13-Year-Old Girl Asks Easy Bake Oven To End Sexist Ads:

[The Straight Story]

13-Year-Old Girl Asks Easy Bake Oven To End Sexist Ads: ‘I Want My Brother To Know That It’s Not Wrong’ To Cook

Thirteen year old Mckenna Pope’s little brother loves to cook. But when he watches the commercials for a product he’s hoping to get for Christmas — the Easy Bake Oven — he only sees girls playing with the toy. Because of that, he believes that “only girls play with it.”

Pope is hoping to change that perception with a video and a petition. She is asking Hasboro — maker of the Easy Bake Oven — to start putting boys in their commercials, so that her little brother sees it’s okay for boys to cook:

Boys are not featured in packaging or promotional materials for Easy Bake Ovens — this toy my brother’s always dreamed about. And the oven comes in gender-specific hues: purple and pink.

I feel that this sends a clear message: women cook, men work.

I want my brother to know that it’s not “wrong” for him to want to be a chef, that it’s okay to go against what society believes to be appropriate. There are, as a matter of fact, a multitude of very talented and successful male culinary geniuses, i.e. Emeril, Gordon Ramsey, etc. Unfortunately, Hasbro has made going against the societal norm that girls are the ones in the kitchen even more difficult.

Watch her appeal:

http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/12/03/1274581/easy-bake-oven/

[sarisataka]

1. My daughter wanted

real tools to help me around the house. My son loves baby dolls. I tell them it is ok to do and play what they like.

She will be self-sufficient and he will be a good father. I think not locking my kids into stereotypes will make them better adults.

[AverageJoe90]

46. Kudos to you, ma'am.

[sarisataka]

54. Actually it would be

sir- but I work for a living. OTH my initials are 'mam' so I will assume a typo

and Thank You

[AverageJoe90]

57. Heh, sorry.

And you're welcome.

[SummerSnow]

2. I found this article very interesting

Some of our top chefs are men. Get him to watch Iron Chef he will be amazed.


My uncle can't boil water.

[Odin2005]

39. I have noticed that almost invariably men are called "chefs", women are called "cooks".

It stems back to sexist social norms of professional chefs being men because "women belong home in the kitchen".

[XemaSab]

48. In Little House on the Prairie

The dad accidentally shoots a swan and he decides to make a coat for the little girl in the family.

Even though the mother is the one who makes almost all their clothes, when it's time to make something special, the dad does it, even though there's no indication that he's ever sewn so much as a button before.

[AverageJoe90]

51. That's pretty neat.

Been a long time since I've read the books........

[Brickbat]

71. Is that from the TV show? Because that's not what happened in the books.

Grace’s Christmas present was to be the most beautiful of all. They had all worked at it together in the warm room, for Grace was so little that she didn’t notice.

Ma had taken the swan’s skin from its careful wrappings, and cut from it a little hood. The skin was so delicate that Ma trusted no one else to handle that; she sewed every stitch of the hood herself. But she let Laura and Carrie piece out the lining, of scraps of blue silk from the scrap bag. After Ma sewed the swan’s-down hood to the lining, it would not tear.

Then Ma looked again in the scrap bag, and chose a large piece of soft blue woolen cloth, that had once been her best winter dress. Out of it she cut a little coat. Laura and Carrie sewed the seams and pressed them; Mary put the tiny stitches in the hem at the bottom. Then on the coat Ma sewed a collar of the soft swan’s-down, and put narrow swan’s-down cuffs on the sleeves.

The blue coat trimmed with the white swan’s-down, and the delicate swan’s-down hood with its lining as blue as Grace’s eyes, were beautiful.

“It’s like making doll’s clothes,” Laura said.

“Grace will be lovelier than any doll,” Mary declared.

“Oh, let’s put them on her now!” Carrie cried, dancing in her eagerness.

But Ma had said the coat and the hood must be laid away until Christmas, and they were. They were waiting now for tomorrow morning to come.

[Separation]

56. ?

