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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to find the latest ELC catalogue offensive.

99 replies

nannyn · 02/10/2010 08:49

Got the lastest ELC catalogue through the door yesterday. Was really shocked by the gender stereotyping, it's totally ott.

Since when did a garage have to be pink for a girl to play with it? Why is the lovely play house which used to be wooden now bright pink?

I know some girls at a certain age go through 'pink' phases but these are toys for younger children. I would quite happily buy pink for a boy but would everyone?

There are so many colours that are neutral why can't they use these.

OP posts:

KaraStarbuckThrace · 02/10/2010 09:51

But at the end of the day no one forces you to buy this crap.
Go somewhere else and vote with your feet.

Nowhere is it written that you HAVE to buy the pink stuff for your DDs or that you can't buy the pink stuff for your DS's.
DS has already made it clear he wants a pink truck for Christmas :)

YANBU to be annoyed by it but YABU to expect anything different - ELC are a commercial organisation driven by marketing forces. If there is a significant drop in the sales in pink toys for girls then they will change things to suit the public's preferences. But I can't see this is happening as on the whole people are sheep easily influenced by clever marketing [cynical emoticon]

Face it, there is a lot of people who do buy into the whole "pink for girls" credos without really thinking about the implications of gender stereotyping.

But you don't have to!!

cory · 02/10/2010 09:53

WhyAyeButterPie Sat 02-Oct-10 09:16:32
"Exactly, it is almost as if girls can't cope with the world, and if they are allowed cars, globes, etc, they can only have them if they are protected by having them in a special pink version so it isn't too scary for the little girly."

That's it, precisely! It's not that boys only get blue- they get things that look real and girls get things that look pink.

Of course it pushes up sales because Janet and John can no longer share a garage, so they have to have one each.

notso · 02/10/2010 10:00

You are right Kara no one has to buy it, but the alternatives are becoming very limited.

I am expecting DC3 and trying to find baby clothes which are not pink with hearts and butterflies or blue with trucks and monkeys from highstreet shops is almost impossible, I had no problems getting bright coloured babygro's for my first baby 10 years ago from mothercare, boots etc, now its just pink, blue or white.

crazycanuck · 02/10/2010 10:11

I wrote a letter to Frugi about the dire gender colour-stereotyping in this Autumn's catalogue. They used to be a good place (albeit a bit pricey) to go for bright colourful clothes but now all their boy's clothes are blue/grey/green and the girl's are pink/lavender (with a bit of teal thrown in). They did reply but pretty much brushed me off by saying they appreciate all feedback, good and bad, and that they would forward my email to their design department. That was over a month ago and I still haven't heard anything else!

Rockbird · 02/10/2010 10:17

Why would they sell things in one neutral colour? If I buy a pink garage for DD and my next child is a boy, then I'll go and buy the blue one as well, won't I? Except I won't, because I probably won't buy the pink one in the first place, I'd buy the blue, and if DD did express a preference for the pink then any future DS would play with the pink one or nothing.

No one holds a gun to your head. Don't buy, I mostly don't and DD isn't short of clothes or toys.

Dancergirl · 02/10/2010 10:22

Thing is, if you make a big thing of it, it then becomes an issue. Go with the flow and they'll grow out of pink in their own good time.

Long term, when they become adults, it won't have any bearing on their lives if they had lots of pink toys as a child.

It's like parents banning barbies because of how they look. Children are not influenced that deeply - to them it's just a dolly.

Riven - where do you buy toys from then?

hystericalmum · 02/10/2010 10:27

I hate all the pink shite.
But there has always been gender stereotyping in the toy catalogues.

DandyDan · 02/10/2010 10:39

When ELC shops first opened (the 1980's and into the 90's) it was owned by the John Menzies group and it was not gender-sterotyped - it was seen as the right-on place to buy toys, equivalent to The Body Shop at that time. There were few electronic toys, more wooden toys and no pink/blue based gender-association. And it sold no toy weapons of any kind, and no toys that were linked to TV programmes - Postman Pat, Disney, etc. That all went by the board in the late 90's.

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 02/10/2010 10:48

Yes, DandyDan I remember from childhood ELC as being a craft-centred, non-gender stereotyping, educationally led brand. Got the catalogue yesterday (my DS is now nearly 2) and was shocked at the noxious plastic tat.

Sadly, whoever said it is the consumer who decides, is right. I've worked on children's programming brands and you can bet that if a programme appeals to both boys and girls (once they are over 3 or so - ITNG being an exception) it's not going to sell much merchandise.

As a 70s child who grew up playing with cars and meccano and wearing dungarees the extreme gender-stereotyping that goes on these days from birth saddens me.

annoyingdevil · 02/10/2010 11:52

I disagree that 'pinkism' won't have an impact on girls' once they're adults. Haven't you seen it slowly creeping into items aimed at young women - mobiles, laptops, dvd players etc. As far as I'm concerned it's another way of keeping women in their place.

