You know what pisses me off? Getting a PR email from one of my favorite online retailers showcasing a buyers guide for “great gift ideas to pamper the women in your life,” including a pots and pans set, a hair dryer, and tons of gadgets in hot pink.
And…
Thanks, Newegg. You sure know how to make women feel special!
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70 Responses for "Pink is the new STFU"
So very true.
I am kind of partial to the furry pink head phones.
Ouch! that was a PR email? I though it was just an suggestion on the site! They sent this to the wrong lady!
You mean you don’t want a hot pink 6.5 inch stainless-steel chef’s kitchen knife? FREE FRICKIN’ SHIPPING.
I just bought two.
I know no women who would want any of those in pink.
Man, those headphones are pure pimp.
Hey, there is a flash drive in there!
Or … 4GB … was that a “size matters” joke?
They do this crap with games too. Have you seen the gamestop display “Games 4 Girls” or whatever it is called.
Man I’m sure real gamer girls are so interested in barbie horse adventures.
It is amazing to me that someone had this idea, pitched it to other people, and those other people let it happen. ugh.
I’m sorry ladies, I promise I won’t ever buy you a pink version of something unless specifically asked.
Wait, gadgets and cooking tools? Why didn’t they just send you an email saying “get back in the kitchen, woman!”?
Wow, I did not know New Egg did pots and pans.
Interestingly enough, those ear phones would be good for a gag gift I think.
Amen! This is right up there with the assumption that all women are pleased with gifts of Bath & Body Works-type products. No thanks!
Sounds like you need to return to Gadgettes and some pink watch.
Also, how old is that advertisment? I mean, it says the ‘next day’ shipping is 12/23?
My 7 year old would love many of those items, my wife would find most of them insulting
But pink is the magic talisman against breast cancer. Isn’t it? Isn’t it?
Amen.
I think I’d feel like a right bimbo carrying around a pink camera.
Ugh…I hate pink. The only one I *might* want would be the meat knife. >:-)
Yes, you can satisfy any woman just by giving her any old thing that’s pink.
How degrading.
i am always annoyed by these things. sure some women like pink and would want their gadgets that way but why is it assumed that we all fit that category? i hate pink mostly because it reminds me of pepto bismo. but whatever. tech companies need to get a damn clue and realize that we are more advanced than hello kitty minions and they might want to start acting like it or loose business! (i’m talking to you Sony!)
I have that blowdryer, I’m sorry to admit. But I didn’t buy it for its pinkness. I bought it despite its pinkness.
Really hate all of the pink >.<
If this list had anything to do with Breast Cancer Awareness month, I’d be all for it.
Hahahaha, great post. I hate it when anything in this life gets stereotyped, and specially when it looks like they are doing a great compliment for everyone. Helping you pamper the woman in your life, nice! unless it is your 5 yr old daughter.
From Smart Design’s Femme Den: “Design for women does not mean ’shrink it and pink it.’”
[...] latest post, Pink is the new STFU, skewers NewEgg.com’s email for holiday gifts for women. Here’s the [...]
I love pic my camera and my phone case is pink it’s a beautiful color.
Because no women ever cook, and no women like pink. God forbid they try to market their products.
Oh Grant Grant Grant… but surely not ALL women like to do is cook and use pink gadgets? This list is boring, unimaginative and trite.
Wished they showed a variety of products in a variety of colors. Petal pink gets boring fast. Fuschia too. Methinks Newegg needs to hire a new direct marketing person… one who is more in touch with the times.
Oh Veronica, Veronica, Veronica… but surely not all guys want to crack a brewski and watch the “Game.” I don’t begrudge them for marketing to that guy, though.
I must agree with Grant here.. We are entering the season where everyone pushes the big screen TV so that you can watch the game with your buds.. I could care less about the game, but I’m not insulted over the ad. What’s more, the TVs they usually put on sale are the crap models. That’s not an insult to ME though.
They wouldn’t advertise TVs during football season, and pink stuff to women, if it didn’t work. Just because you don’t fit their audience, no worries!
Too be honest, the PR gets their information from the demographic. Most women want that crap. All retailers are like this. Once most women stop wanting it, it wont happen any longer.
I HOPE it’s just a mistaken attempt to do some good for Breast Cancer…my mother is a recent survivor and when I see pink, it makes me stop and check to see if it’s girliness or fundraising.
