Vitamins fortify sexism, gender stereotypes
We've covered the weirdness that is gendered vitamin marketing before, but I couldn't stop myself from posting this commercial.
Related: Shae's Community Post
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I just threw up everywhereeeeeeeee!
Cause we all know that only men can be strong, and only women need to worry about their beauty.
Now, I get that women and men need different vitamins due to their physical differences, but this stuff just makes me scowl and be glad that I don't watch TV.
More offensive ads against women, whats new? This is so offensive, we should send a petition to stop them from airing this offensive ad!
I was so annoyed when I first saw this commercial...like women don't have muscles and men don't have skin? Both genders need healthy body parts, and while men and women may indeed need different types and amounts of vitamins, presenting it like an aesthetic thing is ludicrous.
Did anyone else catch the MLB logo on the guy's vitamin box? I replayed the ad to see what logo is on the young woman's and it's a pink breast cancer awareness ribbon. I don't want to argue about the important of breast cancer awareness, but I do think it's incredibly imbalanced. Young men's vitamins focus on athletic success-- and aspirations to be pro athletes?-- and young women's focus on preventing a pervasive cancer. It's a shame.
Discussing a woman having healthy muscles would be disastrous, I suppose. A woman isn't supposed to be strong (as implied with 'healthy').
I think the worst is that this basically says that women should be healthy only to be beautiful. It also is a bit odd, suggesting a man is only healthy if he's sufficiently "strong" and masculine enough.
Well it's not like they're going to admit that women need more iron or vitamin D and calcium than men...then we would have to admit that teenage girls menstruate/ sarcasm
And what exactly in a vitamin blend promotes healthy skin or muscle development?
Vitamins A and D are important for healthy skin, and vitamin E promotes healing and minimizes scarring. Taking daily supplements of these vitamins will probably clear up the skin slightly, but in a case of full-blown acne it won't really be noticeable. Pretty much any product that says it "promotes healthy skin" isn't talking about severe acne, it's talking about the occasional pimple.
On the other hand, the acne drug Accutane is essentially a high dose of vitamin A, so yes, this vitamin can technically cure acne (but not from mere daily supplements).
I used to use Retin-A Micro on my acne, which was basically just a vitamin A cream. It didn't work worth crap.
Stupid gendered advertising aside, can a vitamin actually fight acne? I ask because I assume that's what they mean by "healthy skin". I feel like this is probably one of those things that would make a really minor difference provided you took it every day for five years or something. Sort of like chocolate lowering cholesterol or red wine preventing cancer.
The saddest thing is, products like these actually have hardly any differences. So the ads go around acting like the teens are taking two completely different multivitamins, while really the difference is slight.
In a health-smoothie store on my fiancee's campus the other day, we found health supplements for him and her. The oh-so-major differences? Men had .5% more of 2/25ish of the vitamins it had, and of the 3 "special ingredients" listed at the bottom, only one ingredient matched.
I actually am fine with the men/women vitamins, but the way they go about it should focus on the fact that boys and girls are both HUMAN and have HUMAN needs. As far as the skin/muscle thing goes, they probably just don't want to get in trouble for saying "menstruation" or "prostate." It would be DISASTROUS to admit teens have "adult" problems to deal with.
they probably just don't want to get in trouble for saying "menstruation" or "prostate." It would be DISASTROUS to admit teens have "adult" problems to deal with.
Or even vitamins which might be lacking as a result of birth control.
Vitamins lacking as a result of birth control? Please fill me in! I wasn't aware that bc causes vitamin deficiencies.
It doesn't inherently cause a deficiency, if your diet is well balanced, from my understanding there doesn't seem to be much of an effect or any cause for concern. But it can aggravate an existing deficiency or push a person who was marginal into deficiency.
This link suggests folic acid and riboflavin deficiencies are at risk of being aggravated, along with a number of inconclusive results for a variety of other vitamins/minerals.
Like men never have horrible skin and back acne...my brother was probably the worse out of everyone in my family, poor kid. And what us women have no muscles, but how are we supposed to carry the car seat and groceries to and from the car???
I'm so glad someone wrote about this! That commercial has bugged me for a long time.
Actually, there's a new one that's worse, but I can't think of the name of the vitamin right now. They air the ads on Comedy Central, and it starts off by saying "Some things are invented for a man," and shows a cordless drill (wtf?) among other things. The female one is equally odious.
It doesn't matter if we can't function to the best of our ability. Our job is for the viewing pleasure and service of the menz. The fact that we have the ability to think, have an opinion, make decisions, desire things, and discern the various objects and ideals around us, and within the world we live is some sort of accident, and maybe a genetic deviation from our previous make up. We were only meant to be equipped with those emotions that nurture and seek to please others. These vitamins can at least set us back on the right track by looking our part.
Ugh, I had to buy vitamins for college. I picked up both boxes. The vitamins are exactly the same, save for more iron in the "for her" box and more magnesium in the "for him" box. And, of course, the box itself. I wanted to buy the for him box just to mix things up a bit, but for medical reasons I needed the vitamin with the most iron. But honestly, why couldn't they put a lot of iron AND a lot of magnesium in both? Ugh
Because you can have toxicity as a result of iron intake. Even more generally vitamins interact with each other so more of one vitamin can mean less of another, so its not just an issue of 'just have more of everything'
Further I'd point out that the dietary recommended intakes contain are significant differences based upon both age and gender in recommended intakes.