Sometimes the grass is greener

The rule is buy the default-gendered variant. If there a special "men's section" or "women's section" for a certain product category it means you'll be ripped off.
- Especially women’s. In French we call it “la taxe rose” (the pink tax).
  
  it's called pink tax in English too
  
  the French have such a way with words, that's almost as good as "le cigarette will cause le cancer"
  
  Now men's products have a "for men" or "tactical" tax where they strap fake MOLLE on something that really doesn't need it.
- Men's socks are higher durability
  
  It's a lot more than socks. Went looking for a duffel coat once for work and checked both isles in stores. Mens coat - nice woven and well fulled 100 percent wool, thick quality stuff, Women's isle, cheaper felted wool half the thickness... Same price, same basic style, same store.
  Ever since whenever I go looking for stuff I check both isles. Higher quality fabrics are generally reserved for men's items though women's stuff is priced the same. You'd never know the difference if you only shopped one gendered option.
  
  From my experience all of mens clothes have higher durability. I could just be buying shitty clothes, but ill have ripped stitches and fallen buttons a week after purchase while my husband is still sporting the same 15 year old wardrobe with minimal damage. My shirts are so thin i can see clear through them and would need to layer 3 to match my husband's shirts. I dont purchase them off amazon/temu/etc, but it feels like that's where they came from most of time.

I just want to smell like something other than tree, cold tree, or beach episode tree.
- I'd prefer not to have any smell, but that is apparently really hard to do.
  And why do all products for men have to look like I'm cosplaying a sci-fi tactical commando?
  
  I assume having no smell is really hard to do and to cover up the slight chemical smell they put a stronger smell over it. That being said I am definitely not a deodorant taste tester so 🤷‍♀️
  
  Same reason "gamer" PC peripherals all look like Gigatron's nut sack.
  
  I have persistent skin issues (psoriasis) and most specialized products are unscented.
  This may be the singular upside to this situation ^^`
  
  I also prefer to have no smell, speed stick makes a unscented deodorant and I have a scentless body wash, havent found a good shampoo yet though. Just using head and shoulders.
  
  I found that out when I had an allergy skin patch test and found out one of the things I'm sensitive too is fragrance. The most important thing was finding a hair dye that I'm not allergic too but after 10 years, I'm starting to get a little itchy when I get my hair done.
- How about tree chopped into firewood?
  
  Sawdust, yes.
  Idle firewood loitering, no.
  Burning tree bones, yes.
  Vanilla cookies, fuck yes.
  
  Building furniture out of oak, being in and around that much white oak sawdust and shavings, made me smell like an empty bourbon bottle.
- What about sea salt & gunpowder? Someone might question your masculinity and sexual orientation otherwise!
  
  Hear me out, gunpowder and ozone so you smell like what astronaut say space smells like.
  
  Ahh, you are a manly man and ready for Duke Cannon Naval Supremacy bar soap or perhaps Victory! is more for you.
  ***Google Duke Cannon for an amusing marketing strategy of men's products. Who doesn't want a Big Ass Bar of Soap?
- One day I plan to enter the cologne phase of life but it hasn't happened yet. I like smells but I don't like mall shopping.

Me frequently accidentally buying women’s t-shirts cause I like those designs better.
- I hope you still rock em
  
  As long as you buy the right size it shouldn't be an issue, most clothing in standardized sizes aren't much different between the genders besides the number being different (a men's size S will be a women's size M) so as long as you get the size right it'll be fine.
  Edit: Size comparison flipped the wrong way, fixed it.
- Jokes on you, the buttons will be on the wrong side! Ahahahahaha
  Edit: yes I know t-shirts don't have buttons. Bad attempt at humour. Not deleting because I stand behind my mistakes.
- Me frequently accidentally finding myself in the men isles after finally finding a top with a high neckline.
- I have a nice Pikachu hoodie which said it's for women on the site I ordered it from but I didn't care because it's cute and I liked it. The only thing that's mildly annoying is having to think about the sizing difference (which I guess is kind of the point of the separate sizing numbers, just to be that extra bit of annoying for people who want it anyway).

Products for women also smells better
- Says you. I, personally, really enjoy the smell of teak.
  
