idiosyncratic-routine:

Icrontic:

“Bliss” is supposed to be seafoam green and comes with a rubberized back, allowing for a better grip on the phone. It’s apparently a mating of the HTC Desires S and Z, without a keyboard.  The green color is supposed to be “calming.” and the phone also comes with a soothing wallpaper to go along with it. “Bliss” will come tailored with shopping and calorie counting apps, and will most likely run the Sense UI.

The “Reaction” in the article is pretty complete, so I’m not going to rehash it. But for reference, here is a way to tell if your mobile phone’s “feminization” effort is belittling and sexist or not:

• Legitimate Issue: Handset is too large for people smaller hands, like some women, some men, and children.
  Legitimate Solution: “Shrink” the form factor of the handset, while maintaining all standard hardware and features.
  Sexist Solution: “Shrink” the form factor of the handset, call it a “better fit for women,” and change all this other unnecessary shit until you are selling a glorified Tamagachi pet.
• Legitimate Issue: Phone only comes in black
  Actual Solution: Offer more colors. Call them white, red, silver, lime green, etc.
  Sexist Solution: Offer more colors. Make ads showing men in suits smiling with their red, silver, and white phones. Make ads with giggling women and their passion pink, bliss green, and pearl phones. Show a woman matching her phone shell to her lipstick, while using the screen as a mirror.
• Legitimate Idea: Offer a hardware widget that alerts the user to messages, etc.
  Actual Solution: Make keyfobs in an array of colors and styles.
  Sexist Solution: Make keyfobs. Call them purse charms. Market them to women. Only.
• Legitimate Idea: Tailor pre-installed applications to the user’s interests.
  Legitimate Solution: Offer app packages to all users; make lucrative tie ins with advertisers. (*cringe*) Offer the NASCAR premod, the Fitness Tracker premod, or the Bliss Relaxation Edition, etc. 
  Sexist Solution: Decide all women are the same, make only one phone that is “tailored to her.” Fill it full of bullshit fashion and dieting apps. Animate the wallpaper to sparkle like the floor of a strip club.
• Legitimate Idea: Make an entire phone for “a woman’s lifestyle.” Shrink it, pink it, name it the Diva Edition. Remove advanced features and business applications, emphasize family organization tools. Tell sales people to push this model on female customers, regardless of their needs. Make a tie-in website that looks like a scrapbook. Show women how to use bump-share technology to swap recipes and foursquare to check in at the spa. Tell them over and over again how easy it is to use The Diva Edition, because everyone knows girls don’t like gadgets.
  Actual Solution: THIS IS NOT A LEGITIMATE IDEA.

Is it really that hard??