B&Q think ‘girls’ cant do stuff

[Coralleadery]

B&Q have listed a flatpack cabinet with the description ‘easy to assemble, even for a girl’

At the same time they’re running a big ‘purpose’ advertising campaign around encouraging female tradespeople.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14752363/amp/B-Q-apologises-bathroom-cabinet-easy-girl.html

Apologies for the DM link - I couldn’t see a better one (The Sun?!)

🤷‍♀️ there’s over a million products third party and it in itself the marketplace is run by a third party. They took it down as soon as they were informed, it’s just a nothing situation. Not practical to check every listing before hand.

The Yorkie thing sent me the other way, I ate more of them once they had the not for girls tagline, in a "you can't tell me what to do" way. I assumed that was the point?

I work with a lot of women in their twenties, loads of them say "I'm just a girl", it pisses me right off. Maybe this was meant to be a play on that, maybe it was just dickishness, maybe it was a translation issue, who knows. It's shit, glad it's been taken down. Shows up a need for better checks in place.

It does make a difference that it's a third party seller. B and Q won't have authorised them to use that wording and it makes it look as though B and Q are supporting this outdated sexist nonsense.

So it’s totally fine for B&Q to have offensive listings up as ‘it’s not practical’ for them to have checks in place? Do you work for them?

What else do you think it would be ok to have written on their site until someone points it out to them?

You're massively over thinking this. It wasn't a micro aggression, it was nothing to do with B&Q and nothing to do with their campaign.

You could have posted to champion their campaign, but instead of you're talking about a small mistake they made and have quickly corrected

Well as others said it appears to have been a misjudged oversight with a 3rd party that did the marketing. To be fair I probably would have bought it if I needed it and not be put off by the tag line. I am terrible at DIY so it would have encouraged me!
Our B&Q see.s very female friendly. They have a large range get of wo.ens work gear in sizes 8 to 20. Lots of female staff with good technical knowledge in the trade area.
Re yorkie bar, I always thought it was a misjudged marketing campaign with the aim of ' girls' saying ' not for me? Just watch!!!!' and Increasing the female market.

So, it’s ‘nothing to do’ with companies what they have on their site? I seem to remember people being fairly pissed off with MN when child abuse images were posted. By your reasoning it’s totally fine as long as they’re removed when pointed out

It will be a lost in translation type thing that you see all the time with imported products.

On a side note they've clearly not met our daughter she helped me put her brother's cot together at 8 years old, in fairness we renovated our whole house including putting in a flat pack kitchen in so she's handy with a flat pack.

In fact she's better than DH who always gets something back to front.

You know an awful lots of specifics around what they have in their stores for women, ‘a large range of women’s gear in sizes 8-20’ eh?🤔

A woman is currently marketing director for B&Q
Katherine Pearson

I like that cabinet and I plan to buy and the fact that seems very easy to assemble, as a single parent - I’m sold!

Fuck me that's quite the leap.

OK fine we'll all boycott B&Q, all go elsewhere and hopefully they'll go out of business and all those jobs will be lost. And their campaign to get more women into trades gone too.

What do you want to happen here? They've apologised for the mistake and fixed it. You are blowing this waaaaay out of proportion

What’s that got to do with anything? You know marketing don’t manage their site listings?

No I don’t work for them, but I know the practicalities of dealing with marketplaces this big and that it is impossible to check every item before hand manually.

What is your point? There are male thing and female things - or are we all to join 'Just stop biology' movement? If female and males were the same aptitude and application-wise, then women would not have been severely underrepresented in electric pylon and oil rigs maintenance.

So what role does
and I’ll find out the sex

We can lie all we like
but many many more men prefer and do the DIY then women

fact

you may not like that reality op, but that’s the reality and one I am very comfortable with as someone who despises diy

I don’t want to boycott B&Q till they go out of business and haven’t suggested that.

I want to raise awareness, on a predominantly female site, that they’re allowing this to happen, so there’s pressure on them to find a practical solution to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Outcome being so young women don’t see such harmful statements in future

Some of the sexist posts above prove why we should be raising our voices so they - and other companies - don’t let this happen again.

But you've mentioned how they're running a campaign to get more women into trades. So to say they 'don't think girls can do stuff' is just ridiculous. You've picked up on a small mistake they've made, literally just not noticing something someone else is selling on their platform, and are being so over dramatic about it your point is just lost.

Tbf, there are quite regular posts on my local fb groups from women asking for help assembling furniture as they don’t feel competent to do it properly & safely.

What’s that got to do with the price of fish?

Jesus calm down.

This thread is a weird mix of

’you’re over-reacting you loon, no-one thinks it means women can’t do DIY’

and

‘well women can’t do diy, what’s your point’

And a super rude and aggressive OP

@Coralleadery that is bloody awful!! i can do almost everything! paint paper (the proper way) not the wrong way which they all do nowadays!! tile floors and walls better than many pros! (that came from a plumber who used a pro for his bathroom!) laminate, washing machine door seal replacement, washing machine brushes replacement! fuses plugs etc. do not touch water or gas but all the main diy I have done in our homes over the past 40 odd years. dh is useless!! I have 2 ikea flat pack chests of drawers which are nearly 30 years old and have been moved multiple times for painting. still not loose! I have even put underfloor heating in a bathroom!!