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

[nenevomito]

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 .

DS loves those Peekaboo pop up type books. I picked one up from the library without really looking at it called "Peekaboo dressing up" which had pictures of babies in various outfits

The girls were- a fairy in a pink tutu and a tiara, and a tiger cub "looking for a hug"
The boys were - superman, a sheriff and a dog

That went straight back despite DS's protestations because he loved the pink tutu

It is depressing that this is still rife in catalogues. Even the Mega blocks play sets which are either a chef set or a carpenter set have the chef set in pink and a girl playing with it. Being pink subliminally means 'this one's for the girls' and there is absolutely no reason for it. Those dress up sets need to be banned NOW! In the past when I have emailed companies about stereotyping they have addressed it, ELC particularly.

I've noticed this sort of crap is becoming more prevalent in the last 5 - 6 years though.

I don't like gender bias in toys either.

We once stayed at a hotel which boasted about providing "gender specific goodie bags for the kids" when you arrived (which I thought was a great idea - distract them whilst we unpack!). It was like a party bag with a few items in there. The girls ones were all princesses and fairy stick with a paintbox thing with glitter, whilst the boys were all blue with a little toy train and a little hammer/construction set (we got one of each). What was wrong with just providing a nice mix of toys for children, full stop? Why do we need to reinforce what is vs. is not a "girls toy" or a "boys toy" so strongly?

Don't housekeepers and beauticians are more ambitious jobs and earn a lot more than postmen?

While I understand the general point, I have to see I don't see the problem with a nurse as a career aspiration, or a beautician or a horse rider or a ballerina for that matter. I have several family members who are nurses and beauticians and I dismissive attitudes to their careers on this thread incredibly patronising. Equally nobody gets a career as a horse rider or a ballerina without a lot of hard work and considerable talent.
The waitress job is nto one I would want my DD to aspire to but it is a roleplay she currently loves doing, taking orders and making and bringing food.

So can someone tell me WTF is wrong with being a nurse? Because obviously I need to let my mother and sisters know how they are in low status jobs that no MNers would ever consider letting their daughers aspire to. They'll al be doctors because we don't need 'lowly' nurses.

BlueFergie my problem isn't if DD wants to be a nurse, or equestrian.

My problem is that they are so strongly linked as female career options. We don't need this being reinforced from such a young age.

There's a difference between thinking there is something "wrong" with being a nurse... and thinking there is something wrong with presenting it as one of the few, narrow career options suited to women.

Understand the difference in the condemnation - it's there.

I used to be a nurse. Shoot me for suggesting that it might not be such a great idea to restrict the nursing costume to girls or the doctor's costume to the boys, for that matter. There is nothing wrong with being a nurse, whether you are male or female. There's nothing wrong with working in any of the jobs depicted in either playset. My concern is that by pitching certain outfits to girls and others to boys, it reinforces the plethora of other messages that that help limit children's aspirations, based on gender stereotypes.

Don't housekeepers and beauticians are more ambitious jobs and earn a lot more than postmen?

But those options do have a subtle difference, don't they? Housekeepers are glorified domestic servants (servitude) and beauticians encourage girls/women to conform to the current female beauty standard.

Being a postmen is not linked to caring, servitude or beauty and until very very recently was a good enough job that an entire family could be suppored on the man's wages from it. I know - my uncle did (he's now retired and would never be able to live and support his 3 kids and SAHW on minimum wage).

And it's the caring, servile positions that are generally associated with women's most obvious career choices. We need to present a full, glorious picture of the options available to consider for DDs today. Not narrowly confine their options based on gender stereotypes.

I wanbt to start a company with 'real ' dressing up where nurses wear current nurses outfits.

Oh dear have just bought ds2 a lovely retro toy iron and ironing board for his b day (to go with his wooden ikea kitchen and shopping trolley!)

Am I damaging him do you think???

This is nothing new. I have never been a girly girl (nothing wrong with being one btw!) and my parents hated b days and xmas as there was - literally - nothing to get me except book tokens (remember them???) and chocolate.

My 16th b day cake had blue icing (one of my fave colours) and the lady at the bakery was horrified because the cake was for a girl

Sigh. It is the 21st century, right???

Euphemia, bizarrely, my DD and DS showed the same bafflement about the idea of male nurse (and female doctor) even though their doctor is a woman, and their uncle a nurse.

One aunt is a police constable and another a lawyer. Might be interesting to check what their attitude is to that, too!

My stepson was not impressed when I bought his daughter a toy drill kit and tool set for xmas one year. ... she loved it though!

It is astonishing that these stereotypes persist into the 21st Century.

It must be based on what sells, though, surely? Big companies do market research before deciding which products to stock and how to market them. People want to buy this stuff.

