The feminist response to this Lidl Valentine Special?

What sort of things would you say aren't genuine free choices?

I'm not sure I'll really be able to describe how I think on this, but I'll try. Anything consumer based I guess. I mean free from influence. We are surrounded by advertising and subtle or insidious influences. We can only buy whats actually available, which differs wildly depending on where in the world we are.

Yes I mean the number of students who study them.

What else would I mean?

This is the kind of gap you get with eg employment legislation. Where the rules say X and so the argument is well everything's fine now, despite the fact that IRL there is loads of discrimination and people (bog-standard) people have little recourse.

Not feeling able to access recourse is an interesting one. Again theoretically it's there for everyone but in practice the more privileged you are the more likely you are to access it so it's all a bit cockeyed. The people who need it most feel less able to access it yet on paper "there's nothing to see here" type thing.

When you say girl dominated and boy dominated, do you mean number of students that study them?

Ah right.

What sort of things would you say aren't genuine free choices?

I would put the pink screwdriver thing in there - I really don't think many men in the UK would feel comfortable owning and openly using a screwdriver like that in front of other men. I get that you don't agree with that one and would be interested where you put the dividing line between society and free choice and why.

Or do you mean that if the option is there then that's good?

So for eg girls in the UK and boys in the UK have the same opportunities to study certain subjects, so the fact that some subjects are heavily girl dominated and some things heavily boy dominated is not worthy of interest / comment / trying to understand why - it's "nothing to see here"?

You're asking me what I think, after already summing up that I reckon 'nothing to see here'. That's pretty much what I do think. Buy it if you want it, don't if you don't.

No one makes entirely free choices about anything. We are surrounded by countless influences. But in this instance I have the choice to buy a pink screwdriver if I want it. I have the choice to buy in another colour if that's my preference. There is literally nothing stopping me. I would absolutely think it was abhorrent and unacceptable if that choice wasn't afforded to me, but it was to a man.

So women and girls (and boys and men) make entirely free choices. And if women and girls generally choose pink stuff and men and boys generally choose non pink stuff, this is nothing to do with society and everything to do with innate differences? Is that the angle you're coming from?

Why not lots of colours for both men and women to choose from?

My point was men or women can choose to buy the pink one that is available. Or not buy it. It's not restricted to women only. That's all. Not sure why I'm being misrepresented on what I'm saying. And also under no illusion my point 'gets us' any further. Just like virtually every other post on mumsnet. But we're all still able to express opinions.

Well, that's generally the point of these conversations.

Discussion was about a page on LIDL for valentine's day, with a host of pink items on it presumably as gift ideas for a woman, and one of them was a pink electric screwdriver. The catalogue item clearly indicates that the item is intended for use by females by the positioning in the site, the nail-varnished hands, and then has words like "light" and "easy to use" which are potentially problematic when taken alongside the pinkness.

OP wanted to know what posters thought about the drill on the site, and offered a range of views.

Your view was, well you can get tools in colours other than pink if you trawl the web and then linked some pictures.
And it doesn't state on the page "This Is For Women Only"

So your point seemed not to respond to the OP and the page but to indicate that there was "nothing to see here".

Now you say though that the ad is clearly aimed at women.

So where does that get us? What do you think? Of the page linked and the OPs question?

i like it. good valentines gift (hence the pink) for the unromantic (me)

It does help in a discussion if you actually have a point.

Is my opinion supposed to 'get us' anywhere?

Oh right.

So you think that item is clearly aimed at women (or as a gift for a woman), but that it doesn't actually have "this is for women only" written on it.

So where does that get us then?

You're putting words in my mouth. I didn't say they stock other colours! Just that other colours were, you know, available. I didn't say it wasn't 'aimed' at women, I said there was nothing that specified it was 'laydeez' only.

You can't see anything in the link to indicate that device is being aimed at women and you are confident that they also stock a range of other colours which are displayed on different pages.

Right.

Here is the page it links from FYI.

Nope definitely not aimed at women at all. And mainstream stores often show men with powertools wearing nailvarnish. Pink powertools. Obviously.

But that was my exact point Sardine. There's plenty of tools available in a huge range of colours, for men and women.

I can't see anywhere on the lidl link that specifies this screwdriver is for 'laydeez' only.

And Groundhog - not sure what you mean about the purple screwdriver. Did I see what it was? Yeah, a purple screwdriver shaped like a gun. And I want one now!

I have a dark pink laptop and a dark pink camera . They were cheaper than standard black/grey (?) which is why I bought them . I also have a pink filofax (yeh I know, dark ages...) and a pink phone cover as they are a lot easier to find in a big handbag .Also a lovely turquoise purse with an elephant and the Radley dog on it my DDs bought me for Christmas. I'm not at all 'girly' and never was . I just like colour . I think pink (or any other coloured) tools are fun and much easier to find /won't get 'borrowed' (but my drill is standard Black and Decker turquoise and my sander is red anyway)
But I wouldn't want power tools as a present .Like I wouldn't(generally) want domestic equipment. It's for the house, not me .

Nothing wrong with colourful things.

Everything wrong with having special tools which come in Pink for laydeez.

Why not lots of colours for both men and women to choose from?

I'd prefer it if it were a kitten.

I love kittens.

And great big fuck off tools so that I can do all the DIY in the house. Especially if they are not in colours specifically restricted to "girlie" things in present day society, for those missing the point.....

Yes, the fourth is a bird...it's a yellowhammer. It was a joke!

And the others were pictures to prove that there are plenty of tools that do exist in the colours I mentioned.

I like the bird.

I'd prefer it if it were pink, though.

sorry the fourth is a bird.

Hahaha, the first two are just pictures, not actually for sale and the third is a bird. A fucking bird!

"but notice they don't actually sell any of those colours. Just pink. Because chicks dig pink."

I'm not sure that's right, because unless I was looking only at expired pages, Lidl are selling other colours of screwdriver by this manufacturer.

Is everything in the women's part of Valentine's section pink?