BTW…I KNOW “girliness” is NOT a word but if Colbert can have “truthiness” I figure…well
[...] Veronica Belmont received the same email and decided to post about it. Her and many other women were insulted by the list. [...]
sing me the blues, sister… if I listed the gifts I get from my boyfriend’s parents every year, it would look exactly like this. Bleh.
So the only thing worth getting on that list is the knife..
But it has ‘fun shaped cutouts’ ??
I didn’t know fun had a shape.
I’ve been adopting pink as one of my colors of choice just to challenge the “pink is for girls” idea. I even dyed my hair pink a couple years ago. I sometimes get comments on the pink shoelaces in my wingtips. It’s especially fun being that I live in Kansas.
I’d love to get those earphones. I like pink.
But then, I’m a guy so there’s really no nasty barefoot and pregnant stigma going on.
I’ll bet those do great noise redux. And they’re probably really comfy.
There’s one thing I’m absolutely confident of: If marketing this way doesn’t sell the products, they’ll stop marketing them this way.
The reason “buy pink stuff for the ladies” gets used and repeated (in multiple industries) is simple. It works. Enough people are affected by the advertising and purchase the products that it’s effective for the company to continue selling them this way.
Blame the ladies that like them, blame guys for buying them, whatever you like, but I don’t think you can reasonably blame the company for doing the one thing it exists to do: make money.
i can’t decide whether i envy or pity you if this is the kind of thing you spend time being pissed off about.
You go girl!
Are they not pink because it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Everything’s pink right now. Football players are wearing pink shoes. I mean, if not, then it’s ridiculous. But I’m pretty sure that it has more to do with that than with the broad generalization that all women want pink pots and pans.
Best blog post title ever.
Grant and GenX, sure, it “works,” because the dudes these lists are going to keep buying pink gadgets for their girlfriends/wives/mothers.
Judging by 99% of the comments I’ve read here and on Twitter, the ladies aren’t feeling it.
Perhaps the pink posts are tied to the campaign to make all aware to check regularly for breast cancer. See http://www.nbcam.org/. It’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month right now.
Veronica, isn’t it possible that you’re polling a self-selecting group?
I maintain “The man” isn’t forcing pink down the throats of women. It is perfectly okay for women to enjoy pink. If they don’t want pink items, that is fine too.
Also, I don’t want to be shoved in the category of “Douche bag on the internet that hates women.” Quite the opposite. I volunteer at Planned Parenthood every week. I am a big supporter of women’s rights. I just don’t see this as a big deal.
Adrian, while I wish that was the case, what you’re seeing in those images is the full email. There’s no mention of Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Grant, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. It’s annoying to a lot of women, clearly, and I can’t expect everyone to see it from that point of view.
I’m a scrapbook industry reporter/analyst. We have this same problem in the scrapbook industry. Companies will take products that have been being sold as household or other category items forever, turn them pink, market them to scrapbookers – and jack the price! GRRR.
My favorite shade of pink is Hello Kitty. Hey! (dodges tomatoes)
While you’re right about the unimaginative part (and that’s definitely a problem for a retailer), you’d be surprised how many women actually are into pink stuff. Just because you are different (I like it), don’t speak for the majority. At my job working IT support for design agencies, I stopped counting how many abhorrent products I have seen in use especially from the (female) CEOs. Women like pink things. And fluffy things. And cliché things like Sex and the City. It’s like that list: boring and unimaginative, yes, but also a fact of life.
Inside my little tech girl circle, none of us have a single pink piece of gadgetry. Outside that circle, that bubble, like the girls at work, when they show up with a new cellphone or whatever, it’s almost always either red, purple, or guess what, pink. With a pink case with stupid glitter on it. They didn’t start today, but from the pink box that their Barbie came in, all the way to the colour of their covergirl mascara tube. It’s sure as hell not a recent phenomenon and as long as girlie women continue to buy in to it, and no, it’s not just the boyfriends and husbands buying it, the marketers will continue to do it.
Veronica – “Oh Grant Grant Grant… but surely not ALL women like to do is cook and use pink gadgets? This list is boring, unimaginative and trite.”
What did you expect from a company that specializes in “Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers Digital Cameras and more!”
I see 6 products that a father could potentially buy for a daughter ages 8-21). Don’t forget the “great gift ideas to pamper the women in your life” is directly to a large male demo.
Complain all you want, but they just got a whole boatload of free PR, and while most of it was negative, I didn’t see a hint of “I’m not shopping at NewEgg anymore!” and guess who just spent another 30 minutes etching their name into everyone’s cerebellums.
