How is 2011 can we have these toys for girls?

[hotsauceman]

What's wrong with that?
I would have loved a toy oven as a kid and I'm a guy.

Making your own sweets yeah i can get that. but washing your own clothe with a toy? would you want to do that?

 

[Traun]

Ok. So i was killing time looking at the toy section at K-mart trying to think of what to get my nieces and nephews for there upcoming birthdays. I was in the girls section. I saw the typical fanfare(barbies,Baby doll and cooking toy etc.) When i saw a line of "Her first" toys. What i saw appalled me. "Her first Vacuum cleaner","Her first washer and dryer" and "her first refrigerator" all of them functional item from what i could see. I was just there speechless trying to process who came up with these idea and who would buy them for there daughters. I wrote in a paper awhile back about how toys are used to prepare kid for what is expected of them. And this just seems to prepare little girls for housework.

Yes, some women want to become house wives, some mothers want their daughters to become house wives.

Thee is nothing wrong with that.

 

[the27thvoice]

That's pretty funny actually.
Sorry I'm a terrible person, I wouldn't read too much into it man, children emulate their parents, and if a girl sees her mother using an oven she's going to want to as well? I don't know I'm not a child psychologist, but I imagine it's along those lines.

I'm thinking the exact same thing. If mum is a steady user of the vacuum cleaner and washer and dryer, chances are the daughter's gonna want to do that as well. I don't think it's an effort to condition little girls to be housewives, I think it's just giving them what they want.
I'm not into making boy carpenters on principle, but if dad's swinging his hammer often, his son will likely develop a fascination with hammers. (No! No! Naughty thoughts, stop it!)
Then again, when I get a kid, if it wants a washer and dryer to play with I'm probably going to kill two birds with one stone and just teach them the proper use of the real things.

 

[Giest4life]

Ok. So i was killing time looking at the toy section at K-mart trying to think of what to get my nieces and nephews for there upcoming birthdays. I was in the girls section. I saw the typical fanfare(barbies,Baby doll and cooking toy etc.) When i saw a line of "Her first" toys. What i saw appalled me. "Her first Vacuum cleaner","Her first washer and dryer" and "her first refrigerator" all of them functional item from what i could see. I was just there speechless trying to process who came up with these idea and who would buy them for there daughters. I wrote in a paper awhile back about how toys are used to prepare kid for what is expected of them. And this just seems to prepare little girls for housework.

How old are your nieces and nephews?
Get them books.

I always gets my niece a book. Always. She probably hates me for it, but I know she'll thank me later.

 

[evilstonermonkey]

I'd say the "Her First" part is the issue; but then that's not something the kids pick up on.

But, y'know, kids like playing with that stuff. Little girls especially. So... they're gonna sell it. I don't think me playing with Action Men (and definitely not any Barbies when I was 3... ahem) or toy guns reinforced anything particularly.

Its that fact that toys teach kids how they are expected to behave. Women in our society still(even if they have a full time job and our married) are still the ones who do a mjority of work in the house. There is this quote i wish i could remember who said it but it went like this "Men have wives,Women don't" Basically men(although it is changing) are not the ones who are expected to clean so much anymore. It is still a womens job petty much sadly

I disagree that it teaches them anything. Having a play kitchen doesn't teach little Suzy that her place is making sammiches. If she enjoys playing kitchen or mother or whatever it is because she enjoys playing kitchen or mother or whatever. If her parents give her a toy vacuum cleaner because they want to reinforce that image then it is the parents at fault, not the toy or the toymaker. And who is to say that this hypothetical little girl isn't imitating daddy's role around the house by cooking and cleaning? Stay at home dads are becoming more and more common, and I personally know several couples where the man enoys cooking and/or is a clean freak. Hell, my own father was a qualified chef and did most of the cooking. As woodsey said, I think the only problem is the product name.

I wish to god I could find the quote, but someone once famously said something along the lines of sexual equality meaning letting the girls play with cars and the boys play with dolls, but if they want to you still have to let the girls play with dolls and the boys with cars.

