Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 ··· 9 10 11 12 13 14

Original poster

To think that this is the worst example of gender bollocks I've found?

348 replies

nenevomito · 18/08/2011 10:05

So the Studio Christmas book arrived on my doorstep yesterday. I once ordered some personalised pencils and have forever more been on their radar.

I have had to put it away as I am so fucking angry that they are selling shite like this.
I want to be Girls dress up set

A horse rider, a maid, a nurse a ballerina or a beautician.

A Maid???? Yeah set the bar high on aspiration there you knobbers.

So what about the boys set? Is it as pathetic?

I want to be boys dress up

A businessman, a pilot, an astronaut, a postman and a policeman.

How the hell have we got to 2011 where this shit is still acceptable. I am not saying that girls shouldn't want to be those things, but why the hell isn't the girls "I want to be dress up set" - Doctor, business woman, pilot, astronaut?

Maid???? You are SHITTING me Studio!

Then I made the mistake of searching for girls roleplay and discovered they carried on with the theme. Sure. Why not. Let me set aspiration and expectation in my daughter by dressing her as a maid and giving her the laundry set complete with pink fucking whirlygig washing line. for the Girls roleplay

I don't often rant on here but .

OP posts:

SleepyCaz · 18/08/2011 21:08

I don't know much about feminism/gender bollocks, but does it matter what the kids have, if they enjoy playing with it?

SiamoFottuti · 18/08/2011 21:12

Yes it does.

CRIKRI · 18/08/2011 21:12

SleepyCaz, I can think of LOTS of things children would enjoy playing with that definitely aren't good for them!

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:13

SiamoFottuti - I do think you are up the old tautologous tree again. I do not assume that I am the norm, I am very much not the norm as a mother and woman, as I tried to explain to you. I had an unusual upbringing that means that I am very much less sociologically ''feminised'' than 99% of people my age , I have had a SAHP for an extended period, I run my own business and earn more than my DH, I am very much not a submissive type and as I said I don't really like babies that much. If someone like me doesnt like 1/2 and 1/2 childcare - I very much doubt the average woman would !

SiamoFottuti · 18/08/2011 21:23

do you mean tautological? And you're misusing the word anyway.

You don't know what the average women wants, who is to say there is an average woman? You are looking at yourself and extrapolating to everyone else, you don't know enough to do that. You are very full of yourself and how "different" you are though.

SleepyCaz · 18/08/2011 21:23

Well, obviously. If it were knives, matches and such, then I'd be more concerned. But it isn't. They are little chilgren FGS. If my daughter wants to play with a pink princess outfit, or a toy ironing set, why would I tell her she wasn't allowed? How could I explain these issues to a three year old? The same if my DS wanted to play with the exact same toys. It matters not, to me anyway. IMO,the path a person's life takes, and their image of themselves, is about a lot more than pink plastic rotary lines and blue postman costumes. As long as a child is loved, supported and encouraged, whether they be male or female, the toys they play with won't shape their whole lives, much less doom them to a life of 'gender discrimination'. Only my opinion though. :)

SleepyCaz · 18/08/2011 21:24

Tut, children, not chilgren.

PS telling people to fuck off over this... Charming.

EvenLessNarkyPuffin · 18/08/2011 21:30

To whoever asked way back if I didn't have gender specific dressing up stuff because of my parents, I was talking about the nursery of the school I attended. It was not new age. It was traditional. They also had toys to take outside at play time. There were trikes in red and green and yellow etc.

It is probably hard for prople to imagine given the sheer volume of pink out there now, but beyond baby blankets and mittens, most stuff was brightly coloured rather than pink or blue, and blue toys were ... blue. - not 'boys' things. My first scooter was blue with the head of a lion in yellow and orange. It wasn't a boys' scooter, it was just a scooter. My pushchair, high chair, slide and swing set etc were all non gender specific. Not because my parents were trying to make a point, but because it would have seemed bizarre to try to assign a gender to those things. They were for babies and children, not baby girls and girls.

The advertisers showed girls with dolls and boys with cars, but they didn't try make eg building blocks gender specific. I think a lot of it is manufacturers realising that they can sell twice as much stuff by making a pink version and a blue version rather than making one version in green. A chefs hat would be for dressing up as a chef - there wouldn't have been two versions, one in pink.

