men and women IS and should be different. But, the this-is-getting-silly line seems to be crossed A. LOT.

And, I suppose if Philips thinks it’s going to back a gazillion dollars cornering the male-ironing-demographic by bringing to market this “Iron Man Iron,” then more power to ‘em. I would, though, LOVE to see the numbers this time next year.

Because, really, when is an iron simply an iron?

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