We suppose human brains are just wired to think that way. People get scared when they can't grab hold of something and stuff it into a neat little box. For the sake of maintaining public order, we're therefore taught to be nice and stay in our boxes. It's so much easier to look at a genetic female and "know" that this person thinks, acts and dresses in what are considered feminine ways, not to mention is attracted to males. Being different is bad, as it defies the precious boxes that allow us to "know" what others are like, and since knowledge is power, people are rendered powerless. That's why they must then cram us into other boxes instead, no one can escape the boxes.
Commercials are definitely among the worst. You're right in that pretty much any cleaning product ad seem to be geared towards women. We don't get it. Carina hates cleaning, and that isn't going to change no matter how good the product may be, not to mention how pink it is. Cleaning being a feminine thing is just another example of the Order of Boxes, if we may call it that. Also, we despise anything that attempts to teach you that men aren't supposed to care about anything at all but beer and football, at the most. Since when was considering what you wear a feminine trait?
Oh, and a last pet peeve... Dividing boys and girls in school and assigning them to different classes! Hello, shouldn't we have stopped doing this back in the previous century? Why is it "obvious" that a boy wants to hammer nails into a board while a girl would rather be knitting? Most of the children seem to comply with it, as it's what they've been told, it's what boys do and girls do. The Order of Boxes reigns supreme.
You know, just for once, we'd love to see a product with two variants made for males and females respectively, where the one for males was pink and the one for females was black.
~Bustus