I'm not saying you are wrong but can you provide some examples? A chef is a person who has been trained and recieve a culinary degree. A cook is a self taught person. Some famous cooks are Racheal Ray and Nigella Lawson who both say they are cooks not chefs. Cat Cora and Julia Childs are trained chefs.

[hifiguy]

87. Not on the serious cooking competitions

like "Top Chef" and "The Next Iron Chef." It's always "Chef" for all contestants. Always.

[jmowreader]

95. It's sexist but you're not quite there yet

Chef means "chief" in both French and German. Anyone with Chef in his or her title has a leadership role in the kitchen brigade. Men were the chefs because they thought women couldn't lead.

(I edited this to add a war story. I was reading a German language document and came upon the title 'chef des nachtrichten.' I knew 'nachtrichten' is German for 'information' but 'chef' - do they have a kitchen down there or something? I really thought this guy was a cook until someone told me the German army calls commanders and leaders chefs.)

[Democracyinkind]

104. :)

Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions." He runs his eye down and finds that there are more exceptions to the rule than instances of it. So overboard he goes again, to hunt for another Ararat and find another quicksand. Such has been, and continues to be, my experience. Every time I think I have got one of these four confusing "cases" where I am master of it, a seemingly insignificant preposition intrudes itself into my sentence, clothed with an awful and unsuspected power, and crumbles the ground from under me....

I bet YOU know who said that.. Hehe

[FedUpWithIt All]

3. Here is a link to the petition.

http://www.change.org/petitions/hasbro-feature-boys-in-the-packaging-of-the-easy-bake-oven

[Kali]

4. when I was a kid my sister had an easybake oven. it was blue

(I got a creepy crawler machine that year, those who know me can laugh)

when my son was at that age he was interested in cooking so we got him an easybake oven. it was pink and so obviously aimed at girls I was kind of repulsed. even barbie wasn't as freaking pink when I was a kid. WTF? he didn't care about the color because we didn't have too much exposure to commercials and other kids that would have influenced him at that age.

it is like the marketing got more stereotyped as real people became less so.

[Dont call me Shirley]

20. I had a creepy crawler edible machine when I was a kid. I loved it!

I also cross toys beyond the gender line with my kids.

[Go Vols]

22. I had

a creepy crawler machine,damn thing would burn the hell out of you.

[TheBlackAdder]

27. Incredible Edibles, remember them!

[Kali]

58. yeah but I had to buy those with my own money

parents wouldn't spring for that stuff

oh they were gross weren't they, nothing like gummy worms and such nowadays

why we had to walk uphill in the snow both ways and our plasticy edible bugs tasted like crap

[Kali]

28. oh yeah - I remember that

and also how the goo would stain anything it got spilled on.

[treestar]

53. Have to agree

I had Barbies and they weren't so relentlessly pink

I have two little nieces and so many of their clothes and toys are pink! Or lavender, purple, what have you.

For her birthday, I bought one of the girls a green shirt - just so she'd have something in another color!

It's beyond ridiculous.

[Moonwalk]

59. Uber-pinkness can be traced to Disney and the popularity of princesses in the late 90's early 00's..

...For whatever reason (perhaps because of Disney movies of the 90's created new "princesses" like the little Mermaid, etc., and had heroines who little girls could identify with) there was a "girly" zeitgeist involving little girls wanting uber-girly things--All American Girl dolls, Disney Princesses, etc. This brought in so much money (as with Barbie, there were accessories, special teas, special beauty parlors, stores), that toy companies gave up on trying to be gender neutral and went into gender-over-drive, especially in regards to the ultra feminine. Which usually meant making things pink, lavender, and decked with hearts or flowers. Toy Story 2 actually joked about this when the toys are wandering through Al's Toy Barn and find themselves down an aisle that is all pink. Not only were girls toys retro-ed back to pink and stereotypically feminine, but toys for girls were also segregated. The toy makers and stores were to blame for this new wave of gender bias, but, to be fair, they were just doing what is done in our society whenever something catches on. They went after what would make them money. If little girls at that time wanted to be princesses, with frilly dresses and everything pretty and pink, then that is what the toy makers and stores would provide.

