The gun industry’s lobbying arm, also known as the NRA, recently had it’s annual meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. Among the many manufacturers’ displays, were offerings specifically designed for women.
I’ll post some clips from the article, but you really need to see the pictures to get the full idea of just how much they understand and respect the fairer sex. Pink guns! Pink shirts! Pink, pink pink!
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/05/23/3780897/nra-meeting-women/
I’ll believe you when you also pit the tool industry, and the barbecue grill industry.
I will happily pit anyone and everyone who thinks that cute, pink, & frilly is automatically what women want.
You’ll believe me? You think I’m lying about the existence of this article, the gun industry’s marketing, or what? What don’t you believe? 
But, but, brightly-colored guns that look like toys are such a great idea!
But it’s not just the color that’s a problem:
Anyhoo, the “pinkification” of tech marketed to women is very widespread.
It may not be “automatically” true but let’s be honest here: women are buying these things for themselves. Even if pink and frilly only appeals to 30% of women, that’s a market demographic you’d be an idiot to ignore.
But if pink screwdrivers or pink spatulas get mistaken for toys, the results are usually less lethal.
Exactly. Being whimsical or whatever with tools and cookware is, while possibly insulting to some, at least physically harmless; but there’s no place for cutesy with firearms. If women are really drawn towards “feminized” firearms then the NRA should be educating them against that. I think that’s probably what the old, original, non-lobbyist NRA would have done.
Pink barbecue grills are one thing.
Pink tools might make some sense though. One company built toolkits made for women - smaller handles for smaller than average hands, lighter hammers, etc. It’s not unreasonable, if not wholly necessary, to color code them as it were. That said, making them available only in pink seems dubious to me.
ETA: I see that black and purple are also alternatives: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/44965696253102580/
's what happens when guys try to figure out how to market to women.
“Make it a bit smaller. And throw some pink on it.” I see plenty of hunting clothes for women where they have pink interspersed into the camouflage pattern. Though to be fair it’s not all like that.
this has been going on for some time. in 1955 Dodge released a car called the “La Femme” which had such appointments as pink flower-pattern seats (with matching raincoat and umbrella,) as well as cosmetics accessories:
The wikipedia entry notes that it was a “marketing flop.”
My spouse and I at one point were contemplating a gun purchase. As I was browsing in one aisle I overheard my spouse telling the clerk behind the counter “whatever you do, don’t offer her anything in pink!”
Clerk responded “So, she wants a serious firearm, then?”
Which really, is another part of the problem - pink things aren’t taken seriously.
In defense of Pink. I grew up in a house with many brothers and male cousins. I love the color pink. What items I couldn’t buy pink (which in those days was a lot), I would spray paint pink or cover with pink nail polish designs (cute little roses were my specialty). Pink was guy kryptonite. Even now, pink keeps DH out of my things better than any serious conversation about personal space. I believe the man would seriously risk dehydration than carry around one of my pink water bottles and of course pink cans of TAB soda fill our refrigerator (so I never have to wonder if there is cold diet soda waiting for me). If they would only make high quality guns in pink I would happily buy them, if for no other reason than that pink would be more discouraging to any of the young males in my house than the strongest gun safe.
And yet, my coworker has a purple-framed Glock .380. And the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB all sell pink jerseys/replica uniforms.
That some are offended by stereotypes does not mean that they have no basis in reality or that they don’t appeal to the targeted subset of customers. If they didn’t sell you can be sure they wouldn’t waste money trying to sell them.
Daisy, along with its official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle WITHOUT a compass in the stock because they got cheap and those compasses sucked, has the same gun, sans the Red Ryder stamp, with pink furniture. I don’t know which one I should get for my adult daughter. Maybe the one with no commercial tie-in but with a scope and the ability to also use pellets. Nah, nobody would take the pink one seriously so she can plink targets and squirrels and the cops would just think it’s cute.
That’s a plan! Marry her off to a cop! It would be so romantic: he’s called to the scene of somebody testing just how high squirrels can jump. His eyes lock on her amusingly girly gun, while she can only see his shiny Glock while visions of a lifetime of free range time pass through her head. sniff Brings a tear to a father’s eye.
Indeed. Pink sells. It may be an unfortunate fact of life, but it seems to work. At least lately.
“Plink Pink”…?
You can deposit that check into my PayPal, Madison Avenue…
I respect the right of other people to choose pink, but what pisses me off is when it is the ONLY “option” given to me, or to women. We are not clones or copies. Some of us like pink, some of us prefer other colors.
Lavender? Cerise? How about walnut, as God intended? And the metal in dark blue, of course.
After much debate, pink is ok for a very small demographic. But, inherently unsafe for those who are not gun owners proper.
That’s the #MasculinitySoFragile motif that pops up from time to time on the intarwebz, when marketers get mocked for thinking that they have to make special “manly-looking” versions of household cleaning and personal hygiene products because OF COURSE IT WILL DESTROY A GUY’S MANHOOD IF HE EVEN TOUCHES A PRODUCT THAT’S STYLED EVEN REMOTELY FEMININE.
Of course, the marketers are laughing all the way to the bank, because “pinkifying” special versions of certain “men’s” products to market them to women, while “manlifying” special versions of certain “women’s” products to market them to men, means that couples have to have two of everything. Ka-ching!
I’m surprised they haven’t got “His and Hers” kitchen spoons and wastebaskets by now.