53 Pointlessly Gendered Examples That Show Society Has Gone Way Too Far With It (New Pics)

If you think gendered razors and sparkly pink hammers are a modern joke, you’re not wrong, because it hasn’t always been like this.

Way back before factories, YouTube ads, and mass marketing, people didn’t really sort everything into “for him” and “for her.” Most stuff, be it clothes or toys, was basically gender‑neutral.

It wasn’t until the late 19th and early 20th centuries that things began to change. Once manufacturers and department stores started making a ton of products for the growing middle class, they needed ways to sell more stuff.

One easy trick was to divide customers into categories, and gender was the obvious first choice. That meant creating versions of products that were labeled for men or women, even if they were basically the same thing underneath.

A classic example of this shift is how colors became gender signals.

Today, pink is associated with girls and blue with boys because of some weird logic, but it’s mostly a 20th‑century invention. In the early 1900s, there was no consistent rule about which color belonged to which gender.

In Victorian times, little boys actually used to wear dresses until they were around 6 or 7. After that, they’d switch to pants in a kind of coming-of-age tradition called “breeching.”

By the mid‑20th century, though, especially after World War II, the pink/blue code had solidified in Western culture, and companies heavily leaned into it for baby clothes, toys, and more.

Post‑war consumer culture really accelerated this. As suburbs grew and families bought more products, marketers saw opportunities everywhere.

Toys especially became a battleground — trucks and action figures were pushed at boys with “masculine” colors and themes, while dolls and craft kits in pastel sets were targeted at girls.

Coming back to the present, you’ll find at least one (if not more) gendered product in the aisles of your neighborhood grocery store.

Beauty products, tools, personal care items, and even snacks have gendered labels and packaging.

Traditional ideas of femininity and masculinity are heavily used in advertising because marketing companies have figured out that it helps them sell more products and make more money.

This kind of gendered labeling isn’t just silly or superficial; it has a real impact on our wallets, too.

In the US, where women make about 82 cents for every dollar a man earns, it’s kind of maddening that we also end up paying more for stuff like clothes, toiletries, and even hygiene and health products.

This is what experts call gender-based pricing, or the infamous “pink tax.” And no, it’s not a real tax.

It’s just a sneaky extra charge slapped on things marketed to women, even when the product is basically the same as the men’s version.

For example, shampoo, deodorant, and even pens — the pink version costs more for the same function and the same quality.

It’s kind of cute that companies think charging women more for the same stuff won’t burn a hole in their already nonexistent pockets.

And it’s not just about consumer products. Services like haircuts, dry cleaning, or even car maintenance can come with a gendered price tag.

An analysis in New York City found that women are being charged 7% more than men on average for a wide range of similar products.

Though the study focused on New York specifically, the products encompassed more than 90 brands. Some are even global, such as H&M, Neutrogena, and Gillette, both in-store and online.

A study also found that a lot of pricey products don’t actually work any better — women are often paying extra for fancy-sounding ingredients that barely make up 1% of the product.

“These ingredients yield no significant benefit to the consumer, but legally enable a brand to advertise the use of that ingredient and the potential benefits it could confer,” the study states. “Examples include natural extracts and botanical ingredients, which are frequently used in women’s products.”

It’s also one of the reasons why makeup is so expensive.

So not only are women paying more for basic items, they’re doing it while earning less. Basically, a double punch to the wallet, all because someone decided your razors needed to be pink.

It’s not only women who get caught up in pointless gendering; men feel it too.

Brands still build entire campaigns around ideas of toughness and strength to appeal to male buyers, even when the product itself isn’t any different.

For example, companies label items like toothpaste or grooming products as “for men” with dark, rugged packaging and macho branding to signal that using them will make you more “alpha.”

Researchers also found that when a brand is seen as “masculine” and suddenly introduces a version that feels feminine, some guys will avoid it. That’s because they don’t want anything that threatens their sense of masculinity.

This phenomenon has been termed “gender contamination.”

“Gender contamination occurs when one gender is using a brand as a symbol of their masculinity or femininity, and the incursion of the other gender into the brand threatens that,” says Harvard Business School Senior Lecturer Jill J. Avery.