Imperial Leather Ginseng & Cracked Pepper
I was in the shower just now and I noticed something unusual, but thankfully nothing with any serious medical consequences. Rather, it was something to do with my shower gel.
Specifically, I noticed that my Imperial Leather Ginseng & Cracked Pepper 2-in-1 Shower & Shampoo is designed specifically 'FOR MEN'. This struck me for two reasons.
First, I have no idea what makes it manly. I won't naively pretend the idea of gendered marketing is new to me. But why does soap need to be gendered? Does it clean testicles with particular efficacy?
Second, I bought it. I don't remember buying it because it said 'FOR MEN' on it. I bought it because it cost less than a pound, which almost certainly means someone is being terribly exploited somewhere down the production line. But out of all the cheap soap available, I opted for this one. Was it just a coincidence? Or had I subconsciously been drawn to the promise of masculinity?
And so I have decided to start this blog, in which I will review products designed FOR MEN. I will do so by examining three things: functionality, visual appearance and the language used to sell it.
On the left, we see the manly Ginseng & Cracked Pepper soap. It is blue. On the right, we see a girly Cherry Blossom and Peony soap. It is pink. Oddly, there does seem to be evidence of sex differences in colour preference across different cultures, even if this cannot be accounted for in terms of biological differences alone. So even though the blue-pink distinction is the very worst of gendered clichés, we should at least be open minded to the possibility that Ginseng & Cracked Pepper is somehow more inherently 'manly' than Cherry Blossom and Peony in its hue alone.
Then there are the scents: ginseng and cracked pepper. Ginseng is apparently used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat erectile dysfunction (there may even be some science behind it). And it is hard to deny that an erection is quite manly. However, at no point while showering did I experience an erection, not even while applying the shower gel to my genitals, so if the inclusion of ginseng here was supposed to have any priapic qualities, I don't think they are very reliable.
I was not exactly sure what 'cracked pepper' was, so I looked it up and it turns out it is literally cracked peppercorns. This is quite strange, since there are no peppercorns (cracked or otherwise) in the bottle. There is a pepper 'extract' in the mix, but certainly not in any form that would justify using the term 'cracked pepper' on the bottle. I can only assume, therefore, that they say 'cracked' pepper because 'cracked' sounds a bit violent, and men love violence.
Between that and the 'Energising' bit, perhaps this is shower gel you are meant to use in preparation for a fight? You could then use Imperial Leather's Soothing Camomile & Bamboo Milk Shower Cream to salve your wounds after the battle, but this may be considered unmanly by comparison.
Finally, further down the bottle, it is described as a '2-in-1' product. This is unique among the company's shower gel offering, despite all of them being essentially identical in substance, which implies that it must be part of what makes this shower gel 'FOR MEN' in particular. I initially thought that this may be because men are too lazy to use more than one product while cleaning themselves. Which in my case at least is accurate. But this also seems to conflict with its 'Energising' qualities, so perhaps the real implication is that men are too busy for more than one cleaning product. Thus they need a shower gel that offers both energy and efficiency, such as this one.
Having said that, I did feel quite sleepy after my shower, so I'm not sure it is any better at energising people than it is at arousing them. But still, you can see where they're coming from.
However, it is blue, and it is theoretically good for erections, so overall I will give this product two phalluses out of five.
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| FOR MEN |
First, I have no idea what makes it manly. I won't naively pretend the idea of gendered marketing is new to me. But why does soap need to be gendered? Does it clean testicles with particular efficacy?
Second, I bought it. I don't remember buying it because it said 'FOR MEN' on it. I bought it because it cost less than a pound, which almost certainly means someone is being terribly exploited somewhere down the production line. But out of all the cheap soap available, I opted for this one. Was it just a coincidence? Or had I subconsciously been drawn to the promise of masculinity?
And so I have decided to start this blog, in which I will review products designed FOR MEN. I will do so by examining three things: functionality, visual appearance and the language used to sell it.
Functionality
It is liquid soap. You can use it to clean your body and/or your hair. I cannot find any evidence that suggests it would not also do this if you happen to be a woman, nor that it cleans men any more effectively than it does women. So on a functional level, I cannot see anything manly going on.Visual Appearance
Here, we observe a genuine difference between Imperial Leather Ginseng & Cracked Pepper 2-in-1 Shower & Shampoo and other similar products in the Imperial Leather range. We can see this via a side-by-side comparison. |
| Boys vs. Girls |
Marketing Language
There are several things about the wording of the packaging for Imperial Leather's Ginseng & Cracked Pepper 2-in-1 Shower & Shampoo that betray the gender it is aimed at. The first is that it is described as 'Energising'. And while 'Energy' is not uniquely manly, it does suggest a degree of virility compared to other labels Imperial Leather uses, which include 'Soothing', 'Relaxing', 'Calming' and 'Nourishing', none of which are traditionally manly qualities. Why would a man need to sooth or nourish anything? Men fart and kill things. We have no time for relaxing.Then there are the scents: ginseng and cracked pepper. Ginseng is apparently used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat erectile dysfunction (there may even be some science behind it). And it is hard to deny that an erection is quite manly. However, at no point while showering did I experience an erection, not even while applying the shower gel to my genitals, so if the inclusion of ginseng here was supposed to have any priapic qualities, I don't think they are very reliable.
I was not exactly sure what 'cracked pepper' was, so I looked it up and it turns out it is literally cracked peppercorns. This is quite strange, since there are no peppercorns (cracked or otherwise) in the bottle. There is a pepper 'extract' in the mix, but certainly not in any form that would justify using the term 'cracked pepper' on the bottle. I can only assume, therefore, that they say 'cracked' pepper because 'cracked' sounds a bit violent, and men love violence.
Between that and the 'Energising' bit, perhaps this is shower gel you are meant to use in preparation for a fight? You could then use Imperial Leather's Soothing Camomile & Bamboo Milk Shower Cream to salve your wounds after the battle, but this may be considered unmanly by comparison.
Finally, further down the bottle, it is described as a '2-in-1' product. This is unique among the company's shower gel offering, despite all of them being essentially identical in substance, which implies that it must be part of what makes this shower gel 'FOR MEN' in particular. I initially thought that this may be because men are too lazy to use more than one product while cleaning themselves. Which in my case at least is accurate. But this also seems to conflict with its 'Energising' qualities, so perhaps the real implication is that men are too busy for more than one cleaning product. Thus they need a shower gel that offers both energy and efficiency, such as this one.
Having said that, I did feel quite sleepy after my shower, so I'm not sure it is any better at energising people than it is at arousing them. But still, you can see where they're coming from.
Conclusion
Is Imperial Leather Ginseng & Cracked Pepper 2-in-1 Shower & Shampoo exclusively FOR MEN? No. It is liquid soap. That is all. If you are a woman and want to use it, feel free. It will work just as fine on your womanly body and hair as it does on my manly extremities.However, it is blue, and it is theoretically good for erections, so overall I will give this product two phalluses out of five.
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