The ad reminds me of the last time I went into a Toys R Us. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a kid and I don't remember stuff being so blatantly tailored to gender stereotypes. Sure, there were the doll aisles and the action figure aisles, but now even the science kits come in "boy" and "girl" versions. It's as if little girls who are not Pretty Pretty Princesses just don't exist.

Astra: The ad reminds me of the last time I went into a Toys R Us. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a kid and I don't remember stuff being so blatantly tailored to gender stereotypes. Sure, there were the doll aisles and the action figure aisles, but now even the science kits come in "boy" and "girl" versions. It's as if little girls who are not Pretty Pretty Princesses just don't exist.

It's easier to push the kinds of mainstream materialism our consumer society lauds when you acclimatize them young. Make sure that 3-year-old has a Bratz doll in her hand, and in four or five years she'll be demanding a cell phone.

Astra: The ad reminds me of the last time I went into a Toys R Us. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a kid and I don't remember stuff being so blatantly tailored to gender stereotypes. Sure, there were the doll aisles and the action figure aisles, but now even the science kits come in "boy" and "girl" versions. It's as if little girls who are not Pretty Pretty Princesses just don't exist.

On the other hand, I wasn't a kid that long ago either, and then society didn't feel the need to erode gender roles so badly that children had to have them defined by the aisle signs at Toys R Us, rather than their parents or peers. Call it whatever you want, girls shouldn't want to play with war toys, and boys shouldn't want to play with my little ponies. I don't care if you find that homophobic.

Occam's Chainsaw: Make sure that 3-year-old has a Bratz doll in her hand, and in four or five years she'll be demanding a cell phone tramp stamp and a thong.


/bratz are slutz!

Ekillr: Call it whatever you want, girls shouldn't want to play with war toys, and boys shouldn't want to play with my little ponies.

Why not?

Ekillr: Astra: The ad reminds me of the last time I went into a Toys R Us. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a kid and I don't remember stuff being so blatantly tailored to gender stereotypes. Sure, there were the doll aisles and the action figure aisles, but now even the science kits come in "boy" and "girl" versions. It's as if little girls who are not Pretty Pretty Princesses just don't exist.

On the other hand, I wasn't a kid that long ago either, and then society didn't feel the need to erode gender roles so badly that children had to have them defined by the aisle signs at Toys R Us, rather than their parents or peers. Call it whatever you want, girls shouldn't want to play with war toys, and boys shouldn't want to play with my little ponies. I don't care if you find that homophobic.

Um.... what?

Ekillr: Astra: The ad reminds me of the last time I went into a Toys R Us. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a kid and I don't remember stuff being so blatantly tailored to gender stereotypes. Sure, there were the doll aisles and the action figure aisles, but now even the science kits come in "boy" and "girl" versions. It's as if little girls who are not Pretty Pretty Princesses just don't exist.

On the other hand, I wasn't a kid that long ago either, and then society didn't feel the need to erode gender roles so badly that children had to have them defined by the aisle signs at Toys R Us, rather than their parents or peers. Call it whatever you want, girls shouldn't want to play with war toys, and boys shouldn't want to play with my little ponies. I don't care if you find that homophobic.

Larry?

Ekillr: I don't care if you find that homophobic idiotic.

Fixed that for you.

Forget gender role appropriate toys, you belong in the aisle with the heavily padded preschool playthings. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.

Astra: Ekillr: I don't care if you find that homophobic idiotic.

Fixed that for you.

Forget gender role appropriate toys, you belong in the aisle with the heavily padded preschool playthings. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself.

Don't let him get ahold of the wood burning kit.

I was annoyed by this about 10 years ago with Lego. I saw a few commercials and it was all "RAWWWR! Legos, tough toys for boys! Spaceships, pirates, fighting, cool stuff for boys! GRAWWR!". It was like Macho Man was hepped up on speed and steroids and made a Lego ad. When I was a kid, Lego was just a bucket or box of bricks. Whatever you made was up to you. I had a lot of Lego and some old Mechanno sets. I don't see any building or engineering type toys meant for girls. If there was, it would probably be pink, overly simplified, and had girls building a mall or something.

