Women and regularity.

OK, why is it that ALL ads about laxatives, various "intestinal regulator" drugs, probiotic yogurts, fibre-rich foods, etc. are ALL targetted at women (or at least have women in their ads) commenting or even discussing casually about regularity problems and their possible solutions?

I mean, c'mon, I know it's the fucking TV ads but how probable a conversation like this is in RL:

Woman A: I'm having regularity problems...
Woman B: Well, why, girlfriend, just try this here Super Fibre Probiotic 9000 thingamabob and in 15 days you'll be as free as a bird!
Woman A: Word.

..even after you've taken off all the "Oh COOL!" and "OH, GLAMOUR!" shine and bling of TV?

Unless women really are stiff bitches and all that being stiff, uppity, gossipy, bilious, hateful and constantly on a diet does take its toll sooner than later....are regularity problems so common among women? To the point that there's no need to even hide them anymore?

Please discuss.

Americans are irregular in general because they ingest more chemicals and grease than actual organic nutrients.

Not sure why these ads would target women in general. Maybe manly men WANT to have their bowels impacted.

TV ads in general are brain damaging. I don't watch this shit and rather switch off before subjecting myself to this crap.

Maybe advertisers got tired of telling women they should look better, and decided to start telling them they should drop exactly one sweet-smelling turd precisely every twenty-four hours.

One (though just one) of Activia ads in Finland has a manly guy in his forties with constipation asking his wife for help. So no, don't lose all hope yet. :P

If American ladies saw a commercial about a guy taking a shit, they would be grossed out. I don't know why that is, but it's true.

I think it's just easier to sell those kinds of products to women. I've never seen a man buy yogurt because it had a certain kind of bacteria or fibre in it. If men buy that stuff it's because it tastes good and is probably affordable. The fact that it's healthy is often just one added bonus.

Now of course lots of men really do care about that kind of thing, but either they're too small a market or they don't react the same way to the commercials. As for the ones that are just medical products, I dunno. Maybe it's still just harder to sell to men that way. It seems to apply to other areas too. Men get acne as well, but most commercials about that are for women.

Perhaps they are insinuating that women are full of shit.

More like they don't contain enough shit :p

Maes said:
constantly on a diet does take its toll sooner than later....are regularity problems so common among women? To the point that there's no need to even hide them anymore?

If you consider that 90% of anorexia victims are female, you can start to imagine that constipation, often associated with eating little, is going to affect that same general group of women, as well.

Because men take a direct approach. Instead of ingesting little bits of fiber at a time they will down a bowl of bran flakes every morning (Like me) or chug a bottle of that laxative salt water (my dad).

If you actually watch TV to evaluate ads, about ninety percent of ads are for women.

Jodwin said:

One (though just one) of Activia ads in Finland has a manly guy in his forties with constipation asking his wife for help. So no, don't lose all hope yet. :P

Hope? Watching this would make me feel ashame of being a man. A manly man is supposed to be dumping 1 kg of stuff everyday with exemplary ease, not to be struggling with some chicken-like droppings and -gasp!- asking ANYONE for help on the matter, let alone his wife.

So maybe these ads are really the last bastion of schovinism or something, telling us that "Those friggin' women can't even get a shit right!". Maybe.

I mean, just compare:

Charles Bukowski said:
“There was nothing really as glorious as a good beer shit—I mean after drinking twenty or twenty-five beers the night before. The odor of a beer shit like that spread all around and stayed for a good hour-and-a-half. It made you realize that you were really alive.”

That being said, he also had his moment of constipation once, when he was hungry for several days and cold and the only shitter available had a large spider in its middle, but hey, at least it took some to force him to admit it.

About 80% of statistics are pulled out of the ass.

I'm perfectly comfortable about taking a shit whenever* I want. I do not care at all if I'm irregular. For that matter, is there any health benefit to regularity? The necessity to be 'regular' doesn't even remotely sound useful in any way. Also, this thread has reminded me what a sausagefest the internet Doomworld is.


*not wherever

EDIT: this thread spiked my curiosity enough to justify a google search. And the google never lies.

I've never really noticed this trend. I'm not sure this is accurate.

40oz said:

I've never really noticed this trend. I'm not sure this is accurate.

You'll notice when you're old enough to do your own grocery shopping. I can't even buy yogurt anymore without it promising to work its magic in my colon.

Patrick said:
About 80% of statistics are pulled out of the ass.

See, some come out smoothly from the facts and need not be pulled out.

Women often suffer from diarrhea during menstruation. The same chemicals that their bodies produce during a period tend to loosen their bowels as well. Graphic, yes, but this might explain why women would find foods that promote "regular" bowel movements appealing. However, I don't see how extra fiber would really help the problem; it would probably make it worse, so this is likely an inane hypothesis at best.

Man, I need to get a life.

I want more science, Stygian.

Women are indeed more susceptible to constipation than men; which is why you see advertising geared towards that demographic.

