HomeTeeter Totter ~ Finding a Balance Between Me-Hood and Motherhood
Gender: female Date of Birth: January 01, 1973 Member Since: September 11, 2007 Last Signed In: November 19, 2008 Blog Views: 8406 Send To A Friend Sign Guestbook Add as a Friend
I Love Cell Phones… I Hate Them
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“Girl” Toys
Then we turned the next isle. Now as I remember it toy stores have always had their “girl” section (dolls and doll accessories) and the “boy” section (action figures, race cars), but there has always been an “EVERYONE” section (legos, tinker toys, art supplies, etc). I was entering what I thought was the EVERYONE section only to find… “Girl” Tinker toys, “Girl” Megablocks, “Girl” art supplies!!! What the heck! I was in such shock I had to take a picture of the “Girl” Tinker toys. The barrel on the Tinker toys says “Specially designed for girls.” Ok, just what does that mean? They only like douche colors (because EVERYTHING “Girl” looked like a tampon box to me). They are smaller and lightweight because girls are weak with small hands? How can a Tinker toy be “specially designed for girls?” Why do girls need special pastel building blocks and art supplies anyway? This worries me greatly. Toys are toys. Play is play. Of course girls and boys will do it differently and prefer different items, but to create a whole sub-category of toy just to “appeal” to girls? Do the marketing people behind these monstrous creations really think that little girls won’t play with a primary colored toy, or a game with un-girl pieces like a hat and car? Where’s the outcry of disgust from the consumers and parents? Will we have a whole generation of “Paris Hilton” type girls who didn’t finish school because their books weren’t “designed for girls?” I hope you’re all as disgusted and outraged and I am at this. 8 comments from 7 users
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posted by
MamaSeaShell
on Oct 7, 2008 at 10:26 AM
posted by
wifemotherdaughtersister
on Oct 7, 2008 at 01:27 PM
i imagine the moms who buy that are the same moms that say "I'm having a princess" instead of "i'm having a girl", carry small dogs in big pruses, and have jewel encrusted cell phones.i'm with you on the confused outrage, but they do it because not only do we let them, we actually pay them to do it. even though my daughter has her tsumami of pink clothes, i'm big on not restricting her to "girl" toys. my favorite is when she is in her fru-fru dress, rain boots using a stick to find worms in the mud. posted by
teacheroftwos
on Oct 7, 2008 at 01:52 PM
I agree with you this is sickening! What is our world becoming!
posted by
creatress
on Oct 7, 2008 at 02:49 PM
Don't get me wrong, I love pink as much as the next "princess!" But to pressure parents into thinking that unisex toys are passe is just WRONG! Wrong in a developmentally damaging way. Toys like these do our girls a disservice. Ugh. Mamaseashell, I also saw the new "green" art supplies at Aaron Bros this weekend and did a double take. Just because it looks like it was whittled by someone name "Jeb" doesn't make it green. Raffia and hemp does not a green product make. They looked ugly, cheap and hard to use to me. Good concept though! I'd buy a bark tablet over a pink lego for my kids any day of the week. At least one of the two offers some developmentally appropriate stimulation! I'm happy to see that I'm not alone in my disgust. posted by
AmandaS
on Oct 7, 2008 at 04:43 PM
Don't even get be started on this topic. You won't be able to shut me up. I call this the "divafication" of our young girls. It absolutely makes me sick. It all starts with the blatent advertising that targets young children. That is what it is really about. Its about Parker Bros. being able to sell 2 versions of Monopoly to 1 household. You just identified WHY I don't let my kids watch anything with commercials.
posted by
hmoeckli
on Oct 7, 2008 at 07:56 PM
Me too! If Em watches t.v. it's Disney Channel or PBS. Commercials suck! And, it doesn't sound like you saw the Bratz dolls or America's Next Top Model dolls. That's a whole other side of crazy. posted by
creatress
on Oct 7, 2008 at 09:29 PM
Oh yeah, I saw both the dolls. I tend to give dolls a "pass" over these kinds of toys. The industry has taken developmentally wonderful toys and bastardized them in order to make a buck. Sorry, but it's been proven by early child researchers that children respond better to primary colors than pastel. So why the pastel?!? The whole thing is crazy! And yeah. When my son was little he was 100% videos (no commercials.) When I felt he was old enough for TV, we got a TiVo. He's been raised pretty much commercial free and I think it shows. Good for you moms for keeping this kind of junk out of your house! posted by
kellimwheeler
on Oct 14, 2008 at 11:00 PM
I think the "geniuses" behind the pink girl toy movement are the same people who think offering us Sara Palin for the second highest office in our nation isn't an insult to intelligent women everywhere. Oops, did I just say that out loud?
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I heard of the "Girl Monopoly". lol Being a mother of four boys, I know there are fundamental gender differences that I happen to understand and appreciate. I enjoy pink its a soft color if nicely paired with browns or oranges. Although, I have to agree the blast of ultra, she-she feminine gear for girls made my stomach hurl.
I went to the Michael's to pick up some more art paper. I saw the new marketing for "green" art supplies and "girl" art supplies. The "green" art supplies looked like they were newly shorn bark strips, freshly pulled from a tree with stick branches for pencils. I wondered how much went into that marketing. How "green" is that? It was pretty wierd. It just isn't enough to market recycled papers and materials. Which, most papers sold today are.
Then, I came across the "girl" art supples. They were pepto bismol pink everything and put in pink patent leather portfolios with fluffy feathers and all. I was supposed to be excited about this. Walk into my next book meeting with my patent leather pink portfolio and fluffy feather pencil. Although, the movie was funny...Not all of us are "Elle Woods".