Comments on: Boys, girls, science and marketing.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:36:17 +0000

I found this on a search for another article about a similar topic.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/the_powerlessness_of_pink.php

In both sections of the advertisement the pink science equipment is weaker than the non-pink.

By: kelly

kelly — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:05:26 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing this. My eldest child (a girl) is turning 6, and in looking for gifts for her, I’ve been so frustrated by the gender categories that put things like telescopes & microscopes & building kits in the boys section and toe nail painting & quilting sets & purse making in the girls section.

In 2010 do companies really believe it serves the greater good to expose girls only to prettiness & boys to only science.

My son is equally interested in learning to sew as my daughter is in learning to build bigger, higher, taller…. and they both should be allowed & encouraged to do so. I don’t purchase gifts gender-targeted, and I’m not about to begin (though I’m seeing increased divisions in toy selection and clothes selection in shops as the kids get older – its infuriating!). I want my children to pursue what INTERESTS them, NOT what the manufacturers believe SHOULD interest them.

And that commercial? Beyond yuck.
One of the reasons we don’t do TV in our house is the commercials. Awful.

By: Jill J.

Jill J. — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:27:11 +0000

Ah! OK, I’ll buy that.

By: Amy Makice

Amy Makice — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 13:44:13 +0000

oh yea- the lego thing is definitely more infuriating than just being lame- it was surprising too as lego is generally a company I think of as being congruent with my values (as much as a company that manufactures gigantic amounts of plastic can be). My point on the articulation is that you can’t do as much when you can’t move them around. The dolls for girls appear to be designed to look at and admire, while the dolls for boys (Carter called them action dolls for years)are made for movement and hostage-taking and flying.

By: Jill J.

Jill J. — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:21:58 +0000

Definitely. I don’t disagree. I guess I was using “pink” as a way to talk about how things are categorized. Our culture assigns pink to girls, so nurturing activities like baby dolls are pink, cooking supplies are pink… etc, etc. There are plenty of pink things around here, for sure. Maybe it’s that I feel like the pink assigns a value. Something lesser, that my boys don’t need to bother with.

I’m not sure the “fun” factor is what bugs me. I don’t know that a leg has to bend in a certain number of places to be fun for everyone. The lego roof story is infuriating because it seems to imply that girls aren’t capable of the engineering necessary to create a roof that doesn’t collapse. Now THAT honks me off.

Thanks for getting me thinking about this stuff a little more. It’s an interesting enterprise to work at articulating some of it a little more clearly.

By: Amy Makice

Amy Makice — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:32:49 +0000

Jill- it’s not just that those toys are pink, it’s also that ftmp, they are lame. Compare Barbie to Spiderman- Carter wouldn’t accept an action figure without a minimum of points of articulation, Barbie couldn’t make the cut (or bend her legs enough). When Legos marketed pink sets for girls, they came with the roofs pre-assembled. No fun there either. I’m certainly not opposed to my boys liking pink things, but I want them to have some standards about how fun they are.

By: Jill J.

Jill J. — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:42:59 +0000

Amy– your comment here really hit something on the head that steams me . . . that it’s more ok for girls to be exposed to or participate in “boy things”, than it is for boys to take part in “girl things.” What does that say? Clearly, it’s more horrendous to have to do things that girls are supposed to do. Who could stoop that low? Horrors!

In our household of two male children and two female adults, we try very hard to have a mostly gender neutral environment for our kids, but that’s really stretching it sometimes. It’s hard enough to find plain t-shirts and not monster trucks and GI Joe, but to think about anything pink, or toys that are “clearly girl toys” is harder to do. We do have baby dolls and all their requisite equipment, and even managed to find them in dark red and navy blue (imagine!), and I went out on a limb and bought a Fancy Nancy book for Max in December. (He loves it.) We have a doll house (plain wood, with wooden furniture), and plenty of play cooking stuff (also not pink.) It’s not that I’m opposed to pink necessarily, but I don’t want all the “traditionally girl” stuff to be pink. I feel like that just sets up the gender bias, especially in young minds. Maybe it’s just me.

Max hasn’t had a bubble bath in a few years. Maybe I’ll suggest that tonight.

By: Angela Lexmond

Angela Lexmond — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:38:35 +0000

Yours is a voice that will be heard. I’m glad you are out there raising it.

By: Amy Makice

Amy Makice — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:08:04 +0000

Thanks Natalie- I hadn’t seen that page, but I do know of lots of little girls who were given “gender neutral” clothes and chose pink as much as possible.

Thea- if only my boys were interested in bubble bath. That would save me a lot of hassle. I imagine I’ll buy her a lot of boy stuff, but what hurts me is the idea that if I bought my boys “girl” stuff I’d be selling them short. Yet I am constantly told that there’s no need for feminism- that our society is past that. We’re not, clearly.

Next time you guys are in town we’ll blow something up in the backyard.

Lisa- a book we like is Backyard Ballistics- “build potato cannons, paper match rockets, Cincinnati fire kites, tennis ball mortars and more dynamite devices”. Fun times indeed.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:53:42 +0000

Have you seen JeongMee Yoon’s Pink and Blue Project? I find it fascinating, and when I speak to my students about gender and gender roles, I always show a bunch of these pictures, as well as pictures of “gender neutral” items (like a giraffe, or a green blanket) and have them try and guess the sex/gender of the baby.

http://www.jeongmeeyoon.com/aw_pinkblue.htm

By: Thea Roessler

Thea Roessler — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:35:36 +0000

Huzzah!
As the parent of a daughter who already is showing more interest in math & science, I am forever looking for gender non-specific science toys & kits. Hard to come by. Or I just go ahead and buy the boys’ stuff. I know bubble bath sells, but interesting that the boys aren’t “supposed” to like it. Hmmm… Keep up the dialog. We’ve come so far since we were kids; hopefully the world will advance so far for our children. Thanks, Amy!

By: lisa

lisa — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:47:19 +0000

Great post Amy!
It’s so interesting for me to read posts like this, as a mother of an only child, and a girl at that. We haven’t done a lot of blowing up things, but she is definitely a calculated risk taker, who loves doing things many might consider dangerous and daring (trapeze comes to mind….).

When one looks at it from a commercial standpoint, it can be a whole new way of looking at things….
I think i might have to look into kits of blowing things up….