The irony, of course, was that these new princesses started off as strong heroines for girls to identify with, but went sideways down the "I want to wear pretty dresses and a tiara" path; and as popularity breeds more of whatever seems to be popular, this snowballed into more movies, like the Princess Diaries, which re-inforced the idea of little girls wanting frilly princess-y things. And the further irony is that grown women were on board as well. What was "Sex and the City" but stories of uber-feminine "princesses" with closets full of pretty dresses, focusing only on romance and expensive lunches?

Of course, the princess frenzy is dying down if not dead (recent princess movies from "The Princess and the Frog" to "Tangled" to "Brave" haven't fared well. Girls seem to be going for poor heroines like the one in Hunger Games). But the princess phenomena was so easy to make and market, that it's hard for makers and marketers to give it up. Until something equal easy to make and market to little girls becomes wildly popular, they won't give up hoping that the pink princess stuff can still make them money. Nor are they going to give a second thought to the message it sends to both girls and boys.

[Gormy Cuss]

85. Wow, you're right. I remember when Easybake ovens were blue too.

According to the Wiki article, the original ones were yellow or turquoise.

[Enrique]

5. YouTube video is very sweet

and "comments disabled" is a wise move.

&feature=player_embedded

[one_voice]

6. Excellent!!!

K&R

edited to add: I played with the little green army things when I was little. I played flag football. I also played with Barbies.

[texshelters]

7. What a great sister!

I agree with the comment above. Watch a cooking show that features men and women and buy Paul Prodhomme or other cooking book featuring a male chef along with Julia Childs or whatever he likes.

Peace,
Tex Shelters

[Javaman]

8. I never understood why the Easy Bake Oven was frowned upon as toy for boys...

as a boy, I would have loved to make my own tasty treats.

As a result, I just helped my mom in the kitchen. It turned out I was the only one on my dorm floor that could cook spaghetti sauce from scratch. I made a lot of money that semester. lol

[dsc]

9. I was my dorm's cook as well

I was amazed at how many adult males literally couldn't do any cooking whatsoever. I was by no means a chef but man. Oh, and how to you thicken your sauce. I have always had that problem of having to trade fresh homemade taste for thickness.

[jmowreader]

97. This is what cornstarch is for

If you use canned tomatoes in your sauce, drain the juice into a cup, add a tablespoon of cornstarch to half of it, mix till smooth and add to the sauce. Cook for half an hour then see if it's thick enough. If not, repeat with the rest of the juice.

If it's fresh for you, water will work.

[Odin2005]

38. Because peer pressure acts to maintain sexist gender norms.

Boys that get caught playing with "girl" toys will be ruthlessly bullied.

[Warren DeMontague]

10. They still make Easy Bake Ovens?

No shit.

[sufrommich]

11. I bought my son an Easy Bake Oven when he was 7 because

he wanted one.I had one when I was a kid.Male or female,I don't know how any kid resists the lure of the Easy Bake Oven,YOU GET TO MAKE YOUR OWN CAKES!!

My son grew up to be a great cook and a major foodie.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. If you expose boys to cooking, they can get a distorted idea of what a man is supposed to be.

[blueamy66]

75. How about the Cake Boss?

Can Fieri even cook? Not being snarky, but I've only seen him cruise around the US and eat.

[hifiguy]

88. He just opened a restaurant in NYC

and it was pounded in to the ground like a tent peg by the reviewers. I have never seen reviews that awful in years of being a foodie and fan of restaurant reviews. Fieri (born Guy Ferry) is a douche supreme.

[blueamy66]

91. Have you ever seem him actually cook?

I think I've seen him cook a few times.

But the guy is rich!

[Warren DeMontague]

94. I've seen him EAT. But, you're right.

I don't think I've ever, actually, seen him cook.

Boy the NY Times tore his place a new one in their review, too.

[Little Star]

99. He won the second season of the show Food Network Star....

His Wiki Page is pretty interesting. There's more to him than meets the eye. He's no dummy that's for sure.

