The "Smoother you" section in Sainsbury's

Ahaha AIBUqatada - LOVE those.

"Smellier You" - garlic section

"Plumper You" - crisps

what is a douche anyway?

I fear the douches may yet come to the UK. Perfumed sanpro used to be an exclusively American thing but has arrived here in the last few years.

I keep reading the title as "smother you"

Smoother - yuck. You sometimes do wonder who comes up with the names for all the aisles and sections.

As for feminine hygiene (which yes, suggests women have a specific problem with staying clean, and you can't be feminine if you don't deal with it!) at least douches haven't caught on in the UK. They are still pushed by the truckload in America, despite a.) being completely pointless if you shower or bath (or tend to any medical problem!) b.) being money literally thrown down the drain and c.) actually being quite dangerous as use (or at least over use) has been associated with harmful changes to the flora of the vagina - increasing the risk of infection or damage to the tissues.

yes, 'smoother you' is a bit personal.
I'll stick with the rough me thanks.

The other problem is it equates 'you' with 'your skin in the places where you're expected to take hair off'.
I am not the skin of my legs/fanjo/upper lip. I am a human being with needs, dreams and a brand new Kenwood Prospero.

Thank you for that Sarah Silverman quote yellowraincot - love it.

manatomy. brilliant

FELLAS! Ha ha ha.

They're not all over Superdrug and Boots though. And yes, seriously, shower. Wiping is not enough.

yellowraincoat - You can actually buy cockwipes to "look after your manatomy" (don't worry, no explicit pictures or anything pornlike on that link).

I can't see a big market though (and prefer men to have a shower rather than to just wipe)

AIBUqatada and SardineQueen have it spot on I reckon. "Smoother" is generally seen as a positive in any situation - smooth sailing, smooth things over - it is positive, not the neutral that a non-hairy leg should be. And YOU. Like YOU will not be rough and horrid after shaving your legs. It's a judgement not just on your legs but on your person.

Feminine hygiene makes me laugh - fanny pads, surely.

What also makes me laugh is the sheer volume of sprays and wipes and washes for the vulva which simply do not exist for the penis. Cockwipes? Dickspray? No. This despite the fact that penises get equally as unfresh as vulvas. And why on EARTH would you need to spray it?!

As Sarah Silverman said "if you get out of the shower and there's still a rancidish odour you don't need feminine deodorant, you need a doctor."

"Drunker You" for the alcohol aisle
"Naffer You" for supermarket attempts at homeware.

"Hairless Freaky You"

"Shave, Wax and Fry yourself Bald as an Egg"

Bloodmoppers is very good tho.

Oh I LOVE feminine hygiene, it is my phrase of choice.

AIBUqatada - my 3yo will shout out loudly, happily and very often that "when I'm a big girl I can use mummy nappies too!" It's her own coinage, personally I prefer the hygiene euphemisim.

Yes, say it like it is. The euphemism "Feminine hygiene" is vomitous and makes me want to replace it with the most dysphemistic term I can think of. "Bloodmoppers" or some such.

Stuff for when your pelvic floor control is not what it was

Just say what it is, silly Sainsbury's.

Stuff for periods

Stuff for babies

Hair removal stuff (women)

Hair removal stuff (men)

I was just about to post they might as well call it 'better you'.

It is a marketing technique but it is an unpleasant one because there is an implication that you are not good enough as you are and that you must buy these products if you want to be considered half decent.

I think you have a point AIB. (Although the 'smoother' adjective is kind of silly too, hair doesn't have to be 'rough').

It's like "the new you" used to sell weight loss products, beauty products, plastic surgery. It's saying there's something wrong with the current you, and you need to replace yourself with a new and better you, and the way to do that is to buy their product. And it implies that your looks (specifically the aspects of your looks that can be changed by using a product or surgery) are a massively important part of your 'self', and changing them will magically make your life better.

so "smoothing products" would be less twitch-inducing than "smoother you"

yes that's true

although then I would think yhat the aisle contained DIY stuff - fillers and sandpaper and that

I think "smoothness" has historically been used in association with shaving products for men, and I wonder if the distastefulness of the slogan comes more from the word "You". I wonder if adverts aimed at women are more likely than those aimed at men to take the form "[Something]-er You," playing on the constant nagging need felt by women to reshape, redefine a self that is always taught to feel flawed.

I know that obv all adverts, to men and women, emphasise a sense of lack, incompletion, to make you imagine you need the product, but this word "You" foregrounds the project of a kind of redemptive reshaping of a hated self, rather than focussing on a specific problem-solving objective as an advert to a man might be mpore liekly to do.

And "Smoother You" suggests a self that is just generally more effective, higher-performing, a "smooth operator", as if spurious forms of grooming were a part of functioning well.

All that, plus, as Sardine says, it is so annoyingly different from a plainly informative, value-neutral "Hair-removing products."

Mind you, a sign in my local Sainsbury's has "Biscuitts [sic]" which is bloody annoying too.