Still bugs me that my parents would never let me buy Transformers or Star Wars figures back in the 80's, even with my own allowance money. Apparently they were too violent and not for girls. I was allowed to get Star Wars puzzles, though. Puzzles with a jillion pieces that were mostly scenes of stars with a few X-wings and TIE fighters. As though trying to do a puzzle that's primarily composed of random stars won't make someone violent. I ended up playing Star Trek with the Barbies that I was given (a fine black pen can create Vulcan and Romulan ears and eyebrows). Strawberry Shortcake dolls could be used to enact murder mysteries (somebody kept killing Huckleberry Pie) and standing in as Star Trek aliens with the Federation Barbies.

these people really must have nothing better to do.

FunkOut: I was annoyed by this about 10 years ago with Lego. I saw a few commercials and it was all "RAWWWR! Legos, tough toys for boys! Spaceships, pirates, fighting, cool stuff for boys! GRAWWR!". It was like Macho Man was hepped up on speed and steroids and made a Lego ad. When I was a kid, Lego was just a bucket or box of bricks. Whatever you made was up to you. I had a lot of Lego and some old Mechanno sets. I don't see any building or engineering type toys meant for girls. If there was, it would probably be pink, overly simplified, and had girls building a mall or something.

Still bugs me that my parents would never let me buy Transformers or Star Wars figures back in the 80's, even with my own allowance money. Apparently they were too violent and not for girls. I was allowed to get Star Wars puzzles, though. Puzzles with a jillion pieces that were mostly scenes of stars with a few X-wings and TIE fighters. As though trying to do a puzzle that's primarily composed of random stars won't make someone violent. I ended up playing Star Trek with the Barbies that I was given (a fine black pen can create Vulcan and Romulan ears and eyebrows). Strawberry Shortcake dolls could be used to enact murder mysteries (somebody kept killing Huckleberry Pie) and standing in as Star Trek aliens with the Federation Barbies.

How sad...

FunkOut: I was annoyed by this about 10 years ago with Lego. I saw a few commercials and it was all "RAWWWR! Legos, tough toys for boys! Spaceships, pirates, fighting, cool stuff for boys! GRAWWR!". It was like Macho Man was hepped up on speed and steroids and made a Lego ad. When I was a kid, Lego was just a bucket or box of bricks. Whatever you made was up to you. I had a lot of Lego and some old Mechanno sets. I don't see any building or engineering type toys meant for girls. If there was, it would probably be pink, overly simplified, and had girls building a mall or something.

Still bugs me that my parents would never let me buy Transformers or Star Wars figures back in the 80's, even with my own allowance money. Apparently they were too violent and not for girls. I was allowed to get Star Wars puzzles, though. Puzzles with a jillion pieces that were mostly scenes of stars with a few X-wings and TIE fighters. As though trying to do a puzzle that's primarily composed of random stars won't make someone violent. I ended up playing Star Trek with the Barbies that I was given (a fine black pen can create Vulcan and Romulan ears and eyebrows). Strawberry Shortcake dolls could be used to enact murder mysteries (somebody kept killing Huckleberry Pie) and standing in as Star Trek aliens with the Federation Barbies.

So, you must be like, a total lesbian now, right?

I mean, playing with boys' toys like that?! How could you POSSIBLY stay straight?

My parents were awesome and let me be my ol' tomboy self. G.I Joes, Transformers, you name it. I did also have a few My Little Ponies, but I usually got those as birthday gifts from other girlier schoolmates.

/Turned out fine

After reading that article, I actually felt a part of my brain die. And not the fun, stroke-related kind of brain damage.

Allahkat: My parents were awesome and let me be my ol' tomboy self. G.I Joes, Transformers, you name it. I did also have a few My Little Ponies, but I usually got those as birthday gifts from other girlier schoolmates.

