Gender conforming men and women today use are more aware as consumers

Gender conforming men and women today use are more aware as consumers because their roles in society have changed. We have come a long way from the era where women served as homemakers and men went out to work and provide. Every individual grows up in different circumstances, we see each other in various stages of life, and have developed their own opinions about gender roles and live by them. Gender mostly affects us in subtle ways outside of discrimination, they become important in our daily lives with the enforcing of it through projected behavior.

Constantly asserting the gender binary tends to cause harm to the health and social acceptance of nonbinary individuals. Most people either willingly or without intention take significant steps every day to fit into the binary with what they eat, what they wear, how they behave, and how they communicate. The study of gender in biology has significant control over our thinking when trying to understand the differences between men and women, the noticeable inequalities are clear in our social interaction.

Natural gender differences do not spontaneously bring about the obvious sociopolitical and economic inequalities we see today. Companies push this agenda even further by telling consumers that it is important to fit into one of these categories. Each of these products has been marketed using actions designed to reinforce that;

1. Food

2. Jobs

3. Alcohol

4. Clothing

5. Hygiene Products

6. Toys

7. Sports

8. Pets

9. Movies

10. Salons

Hygiene products such as shower gel, shaving cream, deodorant, and razors are also products unnecessarily gendered.

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It is possible that there are differences in the ingredients between the products and they are tailored to average body of a man or woman. When we closely compare the ingredients and understand how the skin types are affected by certain ingredients, it is not difficult to know if the products are completely identical. Feminine hygiene products come at an increased cost due to a luxury tax and state laws not recognizing them as essential. It makes more sense to say that female hygiene is not a luxury item and that they should be as affordable as possible especially for underserved communities. In the states that still implement the tax, there should be women’s health clinics that distribute them to those who cannot afford them.

The dichotomy of gendered food is clear when you consider how most advertising would have people believe that everyday foods such as yogurt and salad are more for women than they are for men. This is by showing attractive women in the commercials to make the product more appealing. Assigning gender to food is only holding people back from being able to enjoy a wider range of food which could have serious health consequences. Men eat larger portions than women and the studies show that women live longer. This could be attributed to the fact that healthy food is not marketed to men as the pressure is more on women to be fit. Another example of gendered marketing would be the way that beer is marketed to men and wine is marketed to women. Advertisements and social media are constantly pushing the message that eating light and having a salad as opposed to steaks or burgers, is feminine.

Gender bias does not only disadvantage women, but it also disadvantages men. There are stereotypes attached to certain careers that shape expectations about whether a man or a woman is capable of being successful in them. These expectations potentially affect hiring practices because they could lead to prejudice in favor of one gender over the other. For instance, such expectations influence the initiative of men and women to even apply for a job based on the likelihood that he or she will be hired. Prospective employees consider whether they would receive the desired salary even with satisfactory performance because would determine the opportunity for advancement. Men often experience negative stereotyping when they work in positions that people feel are for women, such as nursing. It is also rare to see women working more hands-on jobs that are considered for men such as mechanics, electricians, and plumbers. Gender stereotypes assigned to specific careers also place bias on the authority of the people in positions of power. These biases often diminish the role of women in authority by implying that they are less qualified than men. Ideally, society is working towards coming to terms with recognizing the value of demanding work only based on the abilities of the individual. Our work force should become a place where qualified workers receive the same respect, regardless of gender.

Marketing certain items like toys do gendered advertising to sell more of the product. They consider the practice of parents buying toys for their older children and then passing them on as hand-me-downs to their younger children. A gender-neutral toy would only be bought once as it is not coded for any specific gender. However, a separate line of toys for boys and girls would allow for parents to buy multiple of the same product. This is one of the reasons why toys that have nothing to do with gender are now being made in different versions for boys and girls. Separating items according to gender is prevalent in toys and clothing because research that determines how companies divide their customers into smaller groups went on to increase their profits. It is said that sociopolitical changes take more time to affect people. The effort for equality has created movements striving to bring about social change. It will take effort and time to unlearn the behaviors that set up stereotypes such as dolls being for girls, and toy trucks being for boys.

Though there are exceptions, there is observably a rising trend of disparities in marketing alcohol to different genders. When we consider the typical advertisement, it is always quite clear the gender in which the product is being marketed. For women, the marketing passively leans towards alcoholic beverages that are fruitier and sweeter such as vodka and wine. Since its meant for women the advertisement usually mentions how smooth the drink is and how it is easier to drink. For men, the advertisements imply that drinking the product would boost the confidence of the drinker by making him more interesting such as, for example, Dos Equis beer with the most interesting man in the world gimmick. These advertisements are usually for beers and spirits such as whiskey. Beer is hardly marketed towards women, brands like Budweiser typically feature men at football games drinking their beer or grabbing one after a long day of work. It is rare to find an advertisement for alcohol that is that does not pander to one gender and not the other and it raises the question of gender stereotypes. Why is gender stereotyping such an important part of successfully marketing alcohol? It is safe to say that these practices are at least successful as this has become the norm in advertising for such products. This may have to do with brands’ marketing teams who possibly took into consideration the sexism in our society and decided to exploit it by trying to link their products with a sense of self-awareness and therefore make them more appealing to consumers of both genders. In our society, drinking is common to all age types aside from young children and tweens and has become a part of the social habits of young adults.

Gendered marketing is necessary and limits the amount of opportunity to explore different varieties. Once more, there are instances where we have related products with subtle differences intended for the opposite gender that usually turn out to be more expensive. There is a general list of fears and insecurities that people have of not conforming that marketing executives use to further their agenda, and though it is not straightforward, that is not to say that the method isn’t effective. We have taught ourselves that the typical man wants to feel masculine and the typical woman wants to feel feminine. These binaries limit our view of what men and women can wear, eat, and drink, use, as well as where they can work. Therefore, we end up buying more expensive products just to stay in the lane of the right gender roles. Everyone is part of a system where women especially pay for the division of products into male and female categories. Women pay more for the same products as men, just because of the marketing, and something for less quality. Such as with clothing and razors, for example. When that happens, the products for men are made with higher quality materials. One of the most common excuses for such a separation is that men and women have a difference in opinion. Marketing these products uses gender as a way of selling more of the same product by having them in more than one category.