Browsing the toy aisle yesterday, looking for a gift to bring home to poor teething 8-month Evelyn, I saw this: Toys by Fisher Price called something like "Play My Way," which are little toy kits that each come with accessories for a certain activity/profession. There are four different kits: Kitchen, Baby Care Center, Tools, and Doctor. Although I shouldn't have been too surprised, I was nonetheless appalled to see that the kitchen and baby care kits are explicitly marketed towards girls--pink packaging and pictures of young girls playing with the accessories. And the tool and doctor kits are marketed to boys--red and blue packaging with pictures of young boys playing with tools and doctor accessories.
I am just disgusted that Fisher Price, one of the nation's most well-known toy companies, is so outrageously sexist, and that they are marketing these sexist ideologies to children. CHILDREN! I hope parents and anyone who is considering ever becoming a parent will not buy into this BS. Let your little girl know that she is not confined to the kitchen and to baby-care. And let your little boy know that it's perfectly fine, acceptable, admirable if he wants to cook and/or take care of children. Do not impede their ambition and potential, please. Don't let the packaging of toys dictate who that toy is appropriate for.
And I have to ask you--which do you think would unsettle people more--a girl given the red and blue doctor/tool kit, or a boy given the pink baby/kitchen kit? I would guess that latter. It seems to unsettle people more when a boy plays with "girl toys" than when a girl plays with "boy toys;" it seems to unsettle people more when a boy wears pink than when a girl wears blue. Why? Well, for a boy to do "girl things" is to take a step DOWN--to be more feminine, more submissive, less dominating, LESS POWERFUL. For a girl to do boy things is to take a step up, to aspire to gain more power, which doesn't seem to bother society as a much. But for a boy to willingly give up his "manly" position to be more feminine? That's a no-no. That's why society accepts women wearing skirts or pants, but if a man wears a skirt, something must be wrong with him, right?
Think about it. Sexism is alive, well, and impacting your future, your children, your future children, your children's future, and the future of everyone you care about. Do you CARE?
Feel free to comment.
Using Google Images, search "Fisher Price Play My Way" and see what you find.
i hope you don't mind... but, i just used excerpts from this (and you as my example that we haven't fully let Elizabeth Cady Stanton down) for my Protest Literature Paper... thanks :) I had to use my (and i use this term VERY LIGHTLY, because she lives in California and I have been around her all of 3x EVER in my life)- step sister Ciara's myspace page- "Party like a rockstar, F*ck like a Pornstar" (yeah, it really says that), as the opposite end of the spectrum... (you 2 are the same age...) completely opposite ends of the spectrum... so, i hope that's okay!!!
ReplyDeleteso I should take the barbie I got Evelyn back to target?
ReplyDeletej/k bahaa~ Nice my dear.. Well said. But how funny would it be to actually get a friend who has a 1 year old BOY a barbie, time for some social experimentation. GENDER OPPOSITE TOYS.
Or in our case ORANGE EVERYTHING!!! <3 u
I think you might just be over thinking Fisher Price just a bit (and giving them way to much credit)......It is more like a group of 28-36 year old jr.executives that most likely are kid-less making these choices, the sr. executives just give it a quick knod because they are way to busy doing power lunches and happy hour to care. I think you spent morre time writing then they spent tabling gender..... Guess who!
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