Canon EOS M Is Aimed At Women? Ugh.

I will have a hard time putting to words how fucking stupid I find this, but I will try.

A recent story popping up on various Canon rumor websites has a representative from Canon saying that the new EOS M series of cameras is aimed at women because they don't like "bulky" cameras.

First, this is stupid from a marketing standpoint. The problems with all of the earlier small cameras had nothing to do with their lack of target market. Because, oh yes, the Panasonic GF3 would have sold like hot cakes if only Panasonic had known to say that the camera was meant for women. It's brilliant!

Second, this is stupid because it is mindnumbingly out of touch with reality, and insultingly sexist to boot! According to Canon, "women" is a term for social-yet-technically-incompetent people. This is of course women. Women only know how to get pregnant and cook.

Not only do I find this absurdly sexist, it doesn't even apply anymore as a social trope. It hasn't applied for a long time. Granted, it only took marketing departments all around the world up until, um, now, to find out that women are insulted by commercials where the female is an annoying harpy intent on taking a man's car away. Similarly, marketing companies have been happily insulting the majority of the male population by saying that nearly all of them are hard-core drunks who subsist on sausages and emotionless sex.

For all I know, this applies perfectly well in Japan. Kawaii girls, covered in bright makeup, strutting down into Shibuya, armed to the teeth with super-tiny versions of everything that one would expect to find in your average apartment, likely would want a small camera with which to document everyone making peace signs. Obviously, this strategy has worked well for Panasonic and Olympus, both of which saw decent success with their tiny cameras in Japan.

This stupid viewpoint doesn't apply anywhere else. At all. It's why sales of Micro 4/3 cameras have been doing nothing but going down or flat-lining in Europe and the US, and why Sony came in with their NEX cameras and absolute devastated the 4/3 crowd.

Moreover, if women are actually the ones who want this camera, why bother posting images of it attached to gigantic EF lenses like the photo I used? These women would never want a lens so large and complex. They couldn't possibly figure it out and, heavens, they might break a nail! But Canon also said that they could have achieved greater size reductions, and thus reduced stress on lady hands, by using the G1X's sensor, but they needed compatibility with the EF lens line.

Why?! Why bother? Women won't want those lenses. Size is what matters. What are they trying to achieve?

Nothing. They are trying to achieve nothing. What this actually says is that Canon has no fucking clue who they think is going to buy their camera. They can't target any actual demographics because they're too cowardly to risk cannibalizing some of their traditional SLR cameras and lenses, which Canon is charging a silly amount for (while innovating and progressing very little), and have a lot of profit tied up in it. They figure that all they have to do is produce crap, slap the Canon name on it, and people will line up.

I cannot wait to see this arrogance served up what is inevitable: complete market erosion.