This information brought to you by Internal-Cleansing dot com.

edit - Here's a link you sick fucks: http://www.internal-cleansing.com/blog/are-women-more-likely-to-get-constipated

I remember years back there was a series of commercials involving an older woman nagging her husband about taking a laxative, but he would stoically refuse to admit he had a problem. That's always been why I thought laxative commercials were aimed at women - it's not so much that men are less likely to be constipated, but rather, that men are more likely to be stubborn about the issue.

I just remembered an old Finnish advert for a laxative powder featuring a whole family from grandma to kids taking it on breakfast in different ways, like mixing it into porridge, coffee, water, etc.

And everyone was happy.

Patrick said:

I'm perfectly comfortable about taking a shit whenever* I want. I do not care at all if I'm irregular. For that matter, is there any health benefit to regularity? The necessity to be 'regular' doesn't even remotely sound useful in any way.

I'm not sure what regularity is supposed to mean either. It's totally normal to go a day without shitting, or to shit twice in a day. However on average you should drop daisies about once in a 24 hour period (since I guess that's about how long most food takes to get through your system). I would not be surprised if these things were over-marketed - that is, making it seem like you could have a problem when really you don't. They may not specify what irregularity REALLY is because there's a chance someone will buy it even if they only have very minor irregularity in their pooping times. If you can't shit for two days and it's causing you pain, you obviously have an issue going on, but just because it's not perfectly once a day doesn't mean you have a problem. It probably means you don't eat the exact same food at the exact same time.

My girlfriend noted that sometimes women use these products to fuel eating disorders. All in all I think it's another example of the advertising using a certain weakness (some women's insecurities and socially constructed non-problems) to sell their shit. (pun intended)

Jodwin said:

I just remembered an old Finnish advert for a laxative powder featuring a whole family from grandma to kids taking it on breakfast in different ways, like mixing it into porridge, coffee, water, etc.

And everyone was happy.

I hope they had more than one toilet...

Patrick said:

For that matter, is there any health benefit to regularity?

From what I can remember from an older mag article, being regular means that any chemicals, preservatives and any defiling/toxic/poisonous shit that we eat stay less in contact with our digestive system, so regularity could have an advantage in that your body has less time available to absorb any of that shit back (pun intended) into your body, assuming most of it happens "near the way out" (large intenstine mainly, which reabsorbs liquids).

Dittohead said:
Women are indeed more susceptible to constipation than men; which is why you see advertising geared towards that demographic.

This information brought to you by Internal-Cleansing dot com.

Heh, smells like bullshit site funded by lobbyists linked to companies that sell these "regularity" products.

Are women more prone to anorexia "because their digestive systems are slower" too?

I've had periods where I ate less, and indeed, my guts digested food more than usual, tending toward harder and more compact poo. It can also happen when one doesn't have enough to drink. Men can do it too. It's not a quality of their digestive systems but the result of habits.

magicsofa said:
I'm not sure what regularity is supposed to mean either.

The answer is already on this thread. The word constipation doesn't sound too welcoming in a commercial product or in a TV commercial. It looks like the euphemism works, because you guys never managed to know what it was about, and some people who buy it and don't suffer from real "irregularity" end up thinking it's good for them for some mysterious reason. I've heard, although I've no means to fully corroborate this, that people shouldn't use these products unless they have the issue chronically, and not without a doctor's approval, because the products grant you an artificial "intestinal flora" which your digestive system then depends on, instead of its natural counterpart. So using these products when you don't have issues may cause issues once you stop using them, at least for a period.

My girlfriend noted that sometimes women use these products to fuel eating disorders.

Looks like it. Mostly women, because they suffer from various digestive disorders often due to cultural reasons, but also other people who don't eat properly. These products may be of use to some, like some older people that have intestinal issues, but they have medicinal qualities and should be treated appropriately in advertising.

As anecdotal information to go with my previous post, I've known many women through the course of my life who have suffered long bouts with constipation. Mostly in my family, but also past girlfriends and their families as well.

Yes, its weird that people tell me these things.

Edit - That's not to say it's all bullshit anyway. Just what I've noticed and experienced.

What's bullshit is the explanation of the cause, in the article, not that women may suffer from such conditions more often due to, especially, less than ideal eating habits.

Aliotroph? said:

I think it's just easier to sell those kinds of products to women. I've never seen a man buy yogurt because it had a certain kind of bacteria or fibre in it. If men buy that stuff it's because it tastes good and is probably affordable. The fact that it's healthy is often just one added bonus.

Or more on the subject at hand:



Target Women is an awesome series that pretty much shows how much advertising is directed at women and how most of it is pretty insulting to them.

Here's some other good ones on a variety of subjects:
Birth Control
Twilight
Chocolate
Packs of women and their dumb husbands

bitches and whores, man
bitches and whores

And I thought the commercials parodied in Robocop and Total Recall were, well, parodies.

Belial said:

And I thought the commercials parodied in Robocop and Total Recall were, well, parodies.

You knew shit.

Oh wait...or would that be "you didn't know your shit"? Hmm...