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[Poll #1518021]
I'll take my own poll as soon as I've posted, but I can't remember whether I thought "notepad" or "STAR TREK!" first—it was a photo finish.
The next day, I saw someone post on the Internet "Stupid Apple! Did they not even have a single woman involved in the design process?", and the next thing I knew there seemed almost a firestorm of such comments.
I took a very long moment to work out what the question even meant, because until then, "maxi pad" was not among the first three or four things that came to mind when I heard the word "pad." I think notepad, Star Trek pad, shoulder pads, knee pads, and so on. And, in the TMI category, I am having my period right now, so it's not as if it's the wrong time of the month for me to think about feminine hygiene products (yes, I call them "pads," but that's way down the list of possible meanings for the word).
I have a friend who feels really offended at the name. I am mildly horrified. She did say, after we spoke, that she felt better knowing that there were women who did not immediately think pad=maxi pad, so there might indeed have been women on the design or marketing team who just didn't worry about it.
Brilliant Husband suspects it's astroturfing: Microsoft and other anti-Mac forces are convincing women that they should be offended. I'm pretty sure that's not true in my friend's case, and no doubt in at least some of the others.
So I'm curious what you thought, and also whether it's a generational or regional thing. Someone said older women tended to use the term "sanitary napkin" rather than "pad." Also, people who only use tampons or Moon Cups, etc., might not have such a strong association with the word.
I hope I have not now ruined the iPadd (as I wish it were named, because I'm pretty sure that's how they were spelled on the Enterprise and DS9) for all of you who had not considered this at all.
I'll take my own poll as soon as I've posted, but I can't remember whether I thought "notepad" or "STAR TREK!" first—it was a photo finish.
The next day, I saw someone post on the Internet "Stupid Apple! Did they not even have a single woman involved in the design process?", and the next thing I knew there seemed almost a firestorm of such comments.
I took a very long moment to work out what the question even meant, because until then, "maxi pad" was not among the first three or four things that came to mind when I heard the word "pad." I think notepad, Star Trek pad, shoulder pads, knee pads, and so on. And, in the TMI category, I am having my period right now, so it's not as if it's the wrong time of the month for me to think about feminine hygiene products (yes, I call them "pads," but that's way down the list of possible meanings for the word).
I have a friend who feels really offended at the name. I am mildly horrified. She did say, after we spoke, that she felt better knowing that there were women who did not immediately think pad=maxi pad, so there might indeed have been women on the design or marketing team who just didn't worry about it.
Brilliant Husband suspects it's astroturfing: Microsoft and other anti-Mac forces are convincing women that they should be offended. I'm pretty sure that's not true in my friend's case, and no doubt in at least some of the others.
So I'm curious what you thought, and also whether it's a generational or regional thing. Someone said older women tended to use the term "sanitary napkin" rather than "pad." Also, people who only use tampons or Moon Cups, etc., might not have such a strong association with the word.
I hope I have not now ruined the iPadd (as I wish it were named, because I'm pretty sure that's how they were spelled on the Enterprise and DS9) for all of you who had not considered this at all.
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