My aim for this project was to investigate the current ways in which people challenge gender roles, and to create a project that can develop and encourage more involvement in the breaking down of the gender binary perpetuated by the advertising industry. I wanted to create a platform that encourages people to share and talk about their frustrations with gendering, and to show how engrained and subliminal gender marketing exists.
My final outcome is a website that pointlessly genders products in order to get people thinking – why is that gendered?
It’s a fun and simple idea that then allows users to follow @whyisthatgendered on Instagram and encourages them to use the hashtag ‘#whyisthatgendered’ to post pictures they find of unnecessarily gendered products, with the goal of highlighting how futile gendered advertising is. Another aim of the project is to educate people in being able to spot needlessly gendered marketing, and rather than buying into it, challenge it instead.