Splashing pink all over your products to signal that they’re meant to be used by women? “Pinkwashed” pens, electronics, and ethernet cables? Not trendy anymore, according to marketing experts who say the cool thing nowadays is to send an inclusive branding message. [More]
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Study Shows Women Pay Significantly More Than Men For Virtually The Same Products
By 12.23.15
It’s expensive being a woman, literally. At least according to a new study that found women will spend thousands of dollars more than men over the course of their lives on products that are effectively the same. [More]
Report: Employers Find Innovative Ways To Discriminate Against Pregnant Workers
By 6.19.13
Being pregnant isn’t a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but a 1978 law does specifically prohibit discriminating against pregnant workers. Women generally aren’t forced out of their jobs once their pregnancy becomes visible like they were in past decades, but that doesn’t mean that no one ever loses her job (and her health insurance) right at a time when she really needs it. [More]
Scientists Find Women Can Produce New Eggs After All
By 3.1.12
Health class taught you that women were born with all the eggs they’d ever have throughout their lives, but science has cast doubt on that supposition. New research finds that women can make new eggs throughout their reproductive years, thanks to stem cells in ovaries.
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National Geographic reports scientists identified the stem cells in mice ovaries in a study published in 2004, but researchers in Boston’s Vincent Center for Reproductive Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital have finally identified the stem cells in humans. The researchers used donated ovary tissue from Japanese women who had gotten sex changes. [More]
Why Women's Clothing Sizes Will Never Make Any Damn Sense
By 1.26.12
Women’s clothing sizes vary over time, by manufacturer, and sometimes from one clothing design to another in the same store. Why is that? Was it ever different? Has anyone ever tried to impose order? Back in 1958, the National Bureau of Standards tried to apply standardized sizing to the pattern-making industry, and optionally to ready-to-wear clothing vendors as well, but the standards didn’t take. The very sizing system we grumble at today is based on these 1958 numbers. Loosely. [More]
OB Tampons Reappearing On Shelves
By 4.4.11
Looks like o.b. brand tampons, missing from shelves for months because of an unspecified Johnson & Johnson “supply chain interruption,” are slowly making their way back into stores. The company announced back in February that they were back, and a reader saw them at their Fred Meyer in Arkansas, but by mid-march another reader said they hadn’t returned. Here it’s April and o.b.’s haven’t returned to my go-to supermarket here in Brooklyn but then I spotted these at a local upmarket pharmacy this weekend. At this point it’s a question of what suppliers your store is working with. Ask your store manager if you still don’t see them yet. [More]
O.B. Tampons Are Back
By 2.4.11
Johnson and Johnson say new shipments of o.b. tampons have started going out and they should start showing up in a few days or weeks, depending on your store’s restock schedule. You can also get them online at Amazon.com, drugstore.com and soap.com. o.b. Ultras will not be returning as they’ve been discontinued. [More]
Women Laugh Alone With Salad, But Chocolate Makes Us Sexy
By 1.5.11
Here’s what I’ve learned today from stock photos: I’ve never watched myself eating chocolate, but apparently I’m making a sexy face while I’m doing it. When I eat salad, I probably laugh, even if I’m alone. [More]
Where Did All The OB Tampons Go?
By 12.21.10
If you’re a fan of OB Tampons, better start your hoarding. They have been taken off the shelves and won’t return until 2011, due to an unspecified “manufacturing update.” UPDATE: O.B. Tampons Are Back [More]
Birth Control Pills Change Women's Brain Structure
By 10.6.10
A new study found that the brains of women on birth control have more matter in some parts of their brain, like the pre-frontal cortex. So is “the pill” also a smart pill? Not exactly. Researchers say the brain is like a “neural beehive” and messing with one part can mess with others. Or, as the study’s authors put it, one region being larger could actually mean it’s going “catawampus.” [More]
Summer's Eve To Ladies: If You Want A Raise, You'd Better Wash Your Hoo Hoo
By 8.30.10
Maybe you thought bizarre “fix your naughty bits!” ads for feminine hygiene only appeared back in your grandparents’ era, but no. This Summer’s Eve ad from Women’s Day magazine says that if you want a raise, one of the first things you can do is shower with “Summer’s Eve Feminine Wash,” although it might also be a good idea to bring some “cleansing cloths” with you “for a quick freshness pick-me-up” right before you ask the boss for more money. That’s all in tip #1; tip #7 says “Don’t let the conversation stray or get personal.” [More]
Hot Flash Spray Evamist Causes Boobs On Pets, Kids
By 8.2.10
I like FDA warnings like this new one about Evamist, because I can file the symptoms away and use them to impress someone with my Sherlock Holmes skills. Friend: “How did you know she used Evamist?” Me: “Note the tell-tale breasts on her grandchildren and her terrier.” [More]
Best Buy To Use Kitchens And Kids To Lure Female Shoppers
By 6.20.10
After listening to thousands of women, Best Buy has decided that its path to long-term profitability lies through redesigned showrooms that resemble kitchens and a loyalty program that lets women donate points to schools. The insights came from Best Buy’s Women’s Leadership Forums, local focus groups that let female Best Buy employees and regular gals like you send ideas to the suits upstairs. Some Best Buy executives were irked by the whole initiative. [More]
Want To Save Money? Don't Be A Woman
By 1.1.10
Not only are women paid less than men, but they have to pay more for lots of things, including clothes, haircuts and even soap. [More]
Brooke Shields Has Hypotrichosis
By 10.27.09
Oh no! Brooke Shields used to have stringy, stick-figure eyelashes! I figured this out after watching Consumer Reports’ video dissection of a new commercial for Latisse, the glaucoma medication that has been rebranded as an expensive, temporary eyelash enhancer with side effects.
Ralph Lauren Is As Weirded Out By This Ad As We Are
By 10.7.09 — Updated: 6.17.16
Fashion advertising has a long tradition of lying, but this comically stupid Ralph Lauren ad seems to have confused the human anatomy with a box of Pocky. Unfortunately, Ralph Lauren doesn’t want to be mocked for its own advertising, so it started sending out DMCA takedown notices to blogs who have posted the ad—both Boingboing and Photoshop Disasters have been ratted out to their ISPs. Blogspot took down the pic from Photoshop Disasters while it investigates, but Boingboing has posted it a second time.
Single Men Trade Stocks Too Much
By 3.10.09
Nick Kapur at The Motley Fool says that men trade stocks more frequently than women. This is not a good thing; the result of all this hyperactivity and overconfidence is lower earnings on your investment. He writes, “Worse still (for unmarried guys like me) is that single men trade a whopping 67% more than single women, earning them annual net returns of 2.3% less! The authors cite increased trading costs, taxes, and a greater tendency to speculate as reasons for this underperformance.”
By 10.3.08
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Best Buy has apparently launched a new “woman-friendly” store where the “Home Theater” section is marked “Family Room” and there is a “lower sink for children in the bathroom, lotion near the paper towels, and a private room for new mothers, with carpeting, a rocking chair, free diapers and softer lighting.” [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]
