The Women's Phone

Danah at Misbehaving blogs about the Women's Phone.

I am totally offended and I am beginning to wonder daily if I am really a woman. I mean, all this stuff for women - the internet for women, women's phones - just doesn't apply to me. The overgeneralization, the stereotypical depiction and the essentialist notion of women is ridiculous.

Here are some features of the 'women's phone':

-Calorie Calculator (because all women are on diets)
-Pink Schedule Calculator (what is it with pink? I hate pink!)
-feature to track menstrual cycle (because I can't count four weeks? what about post-menstrual women, or don't they use phones?)
-track ovulation (because all women are heterosexual and need to know when it's safe to have sex with a man?)
-calculate a person's daily biorhythm (because all women are into horoscopes?)
-it's small and light (because women are too weak to carry heavy things?)
-feature to purchase airline or theatre tickets (because everyone has a credit card and money)
-A silver rose is engraved on the outer case (because women like flowers?)

Ugh! things are not getting any better. How many women were involved in this design I wonder? hmm. It is expensive too - so only women with good economic capital can afford it. Perhaps they are more 'feminine' or 'womanly' than a middle-class woman like myself, not sure.
Excuse me, I have to go answer my plain old silver coloured cell phone that doesn't tell me when I'm ovulating.

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