Kudos to the marketing group at NewEgg.
I’m not sure what I, as a tech/gamer ‘girl,’ am supposed to be indignant about here. They have pots and pans, a juicer, sure–but they also have a computer, a thumb drive, a camera, a DSi….
Because they’re pink? So? I happen to like pink. Would I personally ever buy any of these things? Maybe. I like the DSi’s color.
Bottom line, some women like to cook, some like to play games, some like to take pictures–wow, look, this list has something for each one of them! I’m sure they all come in colors other than pink. In fact, I know the DSi and camera do. What’s the big deal?
Dora, I guess I’m just jaded. After years of getting these lists, I’m disappointed that a retailer like NewEgg (who frankly, I would expect to understand female geeks a little more than a Best Buy) would have so little originality in their buyer’s guides.
The fact that my wife does not like Pink anyway is not even a factor here. What husband in his right mind would buy his wife a hair dryer? I mean were they all out of pink vacuum cleaners?
Where is the pink ruby and diamond ring? Now we are talking!
Pink is soooo 2006 this year.
And my wife hates the color pink.
As a faggot and homemaker, I must say that I am very excited by these products. Maybe “the women in your life” is Newegg’s euphemism for your hairdresser?
My hairdresser is a punk rock vegan chick, so once again they are not hitting the mark! NEWEGG WTF!!
Marketing to women = make shit pink.
[...] Pink is the new STFU — Veronica Belmont “You know what pisses me off? Getting a PR email from one of my favorite online retailers showcasing a buyers guide for “great gift ideas to pamper the women in your life,” including a pots and pans set, a hair dryer, and tons of gadgets in hot pink.” Pink is not marketing to women. (tags: marketing gender technology) [...]
From Popular Science: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/gallery/2009-09/science-confirms-obvious
Image 4 in the gallery: Girls Like Pink
“Biological Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference,” Current Biology, August 2007
- Popsci says:
“It turns out that while blue and green hues have universal appeal, men hate pink, and women love it. ”
- Summary of the paper says:
“Here we report a robust, cross-cultural sex difference in color preference,”
You can mock Newegg for not being creative, or for using hyperbole, but you can’t say they’re wrong. Science tells us a significant number of women like the color pink. It’s not because of Barbie, or American culture in general, it just is. As with all gender differences, there are exceptions, but the idea that women like pink is not an unfounded stereotype.
Remember Funny Face
The Pink Number: Kay Thompson’s true STFU feelings about pink she is pushing on magazine cover: 5:07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmaffpKAYcw
Pink isn’t so bad, depending on context.
Reminds me of the great 80’s band “Kissing the Pink” and the tune “Other Side of Heaven”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVpu3VUW7zg
But nothing beats Elvis Costello’s “Veronica”!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4ZXzhwCkM
Veronica,
First, I’ll admit to having a strong affinity for smart, sassy, charming women, geek or otherwise. It was a pleasure to see you look askance, as well you should have, at a cleverly disguised -snail- masquerading as food!
If its’ possible to digress in an a first paragraph, I guess I’ve done so.
Ahem, about that pink.
I know more than a few women, some as smart as you are, who have lots of pink stuff. One even has a Snoopy doll in her car. She also has a Phd, knows more about her subject than almost everybody, is one of the smartest people I know, and is gorgeous too. Yup, she’s a girlie girl, and sweet, charming and fierce. No wonder I like her.
As for NewEgg, you didn’t really expect better than that did you? Don’t forget what a bubble we live in here in the Bay Area; and within the SF geek culture, there is a plethora of geek and non-geek sub-bubbles. You’re not in Kansas any more; and there are more of them (mainstreamers) than there are of us; hard as it is to believe from within the bubble.
Hm, I think I digressed again. Since you so humorously brought our attention to the NewEgg marketing (you can opt-out, yes?), why not get in touch with them and help them develop a true geek-girl (person’s?) gift list? Marketing opportunity for you, VB’s top 10 Geek Girl Gifts!! (send royalties to me
.
I’m starting a new movement: If you have something to gripe about, do something about it. Don’t just take to the We and complain. At minimum, offer a positive alternative to what you’re complaining about.
[...] Pink Is The New STFU (Veronica Belmont) [...]
[...] she’ll join pop sugar any time soon. As a matter of fact she did make fun of a super pink pr email, sooo she’s still cool. Yeah, she’s still 1337 in my [...]
Irony alert!
Your website has girly colors (including pink) everywhere!
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