/Turned out fine

My daughter is two and her favorite thing in the world right now is her "foo-ball". She makes me chase her all over the back yard and tackle her.

FunkOut sounds remarkably like my childhood. My dad liked computer games though, mostly strategic ones, but sometimes he would play Wizardry. I would get to sit next to him with a pad of graph paper and map stuff. I think my dad sold it to mom as "teaching me computer skills"

I eventually conned them into letting me have a GI Joe doll because it was a girl (The Baroness), she reigned over the My Little Pony castle with an iron fist.

i have older brothers. grew up playing with leggos . Barbie sucks the b*tch doesn't have everything !

The important thing is that parents listen more to advertisers than to their own kids. Fortunately protestors in cases like this exist to make sure that the value of ads isn't underestimated.

Boys and girls should be able to play with whatever they want. That being said, what percentage of little girls enjoy the toys in the 'pink' aisles more than what's in the aisles the boys go? I'd wager it's a whole lot higher than 50%. This catalog plays the averages. Let it go.

/Most ethnic stereotypes don't play the averages, which is why they're offensive and should not be allowed.
//If your stereotpye applies to most, it's fair game.

Nobodyn0se:

So, you must be like, a total lesbian now, right?

I mean, playing with boys' toys like that?! How could you POSSIBLY stay straight?

Heh. Some people might think that, like say, my Dr. Dobson loving mother. Funny thing though, I must be one of the straightest women on the entire planet. The main problem I have with the girly toys is not that they're girly but that they're just so farking dumb. My brain has a low tolerance for the dumb.

brightestfell: i have older brothers. grew up playing with leggos . Barbie sucks the b*tch doesn't have everything !

Your brothers played with waffles?

FunkOut: Nobodyn0se:

So, you must be like, a total lesbian now, right?

I mean, playing with boys' toys like that?! How could you POSSIBLY stay straight?

Heh. Some people might think that, like say, my Dr. Dobson loving mother. Funny thing though, I must be one of the straightest women on the entire planet. The main problem I have with the girly toys is not that they're girly but that they're just so farking dumb. My brain has a low tolerance for the dumb.

Wow, you played with "male oriented" toys and turned out straight.

Ekillr is gonna be SHOCKED.

jejpu: Boys and girls should be able to play with whatever they want. That being said, what percentage of little girls enjoy the toys in the 'pink' aisles more than what's in the aisles the boys go? I'd wager it's a whole lot higher than 50%. This catalog plays the averages. Let it go.

Yeah: If we grab foreign kids and take them to the Swedish Toys R Us and see what they want to play with, our little third world girls are going to find some kind of doll and the boys are going to look for some kind of weapon surrogate. Monkeys do this too actually. In many, many species the little female monkeys want to spend as much time as possible handling and playing with younger infants. There is a hardwired, cognitive aspect to this but I'm not inclined to trust monkey studies as being entirely relevant.

Ekillr: Astra: The ad reminds me of the last time I went into a Toys R Us. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was a kid and I don't remember stuff being so blatantly tailored to gender stereotypes. Sure, there were the doll aisles and the action figure aisles, but now even the science kits come in "boy" and "girl" versions. It's as if little girls who are not Pretty Pretty Princesses just don't exist.

On the other hand, I wasn't a kid that long ago either, and then society didn't feel the need to erode gender roles so badly that children had to have them defined by the aisle signs at Toys R Us, rather than their parents or peers. Call it whatever you want, girls shouldn't want to play with war toys, and boys shouldn't want to play with my little ponies. I don't care if you find that homophobic.

No, no, I'm pretty sure we haven't mocked this nearly enough yet.

Going to go ahead and let you pick your own gold star. (new window)

FunkOut: I was annoyed by this about 10 years ago with Lego. I saw a few commercials and it was all "RAWWWR! Legos, tough toys for boys! Spaceships, pirates, fighting, cool stuff for boys! GRAWWR!". It was like Macho Man was hepped up on speed and steroids and made a Lego ad. When I was a kid, Lego was just a bucket or box of bricks. Whatever you made was up to you. I had a lot of Lego and some old Mechanno sets. I don't see any building or engineering type toys meant for girls. If there was, it would probably be pink, overly simplified, and had girls building a mall or something.