  All my men's products have completely artificial smells like "Cool Rush".
- It depends, I find that many of the Men's products can smell more "normal" and less rich.
  But then there's old spice -- which I use daily but I don't think is as pleasant as women's deodorant scents (but generally work better in antiperspirant imo so it's not worth thinking too much about.)
  
  Next time you have the opportunity give Old Spice's Wolfthorn scent a try and tell me it's not just orange Starburst.
- I hate overly perfumed stuff so I avoid those.

Me buying women's vitamins because they're the only ones with iron at the local dollar store.
- I do this. You'd be shocked at the number of womens supplements that don't have iron either.
- There's actually a really good reason for that. The body doesn't have a good way to get rid of excess iron except by bleeding, so it's fairly easy for someone without a period to get iron poisoning from vitamins with iron in them. Women's vitamins assume the person taking them loses a significant quantity of blood every month. Not only should men not take them, women whose birth control eliminates their period completely shouldn't take them either.
- This isnt entirely related, but your comment made me think about the time I went into CVS to buy multivitamins and noticed all of the "men's" included a picture of an orange while the "women's" did not. All the other fruit pictured were the same between the two, but not oranges.
  
  Yarr, that be because lads be worryin' more about scurvy than lasses, matey!
- Earlier this year a doctor advised us (male and female) to take prenatal vitamins, and yesterday a nutritionist told us the same. They really just have everything anybody needs, apparently.
- I did that with buying "one-a-day" vitamins for seniors because they were a quarter the price of standard men's vitamins. I checked the stats and ingredients, they were about identical and from the same brand.

And by higher quality they mean jammed full of things that don't actually enhance the product but just act as fillers to make it seem fancy
- And the nature of which has to change every 3 months so that a new and improved version can come out.
  
  still smell better than anything men's deoderants put out.
  Want to have a musk like a spiced up skunk in a damp forest? Then right this way, gents!

Me at the grocery store yesterday: "These cookies look delicious! And they're 90% off!"
Wife: "Those are lactation cookies..."
Me: "I didn't know that was a thing... They still look good though..."
- Lactation cookies ??? What is that ???
  Cookies that came from tits ????
  
  Food that contains nutrition, galactagogues, and folk-remedy ingredients to help with (human) milk production. Arguably, they're just food.
  
  Imagine being able to shoot cookies out your nips. That'd be fuckin' useful.
- But did they taste good?

So many companies are dumb and only advertise to women on products that can be used for everyone.
- They're not dumb, marketing towards woman is just more effective
  
  Just saying as a guy in my 20s I never thought I could use all those products till I got married. Never thought of it
- I judge my body wash on the basis of if it can clean my antiperspirant off by the end of the day. (Shower at night before bed). Many men's body wash require you to do a lot to get it to clean... Tried a seasonal pomegranate something one aimed at women one time and it smelled great and I hardly had to do anything more than just apply it. Win win. Then I never found it again. Dove products are cheap usually near me, some are terrible, some are amazing. I'm sure if I was smarter I'd read the ingredients and figure out what works best and verify it was in the new product, but maybe I'll leave that for next year.
  
  Just use regular non-antiperspirant deodorant. Anti-perspirant is bad for you and for your skin. It just forces your body to try even harder to sweat through it on top of the questionable chemistry. If you have a particular issue with the stank, just keep some with you or keep it at work to re-up. Not only will your armpits thank you, but so will your shirts. You can do that or keep using harsh chemicals for your armpits, harsh chemicals to get their residue off, and go through clothing like it’s toilet paper—or give your body the chance it hasn’t had since puberty to maybe cool off a bit. Give it a whirl.

Mens boots, cargo shorts, overalls, and hats are a god damn vibe. Just the sheer fucking quality.
WHY CANT I HAVE THE LUXURY OF AQUIRING GOOD CARGO SHORTS!! WHYYYY
- My boots’ gender is work. I’m the lady in steel toe work boots regardless of where I am because it’s both an aesthetic and because they’re broken in
- As a man I wish I had more options. the JCP Pennys near has like two and a half floors of womens clothes and small mens section that takes up the last half.
  
