Donnchadha: [www.ilovethe80s.com image 279x165]

Looks pretty gender neutral to me

What color is your apron?

Nation... Of... Sallys...

Hence the name Hasbro, bro

Wait, she thinks purple is "girly"? Nice job filling you bigot daughter with preconceived societal bullshiat, parents!

Gyrfalcon: What, pray tell, is a "gender neutral" oven?

Avocado Green.

I can appreciate the move but at the same time, can't we just let our boys play with pink stuff without giving them the impression that they're gay or girls or whatever? Pretty silly.

People have too much god damned time on their hands.

Get back in the kitchen and cook me a turkey pot pie, biznatch!

It's good to hear their expanding their marketing to guys. Nothing gets you laid faster than being able to cook well.

They already sell Easy Bake Ovens to boys:



/like a bare light bulb

Er marketing to boys*

Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: It's good to hear their expanding their marketing to guys. Nothing gets you laid faster than being able to cook well.

Agreed.

Gyrfalcon: What, pray tell, is a "gender neutral" oven?

probably a toy with a heating element in it that needs to be plugged in and isn't pink, doesn't have flowers painted on it... just a guess...

/easy-bake
//

I consider it a natural progression since more women than men are getting degrees, entering the workforce and becoming managers. See: The End of Men. Soon it'll be normal for the boys to play house and girls to have all the 'occupational' toys.

/doing my part as a SAHD for ten years

SockMonkeyHolocaust: This is the most significant cultural milestone since 1985 when Hasbro stopped making a "WHITES ONLY" EZ-Bake oven.


And before that you have to go back to 1945 where Krupps stopped making a "Jews Only" EZ-Bake oven.


/Progress : may not always happen as fast as we want, but it does happen

The other day I discovered that Fisher-Price now makes two versions of their doctor's kit: the traditional blue and yellow, and a new pink and yellow. Why does everything have to have a gender assignment?

\Interestingly, both boxes had a picture of a girl on them.

vudukungfu: Sudo_Make_Me_A_Sandwich: It's good to hear their expanding their marketing to guys. Nothing gets you laid faster than being able to cook well.

Agreed.

I'm Italian -- I came out of mom's vagina with a spatula

/or something
//cooking is not difficult

jdamaral: I can appreciate the move but at the same time, can't we just let our boys play with pink stuff without giving them the impression that they're gay or girls or whatever? Pretty silly.

Ever think its simply to sell more?

Couldn't you just have bought your kid a toaster oven? I mean isn't that what the girly one is, since they got rid of the light bulb? A toaster oven in purple with a 400% markup?

Wait, I thought that the progressive argument was that pink was gender neutral, and that its even ok for boys should be wearing skirts? I don't really care either way, just get confused when I see praise over dads letting boys dress like girls and then others complaining about a pink oven.

Is pink ok for boys or not?

Are these different groups of people?

There's nothing like filling the house with the smell of melting toy soldiers.

CruJones: jdamaral: I can appreciate the move but at the same time, can't we just let our boys play with pink stuff without giving them the impression that they're gay or girls or whatever? Pretty silly.

Ever think its simply to sell more?

This was all due to some 4 year old boy who liked to cook who had a 13 year old sister who wants to be an activist. Of those 44,000 people who signed the petition, they'll probably sell an additional 100 units or so.

Didn't they try and make a more realistic Barbie Doll awhile back and no one bought it? Is it so terrible to have some stuff designed to appeal to girls and some designed to appeal to boys? Why does everything have to be gender neutral and co-educational?

Honestly I think we could go a long way towards addressing some of this countries problems if people, and especially feminists, could accept that men and women are *gasp* different. Some things may appeal to men more than women and vice versa and women may be better at certain tasks than men and vice versa. This is not a bad thing.

ElBarto79: Didn't they try and make a more realistic Barbie Doll awhile back and no one bought it? Is it so terrible to have some stuff designed to appeal to girls and some designed to appeal to boys? Why does everything have to be gender neutral and co-educational?

Honestly I think we could go a long way towards addressing some of this countries problems if people, and especially feminists, could accept that men and women are *gasp* different. Some things may appeal to men more than women and vice versa and women may be better at certain tasks than men and vice versa. This is not a bad thing.

Oh, no, we can't accept that. If men and women are different, and I assign my arbitrary values to their different abilities, then that makes you sexist! It's definitely more important to be able to make money than to read and deal with emotions, so we can't say that any gender is generally better at one or the other. If we acknowledge that most boys and girls have characteristics, then the few who are different will realize it and have to deal with it now rather than waiting until they're completely confused at high school.

Sex: Male ____ Female ____ Neutral ____

ElBarto79: Is it so terrible to have some stuff designed to appeal to girls and some designed to appeal to boys?

