02 December 2009

Pink Toys Are Sexist And Evil

...according to the Pinkstinks people. It's not ok to be marketing toys that perpetuate gender stereotypes. It's a way to keep the girls down and teach them that they're good for nothing but wiping baby bottoms! It has to end, folks. Boycott time.

Bleh.

First off, boycotts are danged overused and downright boring. If you don't like the pink toys, and your friends don't like the pink toys, how about... just not buying the pink toys and writing to the company in question about why YOU don't like them? Why does everyone have to get all organized and angry about it?

Now... I think a man can live in a pink house. I think he can cook in a pink kitchen with a pink pot. It's when he wears the princess high heels and the boa that I start to worry. I also think that men can occasionally have... female children. You know, baby girls. Said baby girls are usually pushed around in little pink strollers and wear little pink clothes and drink from pink bottles. Though the toymakers marketing almost ONLY EXCLUSIVELY pink things does send my sons the message that men don't belong at home with kids except on alternate weekends if they've paid their child support. But as long as they make money with the Pink Princess Plastic Palace and the purple glitter ponies made in China for super-cheap with toxic chemicals, I don't think the toymakers care.

Something else, though, bears mentioning. Dear toymakers, I know this may come as a surprise to you, but occasionally little girls marry MEN who insist on having the singing Billy Bass hung in the living room or who want to have their house painted a poop brown colour. (The nickname for the exact shade of our house is "Porta-Potty" brown, come to think of it.) It's also a simple fact that most of us living within our means don't buy entirely coordinated furniture and have a "theme" throughout the house. Can your playhouses reflect this fact, please?

And while I'm at it, I need to mention that occasionally... just occasionally... little girls grow up to be women who have SONS. They need to learn to push the BLUE stroller as well as the pink one. I'm not feeling that the gender role of my daughter is squashed by your marketing the pink kitchen and the pink-clad dolly, and I do buy some pink little dollies. But I buy boy dolls as well and can't find fun little "boy" accessories for them. A pack with a "boy"rattle, puzzle or outfit/blanket set would be nice.

While we're on the subject of gender roles and stereotypes, how 'bout this one? I'm thinking the truth is probably that the teacher is a liberal snit who wants to impose her values on everyone in the school and the dad is a jerk... who wants to impose his values on the everyone in the school. But... that's just from reading the article. The truth may be something so way different. Funny how that goes.

8 comments:

  1. Eventually a gal will decide for herself whether or not pink is pretty. The ones complaining about it figured out that they didn't like it eventually, didn't they?

    Japan is the land of red/pink only for baby girls, and my daughter managed to decide she prefers purples and blues by the time she was three. She also says that she is never having kids or getting married (sniff)... but we'll see about that.

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  2. I happen to like pink. I bought a pink camera simply because I knew my teenaged son would never touch it but my dh is secure enough in his manhood to take pictures with a pink camera!

    It works for me.

    The folks over at pinkstinks need to get a life and worry about something really important . . .

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  3. I have a pink shirt.

    Well, I guess, technically, it's a very pinkish salmon.

    My wife loves using mismatched furniture. It's great!

    ~Luke

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  4. Sue, we'll see about that. I said the same thing, ya know.

    Tammy, I agree we need to worry more about the big things. That's *just* what I was thinking when I was reading about these conniption fits over *pink.*

    Luke, as long as the label says "salmon" and/or your wife picked out the shirt for you, I think you're ok. :p

    I also think that using mismatched furniture brings out our creative side.

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  5. I don't like pink. Veronica didn't like pink. But Amy adores anything pink. Amy is all about the "prettyshinybeautiful" lol

    Boycotts have their place but I prefer to save my energy for boycotting other stuff. And the comments section of your blog isn't the place for me to be pushing my pet issues.

    Have I told you lately how much I enjoy your blog? ((hugs)) Kim

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  6. Kim, I find it very informative reading about your pet issues which (correct if wrong) are the deforestation of Tasmania and the cruelty animals suffer in some of these factory-type farms.

    I'm thinking everyone needs a few pet issues... but marketing pink toys to little girls sure isn't mine LOL.

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  7. I personally find the no-blue-strollers, no-pink-legos-toy stereotyping really annoying.

    What I find even worse though is that I can hardly find clothes/toothbrushes/toys that aren't covered in some stupid tv character, scary or violent images (like skulls), or obnoxious/trampy little sayings.

    I remember when they started limiting the liquids you could carry on a plane. There was an exception for mothers with baby bottles. My husband was SO OFFENDED, because what about the dads who might have baby's and bottles?

    Another time my mom came to pick me up so we could go somewhere and she said to him "you're babysitting today, huh?" and my husband said, "I am not babysitting my children, I am parenting them." I think she was a little taken aback.

    All those years of me going on tirades about sexism paying off!

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  8. Now what exactly do you have against men in pink boas?? LMBO

    Love it!

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