In America's very flawed society, there are expectations for different people. Women and men are expected to act certain ways and like certain things because society says so. Society puts out messages that put men and women in two opposite groups, without allowing fluidity. Women, according to the media's representation, like makeup, shopping, shoes, clothes, and of course, the color pink. Men, on the other hand, are supposed to like all things sports, beer, cars, women, and "manly" scents. It's tiresome and overplayed. These portrayals of men and women do several negative things: reinforce gender roles and the gender binary, reflects hetero-normative relationships, and pits men and women against one another. This all in an effort to persuade you to buy a product because you believe it will improve your life.
Once, while browsing T.J. Maxx's candle section, I found a candle with the scent "chrome." It was very obviously marketed towards men with it's no-nonsense packaging and the "manly" scent. If chrome smells like a 13-year old boy doused in Axe, then they got the scent spot on. Why did a company find this product necessary and why would anyone buy something like that? We've all seen the ridiculous products marketed towards one specific gender in a very stereotypical way, but why do we as consumers allow companies to pull marketing stunts like this? It's ridiculous and unnecessary.
Yet, people are criticized for buying products that aren't marketed towards their gender. People around us judge our purchases and decide whether or not they adhere to the status quo. Somehow this hyper-marketing towards the gender binary has created a society in which if you don't buy the products marketed towards your gender, then you are not really a "man" or a "woman," which completely neglects people who identify as non-binary and continues to try to force those people into a socially constructed gender binary. What good does this do? This system pits men and women against one another and either neglects non-binary people or tries to force them into one stereotypical gender in the gender binary.
My point of this article is that you as a consumer should buy the products that you enjoy and that work the best even if they aren't marketed towards society's construct of your gender. Using men's razors when you identify as a woman isn't going to turn you into a man because it is simply a basic razor, and using lotion that is marketed towards women isn't going to make you less of a man; it's just going to make your skin softer. Society has no business defining your gender. You are the one who constructs your gender, whether it's non-binary, female, or male. You decide what you like and don't like, not society's stereotypical, or often neglected, construction of a gender.