Still bugs me that my parents would never let me buy Transformers or Star Wars figures back in the 80's, even with my own allowance money. Apparently they were too violent and not for girls. I was allowed to get Star Wars puzzles, though. Puzzles with a jillion pieces that were mostly scenes of stars with a few X-wings and TIE fighters. As though trying to do a puzzle that's primarily composed of random stars won't make someone violent. I ended up playing Star Trek with the Barbies that I was given (a fine black pen can create Vulcan and Romulan ears and eyebrows). Strawberry Shortcake dolls could be used to enact murder mysteries (somebody kept killing Huckleberry Pie) and standing in as Star Trek aliens with the Federation Barbies.

I...I think I love you.

Why can't the stereotypes be used together?

Last Christmas I go my niece the Fairy Chick Enchanted Castle Playset, and my nephew the Badass Pirate Ship Plunder Playset. (probably not the real toy names)

Then I showed them how they could be used together, The fairies could be having a tea party, and the pirates show up, bombard the castle, capture all the fairys and 'marry' them. They thought it was great. Their mom, however, wasn't amused. In fact, she was very not amused.

But hey, the best gifts for kids are the ones that piss off your sister-in-law. That way, you get enjoyment out of it too!

Nobodyn0se: FunkOut: I was annoyed by this about 10 years ago with Lego. I saw a few commercials and it was all "RAWWWR! Legos, tough toys for boys! Spaceships, pirates, fighting, cool stuff for boys! GRAWWR!". It was like Macho Man was hepped up on speed and steroids and made a Lego ad. When I was a kid, Lego was just a bucket or box of bricks. Whatever you made was up to you. I had a lot of Lego and some old Mechanno sets. I don't see any building or engineering type toys meant for girls. If there was, it would probably be pink, overly simplified, and had girls building a mall or something.

Still bugs me that my parents would never let me buy Transformers or Star Wars figures back in the 80's, even with my own allowance money. Apparently they were too violent and not for girls. I was allowed to get Star Wars puzzles, though. Puzzles with a jillion pieces that were mostly scenes of stars with a few X-wings and TIE fighters. As though trying to do a puzzle that's primarily composed of random stars won't make someone violent. I ended up playing Star Trek with the Barbies that I was given (a fine black pen can create Vulcan and Romulan ears and eyebrows). Strawberry Shortcake dolls could be used to enact murder mysteries (somebody kept killing Huckleberry Pie) and standing in as Star Trek aliens with the Federation Barbies.

So, you must be like, a total lesbian now, right?

I mean, playing with boys' toys like that?! How could you POSSIBLY stay straight?

Seriously, it seems like our media and culture impresses into the minds of the young this notion that all men should be bumbling over-weight slobs who watch football, drink cheap beer and perform improve slapstick and all women should be anorexic narcissistic high-maintenance daddy's-little-girls who nag incessantly. Anyone who does not comply with these two "ideals" had better be homosexual, as that's the only fringe demographic that is "tolerant" of tool wielding girls and men who like to make things pretty.

I grew up with a slightly younger sister, and throughout childhood, we had a reciprocity deal - we'd play with boy's toys, and girl's toys, and theoretically spend equal time.

We both played with Lego a hell of a lot, because we felt that the stuff was gender neutral.

Allahkat: My parents were awesome and let me be my ol' tomboy self. G.I Joes, Transformers, you name it. I did also have a few My Little Ponies, but I usually got those as birthday gifts from other girlier schoolmates.

/Turned out fine

See now, you went and tossed off the stereotypes and now you seem like a pretty cool young lady. Congrats on finding a guy who loves you and living on your terms. The world needs more self-defining women who know what they want AND how to get it without needing the intercession of a guy or daddy via whiny cell phone calls and petulent nagging.