 

[Dags90]

How old are your nieces and nephews?
Get them books.

I always gets my niece a book. Always. She probably hates me for it, but I know she'll thank me later.

Indeed. When society collapses, those unread books will make great fuel.

You should complain to the manufacturer, telling them you have higher aspirations for your niece. Recommend they start making a "Her first immigrant maid" doll.

 

[Giest4life]

How old are your nieces and nephews?
Get them books.

I always gets my niece a book. Always. She probably hates me for it, but I know she'll thank me later.

Indeed. When society collapses, those unread books will make great fuel.

Well, she is in Texas and I could get her a firearm. But I know my sister-in-law would make a big fuss over it.

 

[torzath]

Kinda off-topic, but on-topic at the same time.
I dislike that McDonald's and other fast food are still labeling toys for boys and girls, especially considering it's more informative and just as easy to say "Do you want a Pokemon toy or a Liv doll toy?" instead of "Do you want a boys' toy or a girls' toy?".

 

[HandsomeZer0]

A man with a job is just doing what he's supposed to.
A woman with a job is an independant strong individual etc. etc.

A woman who works around the house, caring for the children and relying on the husband's income is a good wife and a caring mother.
A man who works around the house, caring for the children and relying on the wife's income is a lazy bastard who needs to get off his arse and get a job.

Or so society seems to tell us.

Toys probably can be an influence on a child's future, but not by much. I played with trucks and cars as a child, I have 0 interest in cars now (rather odd for a male my age). I also had a baby doll (omg a girl's toy) but have little interest in having children (at the moment).

Many young girls seem to enjoy playing with replica household items, its simply the way of things, whether its society's influence or some other factor. Many young boys (though I'd say fewer than girls) also enjoy playing with such toys, so in the end, this company is only hurting themselves by cutting their customer base in half.

You my good sir get it!
Its not sexism at all, its just the differences in the way we perceive our gender roles to be. In 20 years of life i have hardly seen a scenario where the woman has a full time job while the man takes care of the children. There is nothing wrong with that, or these toys that are in this post. They are just toys. I played with thomas the tank engine as a kid, and i have yet to grow into a train. People read too much into things.

 

[Mrsrlg]

Many gun-like products are marketed for young boys .. do we expect them to become crime-fighting cowboys?

I played equally with my barbies/child-like dolls as I did with plastic guns and tiny race cars.
Didn't take it as a sign from my parents, them telling me I HAD to become a superhero/housewife.

It's more the teenage-years we should beware of, I'd think.

 

[Funkbucket]

Teach them to clean and cook?

 

[Merkavar]

was there a his first toy line? first 4x4, first ute, first bulldover?

i can see where people have issues with gender/role specific toys liek this but i also think that people grow up and change and these toys will probably only have a minimum affect on there lives.

not all girls grow up to be models and housewives and not all boys grow up to drive trucks and join the army.

 

[Sleekgiant]

Is it bad I laughed out loud at this, cmon these are hilarious XD

 

[Archemetis]

Yeah, they've been making 'her first' stuff for freaking ages.

I mean, sure it's 'sexist or whatever' for a little girl to be mad to 'want' to play with the oven or the fridge or the little toy dishwsher...

But has no one remembered one of the most twisted things parents buy for their girls without considering it?

Baby Dolls.

And I'm not even saying this because they're lifeless, vacant-eyed little bastions of pants shitting terror.

It's just never felt right to me that at ages as young as 3 want baby dolls...
They want to pretend they're mothers. I've watched my (at time of writing) 6 year old niece play with baby dolls and it's really damn awkward to watch...

It's a 6 year old girl, pretending that she's mothering what can only amount to a dead baby.
(without getting into the ones that blink, cry, talk, move their mouths or piss themselves...)

It's freaking creepy.

Whether this stuff really imprints on a young girl (the cooking stuff) I don't know.
They seem to enjoy playing with it a lot more than boys do...
Guess that's what counts...

