# Why "mansize tissues"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 22, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424 "2004-07-22T22:33:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![flapcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@flapcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flapcats)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/1 "2004-07-22T22:33:07Z")
‘Mansize Tissues’ - does anyone know where / why / when big tissues became ‘mansize’? A macho legacy perhaps…? Are theyit based on a measurement or something? ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/2 "2004-07-22T22:42:36Z")
[ot] So-called man-sized tisssues are useless against the drippage and deafening sneezes I sometimes experience during allergy attacks. I resort to Brawny paper towels instead. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/3 "2004-07-22T22:52:30Z")
Why man-size? What beef-eatin, big truck-drivin’ man would want to buy little girlie tissues with flowers and birdies on them? Make them a smidge bigger and change the birdies to deer and ducks, and you just opened up a new market that until now, has been using their sleeves. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/4 "2004-07-22T23:00:10Z")
As to the WHEN question…I distinctly remember buying a box for my dad as a kid because I thought it was HILARIOUS! This is around 25 years ago, circa 1980, so it’s not a new thing, though it might be something the re-introduce every so often. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/5 "2004-07-22T23:09:07Z")
The **why** is fairly obvious. Human males, on average, are larger than human females. And both are larger than human children. We have a lot of things in our culture based on that basic distinction. In clothing, a ‘mens large’ is a bigger size than a ‘womens large’. Same with shoes. And most restaurants offer ‘childs portions’ of their meals. Remember the bed sizes in the old fable “Goldilocks and the three bears”? ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/6 "2004-07-22T23:12:13Z")
I would just like to state that my tissues are most definitely man-size. ---
**Author:** ![legion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/838e76/32.png) [@legion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legion)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/7 "2004-07-22T23:46:42Z")
Because of man size issues? ---
**Author:** ![flapcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@flapcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flapcats)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/8 "2004-07-23T00:00:08Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > The **why** is fairly obvious. > > \ Remember the bed sizes in the old fable “Goldilocks and the three bears”? So why don’t we see ‘womansize’ or ‘teenagesize’ etc? I’d like to know why there seems to be only ‘Mansize’ and nothing else. I’m not attempting to dig at the ‘It’s so sexist’ issue - just seems strange that it’s on its own in its naming convention. It’d be like Starbucks only offering ‘tall’ but no ‘grande’ or …err… ‘gigantic… (ie, the other one - I never need that much coffee)’ - yet still offering other types of coffee - with flowers and birdies on the cup. ---
**Author:** ![violacrane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c57346/32.png) [@violacrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/violacrane)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/9 "2004-07-23T00:35:32Z")
[QUOTE=flapcats] ‘Mansize Tissues’ - does anyone know where / why / when big tissues became ‘mansize’? Because “Bloody awful stinking cold tissues” isn’t a very appealing name. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/10 "2004-07-23T00:51:50Z")
Man sized tissues were originally mad for Jimmy Durante, the original schnozzola! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/11 "2004-07-23T01:01:14Z")
Mucus machismo. But a _man_ avoids the hoighty-toighty tissue field completely and hocks that loogie as God intended. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/12 "2004-07-23T06:56:05Z")
Well, everyone’s avoided the obvious. The average ejaculation is greater than the average sneeze mucus/whatever comes from your nose. ---
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/13 "2004-07-23T07:28:16Z")
> [@](#): > > Kimberly-Clark launched ther first mansize tissue leading to the developement of the hugely successful **Kleenex for Men Tissues** And it actually says **Kleenex : For Men** on the box 🙂 So I reckon that sometime in the 80’s they had to rename their product from _For Men_ to _Mansize_ for obvious reasons. [http://www.kleenex.co.uk/about/history/history.swf](http://www.kleenex.co.uk/about/history/history.swf) ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2004, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-mansize-tissues/256424/14 "2004-07-23T10:18:42Z")
> [@chaoticdonkey](#): > > Well, everyone’s avoided the obvious. > > The average ejaculation is greater than the average sneeze mucus/whatever comes from your nose. I’ve heard it stated as fact that Kleenex for Men tissues were indeed designed for cleaning up after masturbating. No cite, because I can’t remember where I heard that. However, if you look through the Kleenex site, you’ll see that they’re not marketed as facial tissues. If true, they should have gone for a more honest name. Kleenex: Wank Rags has a certain ring to it.