This is a pretty good insight into how popular he is especially with men:

By mid-2010, the Food Network had made Fieri the "face of the network."[4] In 2010, the New York Times reported that Fieri brought an "element of rowdy, mass-market culture to American food television," and that his "prime-time shows attract more male viewers than any others on the network."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fieri


(Bolding is mine)

[blueamy66]

101. I never knew that.

Can he cook tho or is it just his personality that carries him? Or is it both?

[Little Star]

103. The show he won was a cooking competition. So yes he can cook.

[blueamy66]

109. Cooking show or TV show star?

Cause RR has a few shows and she can't cook.

And it was an honest ?.

[Little Star]

110. I knew you were asking a serious question and..

I thought I was giving a serious answer. The Food Network Star competition/show is chefs/cooks compete in a cook-off type setting.

I wasn't trying to be snarky. So I apologize if I came off that way.

[blueamy66]

111. No problem

In a mood lately

[gkhouston]

13. I think it's disgusting nearly everything targeted to girls is either pink or purple.

My daughter can't stand it, and even when she was an infant I often bought clothing intended for boys because I was sick of the pink avalanche.

[woo me with science]

15. "the pink avalanche"

Well said.

[Fawke Em]

17. Same here!

My daughter likes purple, but she's seen so much pink in her short little 5-year-old life, I doubt she wants to see it much again.

[Freddie]

30. I have a granddaughter

And her mommy (my daughter) goes bananas with that stuff, *everything* is pink or purple. They talk about having another one sometime and they can't re-use anything if they get a boy next time? Arghh.

[Mariana]

112. LOL, my mom had two girls and then a boy

and she dyed everything blue for him, except the dresses of course.

[Odin2005]

42. You would hate the thrift store I work at.

I would say over half of the clothes for girls are pink or purple,

[gkhouston]

44. Not surprising. It can be difficult to find clothes for girls that aren't pink/purple,

and hard to find boy's clothes that aren't sports-related.

[WolverineDG]

70. Not to hijack this thread but

I have long been damn sick & tired of items marketed to women being colored pink too. Little lady want a hammer? HERE'S A PINK ONE!! Aw, does she need a tape measure too? HERE'S A PINK ONE!!!

And don't get me started on all the pink-colored crap that allegedly supports breast cancer research.

Last year, our local women's bar association decided to get T shirts. We had a really good design to go on them, but the president wanted the T shirts to be pink so we'd be "cute." Oh hello, did I just wake up in an alternate universe where women lawyers have to be "cute?" Hell to the No!!

I lobbied, harder than I should have had to, for the T shirts to be in suffragette colors: purple (violet really) & white. I won, but damn.

[gkhouston]

72. I never buy the pink version of things. I actually like the color, and wear it

sometimes, depending on whether I like the shade that's available at the time, but pinkified everything?

[James48]

14. But....

the Easy Bake Oven doesn't work very well with a fluorescent coil light bulb.....

[Aldo Leopold]

16. Couple of things. First,

it's "Hasbro", not "Hasboro".

Second, cooking IS work.

But I get the point, and it's perfectly valid.

[Canuckistanian]

18. My sister had one and I used it more than her

I always liked to cook as a boy and my mother would teach me all the family standard meals, except for baking from scratch.

[TheBlackAdder]

29. Same here... I wanted snacks! So, I made my own! nt

[Quixote1818]

19. I remember the ads for them in the Sears catalogs with the yummy chocolate cake!

As a boy I really wanted to make a cake just like in the photo!!! Never had the guts to ask for one though.

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. I loved my easy bake oven as a kid

[jmowreader]

23. Easy fix to this

Get him a toaster oven. He'll love it. He'll use it far longer than he would the little toy thing that will bore him quick. Easy Bake Ovens don't teach anyone anything except how to play with an Easy Bake Oven. And yes, little brothers can be taught to be safe with real appliances.

Better: after he opens the toaster oven and is very happy, take a picture of him with it and send it to Hasbro labeled "I was going to get him an Easy Bake Oven, but because they only come in pink I got him a Real Oven instead."

[Kali]

25. where were you when my squids were young?

brilliant! plus you can make cakes a little bigger than a cookie in it. damn wish I would have though of this!