But I will not be buying a baby doll for my little girl, which shouldn't happen because I want a strapping boy whom I can teach to be like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.

 

[fibchopkin]

thats not as bad as: this shit [http://www.cracked.com/article_19288_8-weirdly-sexual-products-you-wont-believe-are-kids.html]
theres a stripper pole. for your possibly-8 year old daughter. i like to imagine the people buying these products are either arrested as suspected peadophiles.

Holy rusted metal Batman! Did any of you check this crap out? INSANE! I thank God everyday that the hubs and I had a boy, life is so much easier on us as a consequence. I absolutely CANNOT imagine what he or I would do if our 10 year old came home with a Goddamn stripper pole or fake lower back tatoo.

On topic though- I don't have a problem with the toys themselves, but as someone already said- the packaging is dumb. My 4 year old (son) likes to do housework because he sees mommy doing it. He can be entertained for at least thirty minutes with a tub of soapy water and a few plastic cups that he can "wash". He also likes to "help" cook, especially if it's a treat like cookies or a favorite food like spaghetti. I'm pretty close socially with the other parents of the kids in his preschool class, and almost all of his friends, male and female, seem to get the same level of enjoyment out of these activities too. I personally prefer to let bambino help me load the wet clothes into the dryer and measure out the soap for the washer, but I can imagine he would find the toys in question fun enough to play with. If the packaging were more neutral, I think that both the company would have better luck and there would be less outrage over the product.

 

[deadxero]

No different from the plastic toolsets the sell for boys. My daughter loved her kitchen set as much as her bubble mower, her baseball/bat, or her matchbox cars.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

I'd say the "Her First" part is the issue; but then that's not something the kids pick up on.

But, y'know, kids like playing with that stuff. Little girls especially. So... they're gonna sell it. I don't think me playing with Action Men (and definitely not any Barbies when I was 3... ahem) or toy guns reinforced anything particularly.

Because action figures =/= dolls, right?

OT: it's up to the parents /kids to decide whether or not they want them. So I don't have any real issue with it, although it is on pretty grey territory on this.

They're manly dolls! Manly I tells ya!

Hey, my easy bake oven had kung fu GRIP!

Thoese chocolate cakes gotten done in an hour.

 

[ScarlettRage]

I see no issues. Now go make me a sammich.

Seriously though, I'm not sure I see anything wrong with the products. Easy bake ovens are the shit, and I'm a guy. Plus I'd kill to have a functioning refrigerator in my room. That might just be me, but whatever. The vacuum might be a little much, but cooking stuff? Sounds fine to me. Only issue I'm seeing is in the name, with the "Her First", but what can you do? No use getting offended at something like that, just don't buy it.

On another note, they also need to make a "His First Brewery" set. I would totally buy that for my kids.

-________- No Sammich for you.

I loved my easy bake over and other "her First" stuff when I was a kid, and you know what... I hate cleaning, but I still have a fondness for baking.. which is not a bad thing, cause I can make delicious snacks.

 

[Loner Jo Jo]

...and?

The vast majority of women do take care of their homes by cleaning it, making dinner, etc. etc. It makes sense they would market these toys to girls. Marketers don't care about helping society progress; they want to make money. Besides, the parents could just as easily buy them for their sons as well or not purchase these toys at all.

I agree with you that toys set up expectations for adulthood and gender roles, but considering that learning to cook, clean and do the laundry are skills that everyone needs to learn at some point or another, I don't see the big deal.

We could turn this around, too. You never see baby dolls marketed towards boys, and it sets up expectations that men don't know how to take care of small children. Girls are taught from a very young age, through toys, how to hold a baby and change diapers and all those others tasks. Boys aren't, typically. Because of this, men have to learn these things when they have a child of their own which leads to a sense of inadequacy or frustration. If we bought boys baby dolls and taught them the same things we teach girls, it would prepare them for when they have their own children, if they do.