What is Reddit's opinion of
BIC For Her Fashion Retractable Ball Pen, Medium Point, 1.0 mm, Assorted-Fashion Ink, 2 Count (FHAP21-ASST)?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
14 reviews of this product found across Reddit:
I wanted to take notes on what you said here, but I forgot to bring my Bic for Her pen today so I can't. :(
Highly recommend the pens though, I bought them based on the Amazon reviews...
I generally agree with you. Except in those cases where the only difference is that the "female" version is pink/purple/glittery, and then it's pointless.
Amazon's reviews for "BIC for Her" pens are amusing reading.
Even more Amazon reviews for the retractible version
> I accidentally grabbed one of these pens (the lovely purple one) out of my wife's purse and instantly got my period. Now I'm feeling bloated and weepy.
> For those who haven't actually tried this pen, it is easy to make fun of. I LOVE this pen. When I click on it, it sometimes releases an eraser-sized nub of chocolate. At other times, a Fabio-like voice in dulcet tones says "Math eez hard. But you can do it" or "Take a break. Ez time too watch Dr. Phil!". It really just gives me the extra motivation to go on with my day. Also, it has amazing built-in smart technology! When I see my patients using this pen, the pen automatically detects the awkward situation because it knows to say "Do not worry, the real doctor will be in soon." Thankfully, the pen then signals to my male colleague, who will arrive with his "For Him - Bic Magnum" pen, designed to write OVER "For her" scribbles. Lives saved. Thanks, Bic!!!
That’s accurate. Equality isn’t really conducive to capitalism (or conservative theocracy). As long as there’s division amongst genders, companies can make gendered products and make more money, usually charging more for the “lady” version.
You mean like these BIC Female ball pens?
Why would you assume that it's mostly men? What makes it a "man" pen?
Edit: Obligatory Bic for Her
Don’t worry, BIC has you covered!!!
^^^psst ^^^read ^^^the ^^^reviews
/u/commiespaceinvader touched on an issue that I'd like to address a bit more directly.
In my experience, people who are not history buffs sometimes confuse the ideas of "women's history" and "gender history." This might be a bit obvious, but gender history can be seen as an expansion of the more femme-focused field of women's history. Gender history looks at femininities, masculinities, genders in between, genders outside, agender identities, etc. (See /u/sunagainstgold's reply to this comment for the historiographic context of this, which includes the difference between social and cultural history.)
I think part of why many laypeople equate gender history with women's history is that we in the Anglophone world tend to think of men/masculinity as the default state of being, and women/femininity as the gendered alternative. (Think of the Amazon review debacle that was ungendered Bic Pens vs. "feminine" Bic for Her. Or behold these unnecessarily "designed for women!" ear plugs. The regular product is for men (?), so apparently we need a special pink product for women.)
Deborah Tannen explains phenomenon this brilliantly in her classic essay, "There is No Unmarked Woman." We have been trained to notice femininity more than masculinity, causing us to equate "gender" with femininity.
EDIT: And I'd like to second /u/sunagainstgold's Feminist history versus history of women as a very pertinent to what I was trying to say here.
EDIT 2: Changed a few things in response to sunagainstgold's valuable corrections.
This reminded me of the Bic Pen for Women
Read the Q&A and reviews. They are fantastic.
More of the same. Even funnier. https://www.amazon.com/BIC-Fashion-Retractable-Assorted-Fashion-FHAP21-ASST/dp/B005YGLA5Y/
Hahaha i wonder is this a review on those “Bic for her” pens. r/pointlesslygendered
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