[KurtNYC]

31. a toaster oven and Iron Chef on DVD

[Heywood J]

67. +1

I have enough things to worry about without adding the color of an EZ-Bake oven to the list. As long as you teach them only to use the toaster oven while supervised, they can learn to make real food. Even if they decide not to be a chef, it teaches self-sufficiency.

(Coming from the guy who once set milk on fire)

[Victor_c3]

24. My brother and I always wanted an easy bake oven

I thought they looked cool and fun. I never ended up getting the toy - probably because my parents thought it was a toy meant for girls.

I remember my grandfather and father getting a little upset when my little brother and I decided that we wanted to sew cloth together to make pillows just like my grandmother (I was probably 8 years old). I remember specifically being told that sewing was for girls.

What is funny is that my two daughters and I were going through the toy section of a department store yesterday when my oldest daughter (she is 4 years old) asked "why are all the girl toys pink?". "I don't know. I don't have a good answer" is all I could tell her.

I don't think my "feminine" desires to sew or to bake when I was a little boy curbed my masculinity in any sense. If anything, it made me a more well rounded and understanding person. I'll stand up to the "manliest" of men (those who think things like taking care of children, baking, or sewing is beneath them and only fit for women to do) and point to my combat valor awards and tell them what being a "real" man is all about.

[DonRedwood]

35. I sewed with my mom and wanted an easy-bake oven....and turned out totally gay

I don't know, your dad might have been right. You might have dodged a bullet there....

:0) I did turn out to be a 6'1, 50 inch chest manliest of gay men though. (and it ended up I hated sewing so that lasted all of...two weeks?)

[Victor_c3]

66. Yup, that was a close one :)

Instead of getting hit with the "gay" bullet, I stepped in front of "real" bullets. I was definitely better off doing that

The notion that a person could be "converted" because of what they do when they are a little boy is almost funny to me - except that it is so tragic that being gay is considered a bad thing by much of our society.

I never understood why gay men were somehow considered less manly than straight men. Simple math in my head tells me that gay men are more manly by default than straight men. What is more manly? Manly men doing manly things with other men or manly men doing manly things with women?

Hopefully my two daughters won't turn out gay. I've been exposing them to all sorts of masculine influences like science, carpentry, the color blue, mechanics, etc. A responsible parent should have them submersed completely in pink princesses and easy-bake ovens and I need to get those dinosaurs and toy cars out of their room at once!

I hope you can pick up on my attempt on humor. Thanks for your post

[DonRedwood]

83. I'm thinking your daughters will turn out

really awesome with a dad like you!

I come from an all military family. Mom, dad, brother, lots of cousins, etc. Many are career.

It was always harsh, knowing from a young age that I was gay, that I was not going to be able to join the military. It really did some damage to my ego when I was younger. My dad had me in judo and self-defense, I can shoot like nobody's business, I grew up bucking hay bales that weighed almost as much as I did...but the military didn't want me.

So, it was a big thing to repeal don't as don't tell in my house. And I can't express how proud I was of our military's reaction to it: "so what?" basically. (Same reaction as my military friends when I told them I was gay).

Have a great day Victor!

[hifiguy]

90. Your daughters are lucky to have such a cool dad.

I think they will be just fine!

[AverageJoe90]

50. You sir, are indeed a man of real integrity.

Kudos to you, sir.

[Victor_c3]

79. To copy my post from another thread about a similar topic...

"I would call a "man" a person who will do anything that needs to get done while treating others with respect and dignity.

I like to think that I'm more "manly" than most out there because of my proven ability to stand up in any situation and take care of what needs to get done. My toddler is sick and throwing up in the night. What does a man like me do? Does a "real man" wake up his wife to get her to deal with it or does he get up, hold his daughter while she is crying and throwing up on his shoulder and chest, clean her up, and fall asleep with her in his arms? "

I kind of hate the term "man" to describe someone of character like that. So many women fit the above description a lot better than many guys I know and I don't mean to take anything away from them. My daughters will grow up to be exemplary in their actions just like me. Hopefully they won't have to prove it in some of the same ways I have.