Yes, when "appealing to girls or boys" isn't actually an inherent or intrinsic quality in the "stuff", and it only does so because of extrinsic marketing. In other words, if boys are or are not playing with toy [x] because of your gendered advertising, then you're the one causing the difference in appeal, not the toy.

In this case, the boy wants to play with an oven. So why design toy ovens to suppress that appeal?

Honestly I think we could go a long way towards addressing some of this countries problems if people, and especially feminists, could accept that men and women are *gasp* different.

Honestly, I think we could go a long way towards addressing some of this country's problems if people, and especially anti-feminists, would realize that many of those differences are *gasp* not actually caused by genitals.

Gyrfalcon: No, apparently that is a bad thing. The idea that men and women might possibly be different is entirely a social construct and has nothing at all to do with our different body types and hormonal balances.

Viewing everything as a dichotomy may be comforting on some level, but it sure doesn't reflect reality.

eudemonist: Wait, she thinks purple is "girly"? Nice job filling you bigot daughter with preconceived societal bullshiat, parents!

I was wondering if someone would get around to this.
Bravo.

Honestly, I think we could go a long way towards addressing some of this country's problems if people would stop using "feminist" to describe a) what a few people on the internet or TV said once or, more importantly, b) what they think "feminists" say.

jdamaral: I can appreciate the move but at the same time, can't we just let our boys play with pink stuff without giving them the impression that they're gay or girls or whatever? Pretty silly.

Some things I can see why they girly-up to better sell to girls. Some things I'm not so sure about, like Lego. NPR had a story this morning about a new campaign targeting girls. I can see that it might help some, but on the other hand both of my girls like Lego fine, as they are. Then some things are just plain silly; like toddler toys that are usually in primary colors, but then are offered in pinks and pastels. What's the point of that? Do we need to establish that primary colors are for boys by offering a girl alternative?

Easy Bake Oven is NOT COOKING! The pie is a LIE!

trappedspirit: Easy Bake Oven is NOT COOKING! The pie is a LIE!

It's more like molecular gastronomy, isn't it? The heat from a light bulb reacts with the chemicals in a mix producing a polymerase reaction which yields a cake with the texture of rubber.

Theaetetus:
Honestly, I think we could go a long way towards addressing some of this country's problems if people, and especially anti-feminists, would realize that many of those differences are *gasp* not actually caused by genitals.

Except they are, I taught young children for awhile. There are clear differences in boys and girls even from a very young age. Boys are hyper and fidgety, they have a lot of trouble sitting still and focusing while the girls are much more calm and pleasant. This is hormones, biology, it has nothing to do with gender specific stimuli. Put a bunch of little kids in a room, you will see the girls begin to form groups and talk and play games with each other while the boys are attaching each other and throwing things around. You can try and bend their behavior as much as you want, you will never succeed, it is hardwired into them. You can do this again and again as much as you want with as many kids as you want and you will always see similar results.

The people that say gender is simply a social construct are not looking at the reality of the biological and hormonal differences between the sexes.

SinisterDexter: jdamaral: I can appreciate the move but at the same time, can't we just let our boys play with pink stuff without giving them the impression that they're gay or girls or whatever? Pretty silly.

Some things I can see why they girly-up to better sell to girls. Some things I'm not so sure about, like Lego. NPR had a story this morning about a new campaign targeting girls. I can see that it might help some, but on the other hand both of my girls like Lego fine, as they are. Then some things are just plain silly; like toddler toys that are usually in primary colors, but then are offered in pinks and pastels. What's the point of that? Do we need to establish that primary colors are for boys by offering a girl alternative?


Lego used to be gender neutral... About 15 years ago, they dropped that and started forcing a gender dichotomy in the sets, with sets that were explicitly for girls lacking moving parts or even very many generic parts. Instead, it's all pre-built stuff, more like Duplo.

/Obligatory
//Not that there's anything wrong with that

eudemonist: Wait, she thinks purple is "girly"? Nice job filling you bigot daughter with preconceived societal bullshiat, parents!

Quiet you, she just totally smashed the patriarchy. I'd say that she already has done everything she needs to nail her college admissions but with 5 years to go, there will be plenty of time for the "gender neutral" ez-bake oven to fail. The first hint? It took a girl to demand an EZ-bake oven for boys.

A visual history of the Easy Bake Oven.

What I want to know is, what are they going to cook with once the 100 watt light bulb dissapears?

ElBarto79:

andyfromfl:

Gyrfalcon:

This just in: Feminist theory, an ever-expanding realm of academia and a socio-political movement with widely varying schools of thought that incorporates scientific studies in the fields sociology, anthropology, psychiatry, psychology, biology, and is built on a foundation of thousands of years of philosophical inquiry, was debunked by some white heterosexual men in an online forum. Story at 11

cedarpark: What I want to know is, what are they going to cook with once the 100 watt light bulb dissapears?

A 27 watt CFL of course! It's supposed to be equivalent to a 100 watt incandescent, isn't it?