AFAIK, schools are actively discouraging gender stereotyping, so where is it coming from?

It makes my blood boil to see these images!

YY I understand the frustration with only a few 'dressing up' options being presented to young girls - although this may be more to do with the shortage of jobs that have a specific uniform. I agree that all the outfits should be sold without packaging as beng specific to girls or boys, as the boys ones could just as easily apply to girls, and most of the girls ones to boys, with some adjustments for waitress/ waiter etc. This is why I said in my first line that I get the general point.
However my point is that in the general rush to condemn the gender stereotyping some very valid and respectable careers are being dismissed as low-status jobs, lacking in aspiriation or ambition. There seems even to be a suggestion that our daughters should not be encouraged to be nurses but doctors as if this is somehow a far superior career. I find the attitude patronising and dismissive, and somehow dispiriting for nurses who work very hard while often having to deal with these ignorant attitudes to their careers in the workplace, from patients and doctors (both male and female alike) who maybe were encouraged by their mothers to have greater aspirations than becoming 'just' a nurse.

Lets bombard the with emails of complaint! IDIOTS!

I hate this too. My kids are a bit beyond all the dressing up stuff now, but its hard getting them to think beyond stereotypes in terms of the future (they're all still at primary school, but these things get talked about).

My ds was laughed at at school when he said he wanted to be a nurse. He has this fantastic role model in that his very favourite grown-up (apart from me and his dad of course) is a male nurse - and a very very good one! But the boys in his class thought he was 'being girly' when he said it and he's stopped talking about it now. 9 years old and his aspirations squashed!

Of course you are damaging him, Becaroooo! Teaching him about cooking and cleaning? What earthly use is that going to be to him in Real Life? Tsk tsk.

And what, pray tell, will his Wife be doing when he gets married? You are depriving his future spouse of her Proper role in the home.

It'll all end in tears.

Studio catalogue is awful for this sort of shite. I posted before about one of their products- gender specific toybox/stool combos. The boys folded out to create a small town with roads, cars, buildings, trees etc.
The girls folded out to make a kitchen, complete with cups/plates/cutlery to wash.

MY DD2 who is 3 has always shown a love of trains, cars and "boy things" and I have done my leel best to encourge it....she has a cooker...and dolls...but also trains and cars and action figures. I am SO afraid that when shebegins nursery in September she will be pressured into not likng these things.

I do think Posie has the right idea - dressing up 'scrubs' for both boys and girls - utterly unisex, and can be either nurse or doctor (just add a white coat, bags under the eyes and a ginormous student debt bill for a doctor).

gaaagh i was talking only about the money not the type of service they offer. Money wise are much much better than being a postman and there is more progression, i.e. owning a chain of 50 beauty saloons, you don't progress much as postman.

its no use pretending that nurse isn't in reality a lower status job than a doctor. Its not less worthwhile, but it is lower status, its far lower paid and with worse conditions. Thats reality. But really its not the fact that its a nurse, its that nurse is always in the girls set and doctor in the boys.

But really, waitress? A fucking waitress?

Blue I don't think anyone means to knock nurses etc, only the fact that these sets seem to present the idea that certain jobs can/should only be done by a specific gender, which limits the choice for both genders. If a girl wants to be a nurse, great. If she wants to be a nurse because she thinks it's a choice only between that, teaching, waitressing or marrying a prince - not so great. And likewise if boys are discouraged from nursing or nannying because they think they "should" be on a building site or in a fire station!

Incidentally since we had a chat about doctors and nurses a little while ago, DS (3) now wants to be a nurse At least, when he is not being a mending man, cleaner, shop owner or restauranteur (or an ant)...

I would never discourage someone from wanting to be 'just' a nurse. It's a very valuable and important role, and we need more people (or either gender) who are good at it and suited to it! What a shame about your DS being laughed at weegiemum . Hopefully when he's older he'll have the confidence to not be put off by attitudes like that, if it's still what he wants to do.

The stereotyping is quite bizarre though. There are plenty of women doctors these days, in fact I believe medical schools have a female-dominated intake these days! Surely most children will have encountered a female GP or paediatrician (male nurse is less likely but there are quite a few out there!). I find it interesting that the stereotypes seem to override the observed reality in their minds - demonstrates how powerful these 'tropes' are I suppose!

YANBU a recent trip to toys r us made me think that feminism never happened. girls section - kitchens dolls prams mini hovers lots of pink shite dressing tables etc. in the dressing up section it was all mixed but the photos on the front showed the girl as a nurse the boy as the doctor, all that shite. My DD loves girly stuff but is such a girly girl that if we went to get something for a fancy dress party when she is older she would want to go as a nurse as "the doctor one is for boys, it has a boy on the front".