Letters to the Editor
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Just good marketing
It's appealing to parents who believe that boys and girls are different, i.e. most parents who have both boys and girls. Don't worry, many of those parents will still let their girls play with trucks and won't get bent out of shape if their boy wants to play with a doll. I could (and did) play with whatever I wanted, and so could my brothers, and so can my niece and nephews. But my niece and I can dress up her dolls for hours without getting bored, and my nephew plays with trucks. Go figure. It's possible to believe both that there are different brains in there AND that individual differences will put many girls and boys in the same play space.
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here we go again...
puunjab, and others trying to obscure the issue....the outcry here is not about whether or not that boys and girls are different. the problem here is the visuals and message being perpetrated by targeted marketing of this kind.
but tell me, how much cleaning do you do at home, and how would you deal with your kid making a mess at home?
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To Lola Faire
"Am I depriving them?"
No, you are not. For Christmas of 2004 I bought my kids only books, coloring implements, coloring books, clothes, swimwear, beach toys (simple plastic shovels and such that we still have, but are always kept out of the house), sports stuff, and DVDs. We have told my parents, my sister, my sister in-laws (and their husbands), and my mother in-law to only send gift purchasing cards or presents that conform to our (my wife and I) standards, and our kids haven't noticed the lack of plastic junk in the lives.
Actually I have started to buy the plastic anime figurines for my son, because he understands that he is not suppose to take those toys out of their boxes, and that they are just collectors items that go with the Japanese comics that he has recently started to read.
I have my own collection of figurines and comics, so it was only fair that I let my son start his collection.
My kids did spend a lot of time playing with wooden trains and train tracks, marbles, legos, and lincoln logs, but they got those toys well before Christmas of 2004, and the reason why those toys survived, is because I like to play with them to (such toys which have so many pieces, are toys that the parents have to watch, so if you don't find them fun, then don't buy them for your kids).
As for myself, I love the ice-cream maker I bought for myself, my ratchet set, my electric drill set, my CAT5 cable connector making kit, and my hedge clippers (the non-electrical kind). And yeah, I did buy myself all seven of the Harry Potter books on audio CD. And my wife was happy with her new purse, and $200 make over.
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Relatedly, it will be interesting...
...to see how the "lead in toys" problem affects Christmas shopping this season. Will more parents opt for hand-crafted toys--or will they just go for books and crafts and the like?
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Some boy's are even MORE different...
It was always hard as a kid to be constantly reminded by television, friends and my parents that my likes as a little boy were abnormal. At Christmas and Birthdays, it was very quickly learned, you were to only ask for what you "should" want as a "normal" little boy. never what you really wanted.
It was brought back painfully for me recently when I witnessed the shame a friends little boy felt at his birthday party when his best (girl) friend gave him what he really wanted- a Bratz Doll. It was quickly hidden away by him before the other boys invited by his mother would see.
Why can't toys just be sold as fun and not associated with adult stereotypes.
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is this ad geared towards the parents or the children?
I've seen ads for both the Rose Petal Cottage and the Tonka truck now, but both were aired during the news. They seem to be addressing the parents, not the kids. Are the same ads airing during Saturday morning cartoons or other children's programming, or do they have different ones that basically say "pester Mommy to buy you this"?
Boys ARE different. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but when I was teaching preschool, it usually wasn't the girls who were throwing their socks down the toilets/ smearing boogers on each other/ growling at each other from across the table for no apparent reason/ getting in fistfights for the hell of it, etc. Nor, when they played with the toy cars, did everything always end in a multi-car fiery explosion.
Both the toys look pretty cool--don't know why they made the Rose Petal Cottage so explicitly feminine unless it was to compete with the gender-neutral playhouses made by Little Tykes that are marketed to both boys AND girls. You know, parents who know they have a "princess" daughter who would be happier with something frilly...
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Happy Meal Toys
Now that McDonalds is doing less movie tie-ins in their Happy Meals, they're having a lot of promotions where you can get either the small stuffed toy or a Hot Wheels car - a Barbie or a superhero - whatever. And they will come right out on commercials and say "And for little brother, here's a car!" The restaurant near me will ask "For a boy or a girl?" whenever you order one. It infuriates me that they're perpetuating that kind of gender segregation. And yes, I will occasionally get the Happy Meal with milk/apples, since it's the only vaguely nutritionally sound thing you can get in fast food.
And I have to take exception to the parent who gives their child collectible toys that are supposed to remain sealed. I collect some expensive Japanese imports myself, but I have opened every one of them. Toys are for enjoying. The only imagination a kid can develop with a sealed toy is imagining that she can open it and play with it.
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Remember metal trucks?
Good stout metal trucks that if you hit your brother with them you could actually give him a concussion? Remember great electric trains that were actually affordable and ran 'round and 'round on tracks? Remember those toys soldiers that your little brother would swallow and then be sent to the hospital and then sent home again while the whole family waited anxiously for him to have a bowel movement? God, they used to have great "boys" toys. I loved them just as much as I loved my dolls.
Remember when children actually made some of their own toys? That was fun too. Remember when everything you played with was NOT a must-have adjunct to cartoons?
Kids really don't fit in a box. They are various. I liked both "boys" toys and "girls" toys. My brothers played paper dolls with me. They were in love with Katy Keene.
My daughter loathed dolls. She liked trucks. But she also loved mail order catalogs, empty cardboard boxes, and Ranger Rick magazine. Despite he dislike for dolls, she grew up to be the most girlie of women. She is her own dress-up doll. A fashion fanatic.
When she was six, her grandparents insisted on getting her a bicycle -- even though she adamantly told them she didn't want one. She wanted a huge coffee table book with pictures of and descriptions of different breeds of cats. She rarely rode that bicycle, but she spent hours with that cat book. She really improved her reading with that cat book.
Take away the hours of television. Let your children tell you what they really want. They know. Let them follow their hearts. As adults, we really wither from the requirements and responsibilities of adulthood. Too often we don't get to follow our hearts. Limit or ignore the advertising. Instead, create the sort of environment where children can follow their hearts. Those are precious years. They will never get them back. Don't try to make your children carbon copy representatives of YOUR values. Let them be who they are.