In today’s world, it seems like anyone and everyone can become a critic, eagerly waiting to pounce on the slightest perceived offense.
The recent uproar surrounding our company, ParentPresents.com, is just another example where well-intentioned platforms face unwarranted backlash.
Before we dive into why we are getting canceled for being “sexist”, let us first tell you who we are.
We are ParentPresents.com a gifting startup dedicated to helping young adults save time, stress, and money finding gift ideas for their parents.
On our platform, we offer a variety of gift lists for Moms and Dads based on interests and price ranges. We recently launched the ParentPresents Gift Generator Quiz that helps people find gift ideas based on a series of questions they answer (pretty cool right 
).
Well… our Gift Quiz has been the target and is what is facing the backlash for being “sexist”.
One individual was particularly offended because some of the gift suggestions she received for her Mom were cooking and cleaning gifts when she had selected that her Mom liked to travel.
This individual took to our Instagram (@parentpresents 16.3k followers) calling the gift generator and the site “inherently sexist”. See comments:
We responded to the “inherently sexist” comment with a video response defending our quiz and stating the fact that the gift generator quiz gives you 5 gift ideas and that all of the questions contribute to the output of the algorithm. See video:
Our response invoked an army of people that shared their opinions; defending both sides of the argument. See comments:
There was even a detective who did some deep research and determined that we were not “outright sexist” but that a lot of our gift suggestions were “enforcing gender binaries”.
@ivangtv This business is being cancelled #mom #dad #parentsoftiktok #foryou ♬ Aesthetic - Tollan Kim
Can gift ideas really be sexist?
In an Instagram DM exchange with the offended individual, we even pointed out that any gift lists for Moms throughout the internet would have cooking and cleaning suggestions.
To which they responded, “you are really following the mentality of oh someone else is doing something wrong so I can’t do it too…..”
So are all gifting website sexists? Or is it just ParentPresents?
We’re interested to hear other people’s opinions. Check out our Gift Quiz and let us know what you think.
Do you think it’s sexist? Are we canceled?