Boys and girls should be discriminated in advertising. They think differently, behave differently and are interested in different things. It would be foolish to use the same advertising to target both genders. Its been proven scientifically that male brains are wired differently than female brains.

And it isn't like seeing a boy having fun with a RAWR PIRATES set is going to stop a girl from asking daddy to buy it if she's interested in it.

I don't care who you are, the Care Bears had a flying car, and they lived in a freakin' cloud fortress. They shot lazers from their chests that could melt the flesh of anything. Those guys were metal.

I canceled my cable and we really only watch stuff we have on DVD or downloaded, so my 7 yr old boy and I are thankfully mostly shielded from this effect - but also though cuz he's autistic and less susceptible to peer pressure (or indeed, aware of it).

He's on a Batman kick now (the LEGO Batman game rawks, as did LEGO Star Wars) and Nightmare Before Christmas (heh) but we did stay with a friend for a few days a while back and he really, really liked watching Strawberry Shortcake... I'm ok with that generally, but am kinda unwilling to let him watch it at home because he likes to watching things repeatedly and it breaks my rule of "nothing that drives Daddy insane" (a good rule, that).

/am unsure if I would rather a neurotypical girl to my autistic boy
//'Bratz' make me twitch
///Then again so do the Star Wars 'prequels'

my parents always paid attention to what i said, not the TV, so i got what i asked for if it wasn't too expensive. guess what? i asked for things that, when advertised (often i didn't see these until after i had asked), had boys playing with them. it's not a bad stereotype to use if most of your audience actually fits it. some people just need to loosen up.

And yet another group is bored and looking for issues where there are none. Advertising pitches to a demographic. If the major purchaser of a product is boys, that's who the ad is aimed at.

There is a reason we don't see Summer's Eve commercials during football games.

Gifted Many Few: And yet another group is bored and looking for issues where there are none. Advertising pitches to a demographic. If the major purchaser of a product is boys, that's who the ad is aimed at.

There is a reason we don't see Summer's Eve commercials during football games.


This is a pretty bogus comparison. I understand the concept of advertising demographics but you can't compare a product designed for a body part males don't have to a product that girls and boys may both be interested in depending on personal preferences.

Or maybe you were just implying women don't watch sports.

FunkOut:
The main problem I have with the girly toys is not that they're girly but that they're just so farking dumb. My brain has a low tolerance for the dumb.

THIS. That said... if I ever have a little girl she's gonna want that stuff, and there's not much I can do about that.

To be fair, boy-targeted WWE crap (aka "be a meat head just like dad") and a lot of other boys' toys are just as dumb. I didn't like dumb play as a kid, I loved Lego, and even my GI Joes were always on some unorthodox mission or other, usually involving a new tank made of cardboard and ninja turtles.

Gifted Many Few: There is a reason we don't see Summer's Eve commercials during football games.

Those guys are all stocked up on douche?

citizen905: Gifted Many Few: There is a reason we don't see Summer's Eve commercials during football games.

Those guys are all stocked up on douche?

HAHAHA, thank you for the laugh. *applause*

We're slaughtering female culture. IF girls like pink rooms and palaces and princesses, then they should have them. Gender nuetrality is just another form of cultural bigotry. It states that girls MUST behave just like boys, and vice versa. In actual practice, it's telling girls they can't play with the toys they like, wear what they like and do the things they like to do.

Girls and boys are different and have a right to be as they are.

Well it really could have said for kids and not for boys.

FunkOut: I was annoyed by this about 10 years ago with Lego. I saw a few commercials and it was all "RAWWWR! Legos, tough toys for boys! Spaceships, pirates, fighting, cool stuff for boys! GRAWWR!". It was like Macho Man was hepped up on speed and steroids and made a Lego ad. When I was a kid, Lego was just a bucket or box of bricks. Whatever you made was up to you. I had a lot of Lego and some old Mechanno sets. I don't see any building or engineering type toys meant for girls. If there was, it would probably be pink, overly simplified, and had girls building a mall or something.