  I'm a woman who buys my tshirts in the men's section because all women's shirts have become crop tops, or are too low cut to wear to work, or too tight fitting to be comfortable. It looks like we have a lot of options, but I think it's more like we have a lot of non utilitarian options. Like a bunch of clothes you can't do anything in. Like go hiking, or bend over to pick up something you dropped without exposing yourself.
  I can get a men's tshirt at target that fits exactly how I want it to(not too short, my boobs aren't hanging out, not too baggy either) for about $8-$10. A women's 'tshirt' will cost $15 plus and have all the issues I mentioned before.
  But then again I guess the grass is always greener right?
- Womens clothes so often suck in terms of quality compared to men's. My partner is nb, but fits women's clothes best... They can't find suits of anything like the kind of quality you can for men's. Certainly not in more than a couple of styles.
  
  If I buy a shirt and it disintegrates in a year I'll never buy from that company again.

Me and my 2 Litre, $3 "Jug-O-Body-Wash" feel called out.
- Shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, engine degreaser, drain cleaner, ant poison and steak sauce.
  
  "𝓣𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓕𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻 𝓦𝓪𝓼𝓱™︎ 𝓲𝓼 𝓭𝓮𝓼𝓲𝓰𝓷𝓮𝓭 𝓼𝓹𝓮𝓬𝓲𝓯𝓲𝓬𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓾𝓹𝓹𝓮𝓻 𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓸𝓯 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓵𝓮𝓯𝓽 𝓮𝔂𝓮𝓫𝓻𝓸𝔀."

Cheaper? My ass.
Men's depilatory cream costs around 30% more here, and it's the same product, except with a slightly different fragrance.
Most of the time I buy women's products because they are both cheaper and of higher quality.
This, in my case, is true for everything except razor blades.
- I know a guy that used a women's hygiene product once by mistake. Now he's a she and doesn't have a penis anymore. Make sure your family knows the dangers involved of using the incorrect gendered hygiene product. It's like plugging a 120v appliance into the 240v outlet.
  
  Poor guy shaved his penis off 😔 My condolences and best wishes
  
  All my appliances are rated 120/240v. Does that mean I'm bi?
  
  So that is how school transgender surgeries work.
  
  I knew there had to be some kind of a catch.
  Oh well, still worth it. :)
- Good point, razor blades for thicker hair makes a discernable difference. Luckily, double edged safety razor and a steel handle make this category practically free ~~now~~
  
  I have very course facial hair and switching to women's razors pretty much solved my post-shave irritation problem. In order of quality for my face it goes: men's disposable razor << safty razor < women's disposable razor.

Fun fact:
The same ingredient is cheaper in monostat (for womens bits) than it is in tenactin/etc (for men's feeet/bits)
- They're different, Monistat is miconazole and Tinactin is tolnaftate. Plus, tolnaftate should never be used vaginally.
  
  Miconozole is also used for athletes foot and jock itch. (Maybe its not tinactin I'm thinking of, but, it's cheaper to get the monostat vs the men's athletes foot/jock itch stuff)

Me with just a bar of soap for my whole body.

Or: "Men buying women's hygiene products, because they exist."
It's really hard for me to find some stuff at all.

At wal mart: "blue Equate brand men's loofah $2" "blue Equate brand women's loofah $1"
That's not how this is supposed to work.

Switched from using Old Spice Body Wash (RIP Krakengard) to Dove beauty bars and showers have become infinitely more pleasant. It feels good to apply, it smells like oatmeal and rice milk, and it always gets the stank off my nuts and ass the first time, unlike body wash.

The only women's bath product I really see a difference with is those jarred creams with abrasive material in them (like strawberry seeds or sugar; not micro plastic beads). They're the only thing aside from Lava brand hand soap that actually exfoliates my skin so I don't have weird hard spots of gunk in my pores along the outside of my thighs. My ass is so, so smooth now.
- Can also vouch for shae butter + walnut shells. One of my friends makes them for fun and they leave you smooooth. Might not be good for pores though, especially for oily skinned folks. I'm basically 50% paper man, so I need all the moisture I can get.
  Also gotta be careful with oils in the bathtub/shower. They leave the floor deadly slick.
  
  50% paper 🤣 I understand this. My body is a desert.
- I'm right there with you, but instead I use Castile soap and a exfoliating washcloth.
  Exfoliating Body Washcloth Variety Pack

And then there's people buying the first thing they see just because it's in the right section.

