There is this realtively new app called Touch of Modern that I quite enjoy mostly just for the entertainment and amusement of seeing what quirky, innovative, outrageous and sometimes downright bizarre or laughable items they have. Most of which is too expensive to seriously consider buying but there are some items I would quite like to have when I have the spare cash and not everything they sell is outrageously priced.
Recently viewing the app I have come to notice a sexist/misogynistic trend. Many of the products sold are things that stereotypically have been (and still are in many cases) seen as being the domain of men or things that would appeal more to men than women. There is a lot of high tech items, outdoors items, tactical gear, knives, varrious items relating to drinking and smoking (particularly cigars) and sometimes gambling related items. They also have a lot of clothing lines that seem to be targeted at men (in fact now that I think about it I don’t recall them really having any women’s clothing lines not counting skimpy lingerie.
Honestly this ibn itself never really bothered me and I never really perceived the app as targeting men specifically and discounting women afterall these are all things women can be and are interested and partake in. Considering I myself was interested in many of their merchandise I never thought twice about it. In addition they also sell a variety of items that can be seen as gender neutral or sterotypically the domain of women. Housewares, cookery, funiture, jewelry, artwork etc…. This eclecticism made the app seem non-gender specific.
But there is something that struck out at me today that made me think. One of te things they sell is high-tech sophisticated sex toys. This on its own is not a problem, it is something both men and women enjoy. The issue is that I noticed their sex toys are predominately aimed at male pleasure. There are some toys labled as unisex or for couples but the majority of them are labled as toys for men. They do not sell any toys targeted at women’s pleasure.
This made me wonder is the app inteionally targeting a male audience and thus declaring that these items are of prime interests to men and not really seen as something seen as being meant for women like some discrete modernized Old Boy’s Club? Or do they stereotypically think many women won’t be interested in what they sell, rather than intentionally targeting men or excluding women, simply expect moremale viewers thus have more male oriented pruducts. Or inspite of their innovative moderness are still unwilling to openly acknowledge women as sexual beings and believe it would be more taboo to sell sex toyes directly to woemen?
Labyrinth of the Mind 