Sexist Kid Toys

Thanks for the post.  Lyn Mikel Brown and Sharon Lamb spell it all out in Packaging Girlhood and (soon to be released) Packaging Boyhood.   Not only the stereotyping girl/soft - boy/tough but the nuances within genders (i.e. pink to red) need to be noticed and attended to.  And, we need to vote with our dollars. Podcast of interview with Sharon Lamb can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/c3zqbj  

Mary

Mary L. Rothschild, Director
Healthy Media Choices
www.healthymediachoices.org ( http://www.healthymediachoices.org/ )
Brooklyn, New York
Brattleboro, Vermont
Host: The Healthy Media Choices Hour
T

I would be hard pressed to believe that most parents are so free from culture bias that they would buy a pink purse toy for their son. Further, the fact that the marketing and packaging is clearly designed to reinforce that bias - are there pink toolboxes or blue purses? Nope. The clear dichotomy created by these toys is part of the problem and reinforces the stereotypes and the culture.

 It's interesting to note how F-P carefully avoids gendered pronouns in their site's descriptions, and how gender-neutral the baby playing with the purse is portrayed. 

 It's hard to say if the prdouction of these toys is the problem or if how we use them is the problem, but  it is clear from the choice of the design that pink/purse is aligned and blue/tools is aligned - two very clear dominant-patriarchal-culture aligned choices.

http://www.prosaicparadise.com/