Digital Writing Spaces: The Mighty Fem-Pen (a gendered agenda)

Sunday, 21 October 2012

The Mighty Fem-Pen (a gendered agenda)

Our world is often constructed around gender binaries, whereby particular experiences, behaviours and feelings are aligned with 'male' or 'female' characteristics. The non-fiction bestseller 'Women are From Venus, Men are From Mars' (Gray, 1992) left an indelible mark on the psyche of millions of readers, with its central assertion that relationships between men and women are impacted by innate and inalienable differences in their communication styles and patterns. This highly contested perspective has been represented in the annals of popular culture and public debate. Some fifteen years later, this popular paradigm was challenged in The Myth of Mars and Venus, by Professor Deborah Cameron who argues that there is as much similarity and variation within each gender as between men and women and concludes that we have an urgent need to think about gender in more complex ways that the prevailing myths and stereotypes allow.^[1]^[2]

Despite the progressive views and arguments espoused by researchers, scholars and feminists, these confining gendered perceptions continue to make their way into social systems and structures, such as education, employment, entertainment and arguably the most pervasive influence of all, the media industry.

It is convenient and simple for manufacturers and advertisers to produce, package and market products along gendered lines, but sometimes this is taken to ridiculous lengths. Children's toys continue to be packaged in blue for boys and pink for girls. On the surface, this seems innocuous, and for many people, the connection between childhood playthings and personal identity is tenuous and becomes even more nebulous as they grow older and their world expands. After all, little girls who dressed in pink tutus grow up to be doctors and little boys who played with trucks grow up to be nurses. Anyone notice the stereotypes in that last statement?

The jury might be out on the extent to which gendered products determine our concept of self and ensuing beliefs of our interests, capabilities and options in life. However, when seemingly 'gender neutral' products begin to be targeted solely at males or females, one has to wonder what is going on in the minds of the manufacturers, marketing geniuses and retailers.

The most recent example of this insulting gender orientation is the manufacturing and marketing of Bic Pens for Her. Is this merely an instance of misplaced and downright foolish product targeting by some snotty nosed novice amongst the ranks of the Bic employees? Perhaps this is merely a naive reflection of those cognitively challenged members of the patriarchy who actually believe that women need and want to be given differential (aka 'special') treatment in all aspects of their life. Or could there be a more strategic gendered agenda at work here? Keep in mind that this special line of pens costs 70% more than identical pens that have not been given that uniquely 'feminine' design.

Fortunately, since this relatively benign product entered the market, consumers have been taking up the fight against this subtle, yet demeaning form of gender discrimination by writing satirical reviews on Amazon (and presumably boycotting the product). Perhaps this proves that the 'pen is mightier than the sword', when wielded by 'a woman scorned'?

Popular US comedian and talk-show host Ellen recently weighed in with her views:

Oh and just in case you were wondering how the actual commercial would depict the targeted users of this pen, I have included it here for your amusement. I wonder if this schoolgirl will become a better writer now that she has that pretty pink pen? Armed with the pen's "fabulous styling and smooth writing" will she write a feminist classic like Woolf's A Room of One's Own or Walker's The Colour Purple? Perhaps more importantly, would she loan that precious girl pen to one of those (eager to please her) boys if the ink ran out in their boy pens?