A piece published on the website of Justice for Men & Boys (and the women who love them), the political party of which I’m the chairman, in October 2018:

Our thanks to Steve for this. Utterly pathetic. An extract:

The BBC has approached Kleenex for comment, but the company has yet to respond.

However, in a statement given to the Daily Telegraph, a spokesman for its parent company, Kimberly-Clark, said the firm was registering “a consistent increase of complaints on gender concern”.

He added: “Kimberly-Clark in no way suggests that being both soft and strong is an exclusively masculine trait, nor do we believe that the Mansize branding suggests or endorses gender inequality.

“Nevertheless, as we remain committed to developing the best possible products for our consumers and take any feedback extremely seriously, we decided to renovate our current product and update the product subbrand as Kleenex Extra Large.”

The Advertising Standards Authority – which regulates adverts in the UK – told the BBC it had not received any complaints about the product, but it was carrying out “a significant amount of work around gender stereotypes in ads”.

Plans include setting new standards on adverts that feature stereotypical gender roles or characteristics, and cracking down on those which mock people for not conforming to stereotypes.

Please support Mike Buchanan’s work on Patreon. Thank you.