[AverageJoe90]

98. Yes, indeed. Very good point & post!

[kentauros]

62. It's too bad you didn't know about all the usually male-dominated professions

that also have to know sewing, like medics/doctors, military personnel (socks get holes!), fishermen, and upholsterers

[Victor_c3]

78. Actually, before I became an officer in the Army, I enlisted as a medic n/t

[kentauros]

84. Cool!

I can't say I'd be a good medic, though. I don't mind my own blood, but that of anyone else, well...

[juajen]

74. There is nothing sexier than a man who can cook.

Number two on my list. A nice plus, is that he will never starve. Hooray for cooks, male or female. We have too much ordering or going out for food around here.

[Victor_c3]

77. Of the people I work and associate with, I'm the only guy who can cook

And that is despite the fact that I was deprived an easy bake oven when I was a kid.

My parents have own and run a small restaurant my whole life. My father was the only cook and my mother was one of three waitresses. I learned by emulating what my father did. It's funny that I don't know a single woman who can or likes to cook. Cooking food from anything other than from a box is a skill that not a lot of people have - and cooking from a box is pushing it for the people I know.

My daughters are definitely growing up with influences contrary to the gender norms our society perpetuates. They have a dad who cooks and cleans and a mom who is the smart/educated one in the family (she is just shy of having two Masters degrees). I'm a chemist for the federal government and I've been doing my best to make sure that my daughters will be strong in math and science. They're going to either be messed up or empowered (I tend to think empowered is going to be result).

[maindawg]

26. when I was a kid

I loved to eat cake. So I would have loved having my own easy bake oven right in my room. But we didnt even have a tv in our room.
My sister had one, and it was not fair. I think there is a huge untapped market out there for easy bake oven and I am surprised they havent thought of it. They must be stuuuuuupid.

[DonRedwood]

32. I'm a dude and was SOOOOOOOOO jealous of my neighbors easy-bake oven

I wanted to eat those danged cakes!!!!

I ended up buying one at a garage sale in college just because...well, because I could. but I never ended up using it so I sold it on ebay. (it was a cool vintage 50s one)

[whistler162]

33. My 13 year old nephew wouldn't know what to do with one.....

since he and his father use the grownup oven. His mom doesn't cook, safely that is. His father, my brother, is teaching him to sew, cook, and has him taking rifle safety classes(newphew won a 1/2 off life time hunting and fishing license). In addition to the long distance cycling, speed skating, and xcross country.

Just finished a piece of my nephews apple pie, don't tell him but it could have used tarter apples. Weird for a kid who never really eats.

[Politicub]

34. Good for her. My nephew likes cooking, beads, etc. and it's annoying that the

gifts he wants always feature girls on the boxes. It doesn't stop me from buying them -- makes him happy.

But that's not the point. Packaging should feature both boys and girls to reflect a more accurate picture. I think toy companies would end up selling more product.

My mom got an Easy Bake Oven for me at a yard sale. I loved that thing! I remember it being yellow and brown.

[catbyte]

36. At age 6, I learned the hard way that plastic pans don't make good baking dishes when my

BF Debbie Williams and I decided to make dessert before we were called to dinner by my folks. Halfway through dinner the house began filling with the nauseating smell of burned plastic and chocolate coming from my Easy Bake Oven. Dad opened the oven door to see melted plastic & raw chocolate cake batter dripping all over the light bulb, out the door & towards the carpet. Dad was so mad he immediately unplugged the oven and cut off the plug with his pocket knife. That was the end of my culinary career until I started to bake--at age 10--my first real cake, dad's birthday cake, reading an actual recipe and using our real oven. It was a chocolate Wacky Cake, and it's still the best chocolate cake recipe on earth.

[Odin2005]

37. I think it is about time to end sex-based color-coding, as well.

Brainwashing people into "proper sex roles" starts ar birth, when boys are given blue caps and girls pink ones.

At the thrift store I work at the little boy clothes are in all different colors, while over half of the little girl clothes are pink or purple.

I find it sickening that "normal" toys are marked to boys, while girls have pink version of the same toy market to them.

