RIP Kleenex Mansize

[Bonebreaker777]

...lost for words...

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-a8590441.html

[spacein_vader]

...lost for words...

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...-a8590441.html

It was a pretty daft name anyway, XL is much more descriptive.

[Bonebreaker777]

It was a pretty daft name anyway, XL is much more descriptive.

Did it warrant a 'sexism' accusation? These days everything is 'something-ist'...

[spacein_vader]

Did it warrant a 'sexism' accusation? These days everything is 'something-ist'...

Are you saying that calling them man-sized isn't sexist or that it doesn't matter that it's sexist?

[scaryjim]

Did it warrant a 'sexism' accusation? ...

Yes.

Suggesting that somehow men and women need different tissues is definitely sexist. It's pretty mild, sure, but the world is absolutely full of mild sexist messaging, to the point where it's almost overwhelming. It's not that "mansize" tissues on their own are necessarily a problem, but what they're a part of is. The more things that quit it the better.

[Bonebreaker777]

Well, I guess it needed a person attuned to this to notice it because I haven't thought about it till I've seen the headlines. At the same time I recall that Dove released a shower gel/foam product line for ladies to promote body positive thinking, yet I can't imagine they would rename it if some man would call in and call it sexist

[scaryjim]

... I haven't thought about it till I've seen the headlines. ...

And that is entirely and wholly why it's a problem....

[Bonebreaker777]

Yes.

Suggesting that somehow men and women need different tissues is definitely sexist. It's pretty mild, sure, but the world is absolutely full of mild sexist messaging, to the point where it's almost overwhelming. It's not that "mansize" tissues on their own are necessarily a problem, but what they're a part of is. The more things that quit it the better.

Then me and majority of my close environment are re-enforcing it because I prefer to use one size, my partner and her sister prefer to use another and her husband, for example, prefer to use the same as I do. Might as well walk around with 'sexism re-inforcer' on my forehead.

[Bonebreaker777]

And that is entirely and wholly why it's a problem....

I think it would've been a problem if and when I would've bought it proudly because of the 'man' status of it. I buy tissues depending on the price. From now on I will look at it as an unfortunate victim of the far left. Might as well paint it rainbow with unicorns on it

[peterb]

And I always thought it was a sly dig at men being such wusses with man 'flu that they needed bigger tissues!

I wonder if it would have been a tissue issue if the man size had been smaller?

[philehidiot]

Everything is sexist

I could write an essay here but it's just a matter of people being unable to make a real, positive difference to the world feeling like they have to do something like this to matter. Once they sort out their own problems, maybe they can start looking into the problems in society but charging in and trying to fix it all with no experience in actually doing anything difficult just ends up like this. It's easy to whinge loudly and that's exactly what they do. Society has real problems and maybe if you dedicate your life to one small facet of one problem, you might make a difference but it's really hard and we teach our kids they're all special and can all change the world. The end result is a bunch of monkeys with spanners bashing at things they don't properly understand and (at best) just annoying the rest of us / (at worst) making things worse.

These people think they're entitled to inflict their views on the rest of society without our consent and they'll whinge and whine about the most pathetic of things, calling everyone an "-ist" or a "Nazi" until the words lose all potency and real cases of sexism, racism, etc are ignored because of the whining social justice warrior who cried wolf.

There are far bigger problems out there than this. But it's easy to complain until you get results when it's something this pathetic and then they get a feeling of having achieved something. How about the concentration camps in China? How about the extermination of homosexuals in... [insert long list]. Real people, actually dying but in order to make a real difference to any of this you have to put in some real effort. It's easier to whinge about the branding of tissues.

I'm going to be a prat and use Nigel Farage as an example - he saw something he really didn't like in the form of the EU and what they were doing. What did he sacrifice in order to achieve his aim? His very well paid career selling metals, about 25 years of his life, most of his savings, his marriage, his reputation (he's rather well hated now), his personal safety (attacked so many times he needs security) and so on. Making a big impact required real effort and real sacrifice. These people want the big impact but don't want to put in the effort.

I've always wondered why they're called "man size" and I'm gonna guess it's just simply because men are, in general, bigger than women and it's a hangover from when that kind of branding was the norm. I then disregarded it as a societal thing that really didn't matter at all.

Now if you want to aim at the core of the problem in that there is sexist messaging everywhere that we just accept I could get behind that. But there's no point in going for the heads of the hydra - again it's the easy option that has effectively zero impact. Changing the outdated and detrimental aspects of a culture is HARD. Generally you have to plant the seeds with the young and let it permeate through. How do you do that? Well, education might be a good place to start. Again it's people looking for the easy fix. I would also add that we are a sexually dimorphic species and as a result different products and so on will be marketed in different ways at men and women without it being sexist. If people must remove all reference to gender in advertising then you're going to really struggle to sell clothes, etc. In fact, we'll all end up looking like that NPC chappy I keep seeing everywhere.

Rant over. Now for the flame war. *Hides*

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Wow,11 posts in and Nazis already mentioned.

The thread is over,its been Godwinned.

[kalniel]

Isn't it rather that by dropping it, they get a whole load of free publicity, like this?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Isn't it rather that by dropping it, they get a whole load of free publicity, like this?

It wouldn't surprise me if this is all engineered viral marketing,especially if cheaper rivals have been eating into sales.

[Saracen]

Did it warrant a 'sexism' accusation? These days everything is 'something-ist'...

Hey, that's ism-ist.

Or should that be ist-ism?

Either way, I'm sure I ought to be grossly offended. Excuse me while I write to my MP and have a nervous meltdown at the ist-ism-ism-ness of this horrible world.

Can I say that? Or is it world-ism or horrible-ist?

[opel80uk]

Then me and majority of my close environment are re-enforcing it because I prefer to use one size, my partner and her sister prefer to use another and her husband, for example, prefer to use the same as I do. Might as well walk around with 'sexism re-inforcer' on my forehead.

What size tissue people prefer to use isn't really the issue though, is it? It is the product being specifically labelled 'Mansize', and to conflate the 2 points is a bit of a strawman.

I, like you, also never really gave things like this much thought previously – but this actual topic came up with my 10-year-old Daughter only a few months back. We were at the in-laws and I asked her to pass me a tissue. She picked up the box and asked why they were called mansize, and jokingly said that she couldn’t use them. I told her that they were called mansize because they were larger and men traditionally tend to be larger than women. She pointed out that she’s the tallest in her class. She also pointed out that her Mother (my Wife) is taller than most of the men that we know, which is true (she’s just shy of 6 foot). I said it just an old-fashioned way of saying large. She said they should just say large. And I think she was right.

And on a wider point – I hear a lot of people say, as you did, that ‘These days everything is 'something-ist', or words to those effect. Leaving aside the hyperbole (Is it really ‘Everything’?), what I tend to find is that the majority of people that make that claim are usually male, usually white, usually able-bodied and usually straight – the very people who I suspect are least likely to suffer from subtle or overt forms of discrimination on a regular basis. So, when people like that (and I have no way of knowing if that includes you) decry efforts to examine and re-interpret what is and isn’t acceptable in modern society as further evidence of victimisation by the ‘far left’, I am reminded of the famous Mandy Rice-Davies misquote; "Well he would say that, wouldn't he?"