This week's Genderfree Challenge: Deoderant.
No one wants their smell to be offensive. We all have different definitions of what that means though. Why do those definitions need to be aligned with our gender?
About a year ago, Hubby and I were shopping and we both needed to pick up deoderant. We were at Costco, and I couldn't find anything I liked there in "women's" deoderant. They were all over priced super "moisturizing" to reduce the irritation from shaving. I haven't shaved my arm pits in a few years, so I certainly don't want to spend extra money on deoderant with features I'll never make use of. Hubby says to me "why don't you just get this stuff?" (pointing to the same stuff he buys).
It was like a bomb went off in my head. I hadn't even considered it a possibility until that moment. Our society has me so brainwashed that I couldn't even THINK of not using women's deoderant. I texted my buddy (a transgender man), and his response was "Honestly I'm surprised you hadn't switched already." As though this is everyday stuff for him. But for me, it was groundbreaking.
It was also awesome as it shows me just how amazing my Hubby actually is.
Oh- and as a complete side note- I find I'm less stinky since I stopped shaving my underarms. I rarely even use deoderant these days, and so far no one has complained. I find basic cleanliness works well at keeping the odours at a minimum.
Well, as I applied my deodorant this morning before work I gleefully noted that there is nothing on the container that indicates that is a woman's anti-perspirant (I currently am using Degree). I then checked out hubby's Gillette and also noticed that there is nothing whatsoever on the stick that screams 'Manly'. So I thought, "humph, easy peasy!" Then I realized that just the shape of the two competitors leads one to make assumptions. His is boxy and straight, mine has a more hourglass type shape to it's figure. And then when I went on to the Degree website this evening, there was a very definite "men" and "women" divide to the page. You want to browse the options for men, click on Men... for women's, click women. Two completely separate websites based on the sex of my armpits! Epic Fail. Phooey!
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