[HipChick]

40. I don't cook..

and only date guys that can cook...it kinda works out in the end

[kentauros]

63. You sound like my girlfriend!

When she visits in a few months, I'll be the one cooking (and likely baking, as she's requested a carrot cake, too.)

[Ken Burch]

41. Tell it, McKenna!

You rock, kid!

[Paulie]

43. How to tell if a toy is for a girl or a boy

A handy guide:

https://www.facebook.com/7Wonderlicious/posts/447231272007330

[LeftyMom]

45. Back when I was a kid I think the Easy Bake ovens were all beige?

[Matariki]

47. Yay 13 year old girl!

you are hope for the future

[treestar]

52. A boy in my family wanted one!

And he liked to watch cooking shows on TV! His Dad does a lot of cooking, too.

I think it a terrible shame that boys are locked out of so many activities for fear of it not being masculine. It seems to get worse and worse. Anything artistic at all seems proscribed.

[deutsey]

69. I wanted one!

But I think it was more about making and eating that little cake than it was about wanting to know how to cook.

I do remember wanting a female action figure when I was a kid. She was part of the Johnny West collection.



I had Johnny and the little boy, but I really wanted the woman one. My mom wouldn't get it for me, though.

[treestar]

82. They are part of the set!

Action figures are in my mind actually dolls but acceptable to society for boys. Funny that set included the women! They were part of the story.

My brother had GI Joe and we borrowed him to have a man in the dollhouse.

[Jennicut]

73. I think it is actually harder for boys then girls to blur the gender lines these days.

It seems to me that girls are encouraged to play sports and yet at the same time still be able to play with their dolls, etc. Things seem more rigid for boys.
I have two daughters at 8 and 7 and they love to play with their dolls, dress up, do their hair and nails but also love to play outside, like bugs, and love their sports. Both want to play soccer. A lot of their friends are like this. But the boys seem afraid to branch out and be looked at in a non macho way. When we have boys that they are friends with come over our house, they want to play with my girls' toys but seem hesitant at first. I always encourage them to enjoy whatever interests them.

[treestar]

81. So true.

Masculinity is so fragile compared to femininity. The girls play with the older boys' toys when the boys get too old for them,because they are there. I've seen little girls move a car or truck and "v-room v-room" just the same as boys. But boys can't pretend to take care of a doll, and yet, their dads do a lot more real baby care-taking than our fathers of the 50s and 60s did.

[Little Star]

107. I think your absolutely right. There has to be a reason for that.

[LeftyMom]

55. A friend's son was told recently that he couldn't play with something because it was pink,

and pink is for girls.

He responded that all colors are for everybody, and his dad's favorite color is purple.

It would be great if they came out with a toy in a less Barbie Vomit color scheme. But pink isn't contaminating, and we need to get over this pink versus primary colors gender coding both by not doing it and by not training boys to recoil in horror from the dreaded "girl colors" in the first place.

[kentauros]

60. I'm glad she's doing that.

And he may not get to learn how to do basic cooking in the Boys Scouts as I did, thirty-some-odd years ago.

Now if Hasbro is smart, they'll make a "Junior Chef" toy of some kind, and incorporate the Easy Bake Oven into that miniature chef's kitchen


What's interesting about advertising is that they continue the stereotypes of only the woman knowing how to cook in a kitchen yet the man is akin to an Executive Chef when it comes to the backyard grill. It seems they like to carry those stereotypes over to the kids, too.

[Arcanetrance]

61. As a chef i support this 100%

When I was a kid cooking was my passion and my grandparents and mother were completely unsupportive and told me it wasn't gender appropriate and to this day my mother and grandmother think I wasted my intelligence

[hardluck]

64. I bought one for my son

When he was 4. He's almost 7 now and pretty much has outgrown it. He loves to cook and bake. For thankgiving, he helped me with the pumpkin pie.

I dont remember him every saying it was a girl toy, but then again he's seen me do almost all of the cooking in our family.

[liberal_at_heart]

65. I'm sure at some point I will end up buying my son

a professional grade ice cream maker. He is obsessed with ice cream and wants to own an ice cream store one day. I saw some cheapo plastic ice cream makers at the grocery store during the summer but if I'm going to buy him one it's going to be a good one. I remember making ice cream one year when I was little. It was so fun. I'd like to see the cleaning product companies start using men in their commercials. My daughter, my husband and I all get tired of seeing cleaning products targeted to women.

