Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Men Need MAN FOOD! (Part 3,021,472)

[TW/content note: Gender essentialism, gender policing, sexism]

Wut?
"Called 'The Man Aisle,' the space stocks stereotypically male items like beer, cereal, soda, beef jerky, hot sauces, barbecue sauces, condoms, and oh, Chock Full o'Nuts coffee.

'People rarely cater to men in the supermarket,' COO Ian Joskowitz told us over the phone. 'So I thought let’s do something fun, get people talking, something guys would like. So we started discussion, and it’s funny because most of us came up with a very similar list.'
People rarely cater to men in the supermarket?

What an incredibly strange statement to make. Are men really so different from women that they are incapable of obtaining adequate fuel sources for their bodies' sustenance needs when they go shopping? Are their minds so different that they are unable to figure out how to read aisle signs, place items in a shopping cart, and then stand in line to purchase these items? Like, they have to be specially-catered to, or they can't figure it out?

And, do women, all women, dislike beer and beef jerky? Are they repulsed by/repelled from the Man Aisle by virtue of being women?

In this way are men in the unusual position of being framed as Other within a space. Such framing sometimes occurs in female-coded occupations and spaces as, here, the supermarket representative frames women as the default supermarket consumer while framing men as perpetual frat guy types with poor eating habits.

Or.... maybe not. The cited article ends:
"Now if only we had a woman's aisle full of tissues, romantic comedies, tampons, and chocolate. And also, maybe a survival guide telling us to pat ourselves on the back for cooking dinner."
Sigh. Yes, hahahahahaha, only if! 

/barf

How on earth would we ever get anything done in life if we weren't constantly reminded that we're men or women, rather than people with overlapping likes, dislikes, appetites, and needs.


Related:

Men Need Man Food

Man Food, Again

Boys Need Boy Food

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