Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The gender of objects

You know how some things just have genders? Like when you refer to a boat, it's a girl "she's real pretty on the water". Or cars which are always either male or female, even if you don't name it, it has a gender "she's such a pansy, she can barely make it up the hill." but "my big man truck could drag himself and the 3 pansy cars we passed on the way up that hill." My red Bosch is definitely a girl. The ugly green couch was definitely a man. Most electronics are male, except cute little things like cell phones, pink iPods (which are clearly female) and watches with ribbons as the band. Drills, hammers, and saws are male, while pillows, doilies, 'knick-knacks' and bedspreads are female.

Then of course there are those items that, like cars, can go either way. Different cars, select tools, (my cute clean tape measure is a girl, but Josh's manly big dirty tape measure is a boy and therefore lives in the garage), furniture (rocking chairs vs. lazy boys), and maybe even food/snacks.

I never really realized it until this morning. I opened our center console in Suzy (my VERY female car, doesn't go uphill, doesn't do 4 WD, but plays all media types, has radio buttons on the steering wheel, cup holders, a spot for your sunglasses, and trash compartments, and was made for cruisin' with the windows down, not to mention she's a little PMSy every now and again) and saw this very sleek package of gum. It was clearly man-gum.
"Can I have a piece of your manly gum please?" I asked Josh.
"You want a piece of my what?" He responded confused.
"Your manly gum."
"Sure, but why is it manly?"

Somehow he failed to see the clearly man features of this gum. It wasn't pink, it wasn't fruit flavored, it had no pictures of people or bubbles or food on the front of it. It was just gum. Very simple, dark packaging. Shaped like it fits in your back pocket as opposed to fitting in your purse. Everything about this gum screams "man" to me and he just doesn't see it. Back me up in this! Tell me that this is man gum!

3 comments:

  1. I'm with you, Amy. It definitely looks like man gum. Does it taste like man gum too?

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  2. Yes, now that you mention it - it does taste like man gum. It's minty fresh - but not fruity, and NOT feminine! Hmm....I wonder if it will screw up my womanly hormones. Ha!

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  3. Definitely manly. It looks more like a man's deodorant or shaving cream or something

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