[jmowreader]

100. Gender targeting in advertising usually sucks

There are some products that obviously have to be gender targeted; underwear is one. But household products? Not only do they sell to women but they portray men as idiots in the process.

One product that SHOULD be sold to men is pregnancy tests. Lots of men get sent for these...as in because you were too selfish to wear a rubber you are going to stand there and watch your Sunday afternoon drunken football parties disappear. But they don't know what to buy, because the ads are all in places men don't look.

[unreadierLizard]

68. I agree with this girl 100%

When I was a kid, I loved using my step sister's easy bake oven. I'm not a chef, mind you, but there's no such thing to me as a "gender stereotype" anymore; if a woman wants to stay home with her children and the man wants to go out and earn the money, then that should be their CHOICE, not an obligation.

Just like the reverse; if the man wants to stay home with his children and the woman wants to work, it should be a choice, not an obligation.

The 1950's are over. This is 2012.

[stuntcat]

76. many toys for little girls are to "play" raising babies, "play" cook, even "play" keeping house

It was much worse a few decades ago, but it's still STUPID.

(edit- NOT that all that stuff can't be fun, but anyone who's not a dumb d!ck knows what I mean.)

[cbdo2007]

93. It's stupid for girls to play with what they want to play with??

You listed all the stuff my two daughters love to do. I'm not sure what's stupid about them loving those activities.

[vilify]

80. This is silly...

The toys are marketed to girls because it's for girls.

[The Straight Story]

86. What do you mean because it's for girls?

[hifiguy]

89. I started to cook when I was 12-13 years old

and loved it. By the time I was in my 20s I was a serious foodie. My mom always said if you could read and follow instructions you could teach yourself how to cook. So I did. I still love to cook, especially Italian food and Hunan/Sichuan Chinese. Most of the best home cooks I know are guys whose wives are more than happy to let them handle the kitchen duties.

[progressoid]

92. I'm reminded of a certain Seinfeld episode.

[LittleBlue]

96. Forget the Easy Bake oven

I was so envious of my sister for hers, but didn't realize until later in life that the stuff from the Easy Bake oven was crap.

I should have been helping my mom in the kitchen and learning how to cook. Real cooking, not that gross packaged junk from Easy Bake lol. Girls from my grandmother's generation would be in the kitchen from a young age learning how to cook real food, I think every kid nowadays should be taught how to cook for themselves rather than Easy Bake and then McDonald's when they grow up.

[Little Star]

102. 4 daughters here, all very close in age. I bought them

the whole toy kitchen set up when they were young. What a waste that was! Only one of them actually played with it. The rest were to busy playing gas station on their big wheels along with catching bugs or frogs.

Children, be they boys or girls, should be allowed to play with any type toy they want.

[cbdo2007]

106. Children ARE allowed to play with any type of toy they want....your post is proof of that....

not sure why people think there is anything bigger going on here than trying to market and sell a product.

[Little Star]

108. I don't think all children are allowed. And until all are allowed there is a problem....

But I do agree that toy makers are all about marketing and selling.

[liberal_at_heart]

113. It took a long time for my husband to evolve

He was brought up very macho, so when our son wanted to play with his older sister's dolls my husband said no. I'm not sure he would make the same decision today. He has shed a lot of the bigoted prejudices he was brought up with. It took a while but he got there.

[Xyzse]

105. Oddly enough, I've been cooking since I was younger than 10.

We learned how to cook, and every single one of us siblings helped.

Granted, my sisters were better at getting away with it. So in the end, us boys cooked more than the girls.
Also, my mother doesn't know how to cook. My father always did.

We learned how to debone meat and do things like that. Heck, cutting up meat and skinning things is manly dangit!

Thing is, in regards to cooking and gender roles, it just never came up. ((Other than being told that I should be able to cook for a special somebody))

[Le Taz Hot]

114. This gives me hope for our future.

What a great video! Thanks for sharing.