It hasn't changed. I was actually looking at the Lego's online catalog yesterday, doing some early Christmas shopping and your description is spot on. I'd say the Lego catalog is probably one of the worst I've seen in that regard. It was really disappointing how gender specific it came across. Girls were pretty much an afterthought. The stuff they had designated for girls was all various shades of pink and so simple there didn't seem to be any actual block building involved, just pretend play.

I already struggle with my 5 year old, she sees a Star Trek toy and immediately says "that's for boys, not girls." My 3 year old daughter is into Spider Man right now and my older one is constantly telling her its for boys. I'm constantly telling her that's not true but its frustrating.

Lego can market to kids how they want but it seems a pretty foolish business practice when my daughter looks at their catalog and doesn't feel the majority of it is meant for her.

redqueenmeg: his is a pretty bogus comparison. I understand the concept of advertising demographics but you can't compare a product designed for a body part males don't have to a product that girls and boys may both be interested in depending on personal preferences.

Or maybe you were just implying women don't watch sports.

Ok, maybe that was a bad comparison. But I still feel it's a non issue when there are clearly more commercials that are designed for females, even for exclusively male products.

This is stupid. As a little kid I never liked the girly toys like dolls or make up kits, so I played with Legos and Hot Wheels. I didn't care that there were pictures of boys playing with race cars and girls playing with princess Barbies in the toy ads. I had more fun with the "boy" things, and my parents didn't mind and actually preferred me building lego sets rather than playing with makeup and obsessing over clothes.

My own toy/gender anecdote...

Many years ago, my nephew asked for an Easy-Bake oven for Christmas. He loved helping his mother cook and he really thought he'd be able to cook on his own with his own oven.

My sister bought it for him. When he opened it on Christmas morning, his excitement quickly turned to embaressment when he looked up at his mom and said in a small voice, "it's pink". She tried to convince him that it wasn't just for girls (and he wanted to believe it, too - he began analyzing the commercials to see if their were boys in them. There weren't).

Needless to say, the oven was used about 1 or 2 times, when nobody else was around, and then ended up in the attic - never to be mentioned again.

I guess I always ASSUMED it was my responsibility as a parent to teach my daughters how to be women. I don't think advertisers or toy companies are fit to do so. My eight year old loves fairies and mermaids.... and collects Matchbox cars and rocks, plays Lego Star Wars and Lego Batman with her stepdad. Oh the horror!! My 2 year old even loves watching beebah (baseball) and foobah! I might be raising LESBIANS! Oh NO!

Ah well, if they're lesbians, I won't have to worry about teen pregnancy...

VespaGuy: Many years ago, my nephew asked for an Easy-Bake oven for Christmas.

My cousin's son has been asking for one for years, but he'll never get one because his father is concerned he'll catch the ghey from it.

I had "boy toys" and "girl toys" growing up, but I spent the majority of my time with my legos and my erector set. Now I'm the one all my friends come to when they need something put together. However, not many people ask me for makeup or fashion advice ... I'm ok with that.

wildestdreams3214: VespaGuy: Many years ago, my nephew asked for an Easy-Bake oven for Christmas.

My cousin's son has been asking for one for years, but he'll never get one because his father is concerned he'll catch the ghey from it.

I'd be more concerned about catching food poisoning from batter cooked with a 40 watt bulb.

Or catching the fat.

No Such Agency: I didn't like dumb play as a kid, I loved Lego, and even my GI Joes were always on some unorthodox mission or other, usually involving a new tank made of cardboard and ninja turtles.

How much cardboard and how many ninja turtles were needed to make a tank?

I'm getting tired of telling the automatrons at McDonalds that the happy meal I'm ordering is for a boy because my girl would rather have a hot wheels car than a my little pony. I hate hate HATE that question.

But it's not their fault; they're just McDonalds workers.