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:32

SiamoFottuti - I have a healthy ego and a strong sense of self so what ? I am a fucking amazing person but I have only mentioned it on page 12 of a long debate to make a point.

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:35

And you assume that you know what women would want/be like if they stripped away all the sociological conditioning - something that scientist have been debating for centuries - now that's a fucking ego!!!!!

EvenLessNarkyPuffin · 18/08/2011 21:36

I would never buy a toy iron or lawnmower though. For any child.

Here is a small version of the big dangerous thing I'm using. Play with this. Copy what you see me do. But never touch the big version

SiamoFottuti · 18/08/2011 21:37

I didn't say that actually, look again. I said who knows what people would want without the social conditioning.
Your amazing-ness doesn't stretch to reading, writing, spelling or grammar then?

EvenLessNarkyPuffin · 18/08/2011 21:37

An this is my last and final post on this thread

SleepyCaz · 18/08/2011 21:39

No offence, Puffin. I hadn't thought of it that way. Night :)

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:40

and yes you were right I probably meant hypocritical, I just mean that you think you have this right to make judgements and extrapolations that other people don't. That you can be rude and call people stupid because its a feminist act of rebellion against cultural norms but other people are rude if they do the same to you etc etc

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:41

I'm dyslectic actually - oh yes and slightly pissed my disableist little friend

SinicalSal · 18/08/2011 21:41

Jesus. talk about missing the point. Disagree with the point, sure, but to deny the point exists? Silly 'position'

SiamoFottuti · 18/08/2011 21:41

Excellent posts, Puffin, you are right about the rise of the girls and boy toys. I remember there being an element of boys and girls toys in the traditional sense when I was small, but this trend for pink and blue versions of everything is insane. Even young children can be bemused, a while ago in ELC my six year old asked me why there was a pink globe, with this face --->. A pink bloody globe, with pink seas and lavender poles. What possible need for that is there?

SiamoFottuti · 18/08/2011 21:46

disabilist? Oh please, cheap shot, have some pride, even if you are pissed.

skrumle · 18/08/2011 21:49

"Wow telling someone to fuck off- what a delightful person"

wow insinuating that someone's parenting isn't up to scratch - what a delightful person

TillyIpswitch · 18/08/2011 21:49

As long as a child is loved, supported and encouraged, whether they be male or female, the toys they play with won't shape their whole lives, much less doom them to a life of 'gender discrimination'.

And therein lies the rub. That's a humungous hook you're hanging your 'as long as' proviso on...!

First of all, many children simply aren't loved supported and encouraged in any way shape or form. Second of all, many are - inasmuch as they're growing up in happy homes with loving parents - but, how much are those parents really and truly doing to support their son if he decides he wants Mum to buy the pink, sparkly ballerina set in the shop, or dress up in his sister's clothes at home? How much is the daughter supported in the various choices she makes?

Many parents are guilty of - almost certainly subconsciously - dissuading their children away from some things and towards other; the toys they play with, the clothes they choose, the hobbies and pastimes they sign them up for, etc, etc, etc.

Yes - as you say, 'as long as a child is loved, supported and encouraged, whether they be male or female, the toys they play with won't shape their whole lives', and it sounds like you're doing a great job. If everyone else was doing such a good job we could down tools, head home and watch the pigs adjust their flying goggles.

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:50

You really don't get it do you - you are allowed to have a ''cheap'' shot at my reading, writing and grammar but I am not allowed to comment on your comment !!!

SinicalSal · 18/08/2011 21:52

My mum's friend bought her grandson a tea set - in secret.
'Oh all kids love them - but I have to keep it here where X (childs dad) won't find out - he'd go mad'

just sayin'

Gotabookaboutit · 18/08/2011 21:53

TillyIpswitch - You are right !

EuphemiaMcGonagall · 18/08/2011 21:54

Bored by the slaggings going on in here - back to neck boils, mud "hedgehogs" and favourite French words.

Au revoir, mes copines!

Flip

1 2 ··· 9 10 11 12 13 14