By the time our daughters are adults, I am convinced it will be the norm for women (after all we're all hot wired to prefer pink )

I was a child of the late 60s and pink simply wasn't on my radar (nor that of any of my friends) I bought my first item of pink clothing at 18 (when pink was suddenly in fashion).

zukiecat · 02/10/2010 13:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Dancergirl · 02/10/2010 13:42

Exactly zukiecat. I loved pink as a child (in the 70s) and it hasn't made me a brainless bimbo. I have a degree in Chemistry and still quite like pink now!

If you don't like pink toys then don't buy them!

fedupofnamechanging · 02/10/2010 13:46

Riven, I think you may be able to get some toys from the NCMA.

Firawla · 02/10/2010 13:49

I find all this outrage very OTT, if you do not like the pink then buy the other neutral colour ones (the red, blue etc one are neutral really not 'boys ones' ) or shop elsewhere. It is just a colour and imo not that big of a deal. But then I think elc is quite good

Clary · 02/10/2010 13:52

ELC at one time just did a neutral colour - eg we had the easel (total waste of money toy but that's another matter) in purple and green; now they do a boy's one and a girl's one, it's madenss.

What if you have a son and a daughter? Do you buy two

zukiecat · 02/10/2010 13:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

babymutha · 02/10/2010 13:59

yes I agree with Riven, its overpriced tat with some pseudo educational/developmental gumphf stuck on to make us believe it's something more. Much more 'creative development' in my recycling bin - break out the cardboard boxes and stick bits of old newspaper and foil to it - space ship. Get out the pegs, put some foil on them - space people. FREE FREE FREE. In fact - swap space taken by cardboard and foil for ELC catalogue and its hideous gender stereotyping commercial yeuckkkkk.

(ooo ranty)

Clary · 02/10/2010 14:21

zukiecat that's a bit odd isn't it, refuse to buy a girl anything in bold bright colours?

Why on earth not? Will they turn her into a boy?

Nellykats · 02/10/2010 14:21

Interesting point zukiecat; it is not a coincidence that Jordan is an evil pink fairy though, it's part of the little girl/slut persona that she pulls of with such grace. Her daughter is a princess after all isn't she?
I give my DS pink things because he likes them, it is indeed just a colour but seeing grown women clad in pink from top to bottom screams to me "I want a daddy to take care of me or I'll have a tantrum"

zukiecat · 02/10/2010 14:29

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

CatIsSleepy · 02/10/2010 14:29

have bought plenty of non-pink stuff for dd1 from ELC, it is possible-teaset, mini kitchen, farm, till....all yellow/blue/red

sethstarkaddersmum · 02/10/2010 14:44

If anyone thinks it isn't harmful, they're wrong. Read this fabulous book by Cordelia Fine if you are interested in seeing the research.

There are many stereotypes in our society about men and women's differing abilities. Few of you, I'm sure, buy into the explicit stereotypes, (eg I bet none of you would say to your dd 'You're a girl, you must be rubbish at maths') but what research has shown is that people are affected by implicit stereotypes; locked into your (and my) brain somewhere is the idea that girls are less good than boys at maths because that is what society tells us.
By constantly reminding a child they are part of a certain group - ie by differentiating them by dress, colour of toys, type of toys etc - we prime them to behave in such a way as to live up to the stereotype. (To give an example - you can make women do very slightly worse than men in a maths test simply by giving them a box to tick at the beginning of the test stating their gender )

It is hard because our dds are already receiving the messages that all this pink crap is for them, so they want it. But by giving in we are damaging their changes of fulfilling their potential.
I think it's actually quite scary.

cory · 02/10/2010 14:50

zukiecat Sat 02-Oct-10 13:24:04
"Really don't understand why everyone is so anti pink on MN .It's just a colour!"

I think you misunderstand this thread. We are not against pink as a colour, we are against the fact that pink is not treated as just any old colour but as something that girls (and only girls) must have, not just in clothes but on every toy, even when the object represents something that is not actually pink in real life.

If pink was just a colour, then there wouldn't be a pink garage in the girls' section and an ...err...garage coloured garage in the boys' section, would there now?

Let's reduce pink to its proper place: as "just a colour"!

cory · 02/10/2010 14:51

This sounds a bit odd though:

"If in years to come I ever have a granddaughter I will be buying her the pinkest things I can find and would refuse to buy anything in bright bold colours"

And if it turns out that your granddaughter really prefers bright bold colours, will you refuse to buy them? Come on now, that is hardly treating pink as "just a colour".

sethstarkaddersmum · 02/10/2010 14:55

Does anyone have an email address for ELC so I can explain to them why I am not going to go to their shop any more?

(I couldn't find one on their website though there probably is one somewhere.)

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