Rite Aid is Random
I found this while getting my friend a birthday card at my Rite Aid in Queens the other day and couldn't resist taking record of it. We all know that greetings cards themselves are gendered enough, but the actual card sections? Damn.
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They must be the really cheap cards you don't mind seeing in the trash can ten minutes after he's opened it.
I personally think that greeting cards are the biggest waste of money ever. Unless you live hundreds of miles away from the person you're giving it to, there is really no point. I like to make cards or a gift to give to a person instead of buying a generic card.
At least if they labeled it "man-cards" it would be mildly amusing.
http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=04302008
Achewood has a great man-card.
Yeah, it's been this way for some time. What's also interesting is that the "Men's" cards will feature a variety of imagery ranging from conventional "guy" stuff to cartoon characters to things that are just absurd(I once sent my Stepfather a card with a picture of Tabasco sauce on it.)In contrast the "Women's" cards are invariably pictures of flowers or cats--though I know a lot of men who own cats, for some reason they're seen as this quintessentially female pet.
Whatever. Once I found out about overnightprints.com I've been designing and printing my own cards and postcards ever since.
I consider cats the quintessentially awesome pet.
I'm actually pretty interested in seeing these "masculine" cards. Finding a card that's not dripping with schmaltzy, overdone sentiment could be appealing to men and women alike.
I wonder if the "masculine" section is designed to get past consumer homophobia: if Hallmark ran a focus group to find out why men - half their potential consumers - were reluctant to buy cards, maybe a lot of people reported that greeting cards were too girly, and that buying them was an effeminate thing to do. Women might also be reluctant to buy cards *for* men, if they can't find a card "manly" enough for it's intended recipient. Now, if your brother/father/boyfriend/husband has a birthday coming up, and you want to find a card tough enough for, say, a firefighter or a lumberjack, you can look in the masculine section.
"though I know a lot of men who own cats, for some reason they're seen as this quintessentially female pet."
I'm guessing because cats tend to behave like "typical" women (distant, ungrateful, fickle, etc. Not that cats fit the stereotypes any better, mind you...).
Presumably, dogs have been associated with men for similar reasons (well, that and their use in various male-dominated fields for thousands of years)...
I think the masculine cards comes with a beer and some jerky.
You know, man stuff.
I'm not sure how I feel about this category. It's not saying "cards for men," it says "masculine" which is a legitimate adjective.
"Legitimate" for what purposes? I think the point here is just that it's ridiculous that in our culture men and women have to have separate everything.
Maybe they have cards from brothers to sisters in there. Greeting card companies seem to ignore that women aren't they only people that want to give their sisters cards.
They also ignore the fact that not all women love flowers and curlicues and poetry and cats.