There's no need for any of that. There's plenty of higher-end grooming products marketed to both men and women, or even gender neutral, that can be purchased nowadays. And yes, if the price point is your greatest concern, it's a factor to consider. But shaving brands for men such as Proraso is great quality for the price point. Why more people settle for brands like Gillette when there are better products on the market at or even lower in price is beyond me.
- Why more people settle for brands like Gillette when there are better products on the market at or even lower in price is beyond me.
  But I’m not legally allowed to buy anything better than Gillette. I’ve been told that Gillette is “the best a man can get™” so I’m kinda stuck with it.
- But then what am I to do with all of these DUDE WIPES?
  
  Flush them at your frienemy’s house.
- Can you give me some recommendations?
  
  Depends. Are you looking for the best on the market, or are you looking for quality while still considering price?

Is using an old picture of Elliot Page --- and referencing women --- considererd poor form? Honest question, I really don't know the etiquette.
- The meme isn't really referencing the actor, but rather the character. Eliot might not be a woman, but the character is. When cis guys play female characters, we still refer to the character as female. I don't see why it should be any different when a trans guy plays a female character.
  
  Actually the character is canonically a trans man named Victor.... This is from Umbrella Academy but before the character came out. You are correct in general respects just this example particularly is both of two men both canonically and non canonically so its actually kind of not super cool to use this particular image for this gag but largely forgivable if someone honestly was completely unaware of that context when making this meme which if you peaced out before the next season would be a very understandable mistake.
  
  Vanya did transition to Victor in the show.
- It’s a meme from a movie. Should they ban this movie now and destroy all copies?
  
  TV show, not movie, but no, definitely not saying we should ban anything.
  Given that the series handled his transition fairly head on, pretty sure no one wants to destroy the older seasons.
  My only question was that this meme is directly referring to the top character as a woman. Most times I see this meme it doesn't have any references to gender ("morning shift going to work at 6am / night shift coming home at 6am," or something like that).
- So general flow chart here starts with context. When an actor plays a character that character's gender is considered before the actor.
  In this case this picture is from Umbrella Academy but before the character comes out as a trans man. The role was specifically altered for Page by the show runners to make the role more comfortable for the actor (he offered to delay transition goals for the production but the production being incredibly awesome decided that this was something they could flex) so this meme is referencing one of the most recognizable trans actors in the world in a part where the character's coming out was basically happening during Page's transition.
  Since the character is trans but this pic is before the transition it follows real world etiquette where pre transition photos should use current preferences of identity.
  So the answer is from the trans community standpoint is that unless you jumped out of the series before that reveal and were fully unaware then yeah, making this meme with this pic with this specific context is pretty gauche but an easy mistake.

Sometimes I buy womens soap because it doesn't make me choke. If I can't find soap that doesn't smell like I'm swallowing razorblades then i'm going for the womans soap. Luckily I haven't been faced with that situation recently.
- Right?? Like I only use the ""male"" products when I'm showering in the morning (which is rare), because I don't want to be smelling extra hetero moose joose maxxlather in my beard as I'm trying to get all cozy wozy for beddy bye time.
  So that's my story about why I have a men's face wash from two Christmases ago that is barely used.
- I like the ones that are just tea tree or sandalwood scented, I don't need to smell like I bathed an axe body spray, and it works for both genders. (As if we actually need a different body wash lol)

When it comes to cosmetics I thought it’s the other way around because men who will buy cosmetics are generally higher earners or something like that, so they’re generally willing to pay more.
- I think this meme is talking about women using men's razors and men using women hair products specifically ¯(ツ)/¯
  
  Ok makes sense. Thanks.

Pink crap or blue crap, it's all crap.
High quality stuff is marketed based on quality, it's not sexed for no fucking reason.
Fire Procter and Gamble into the sun, they do nothing of value for the world.

- Somebody should have done their makeup at a higher quality.

Women's razors are far superior to men's razors
- The best solution is the cheapest. Get a good quality safety razor and disposable double edged blades. Much less waste and the best shave.
  https://www.themodestman.com/best-safety-razors/
  
  This is true but it has a learning curve and you shouldn't shave your face with these unless you're willing to accept that you might accidentally get some small scars from nicks
  
  Do we have any wetshaving communities on Lemmy yet or are they still only on Reddit?