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 .

its naive to think you are really the only role model that matters. It just isn't that simple. Are you just like your mother? I know I'm not!

gaaagh I believe you were referring to me with the knee-jerk reaction, and I think that is unfair. My very first sentence was to acknowledge that i understand the general point. I said in my second post that all the oytfits should be made for both sexes. However I felt some very valid career options were being dismissed out of hand in the rush to condemn gender stereotyping. That nursing was being made out to be a unworthy, lowly profession just because it was included in the 'girly' pack. tethersend has made the exact wider point I was trying to make but much more eloquently.

I do know one girl who plays properly outside in dresses. She also has long blonde curly hair hanging loose and totally unsuitable footwear (backless sandals mainly). She races her bicycle, sits and plays in the mud, climbs things, plays bulldog, cartwheels etc. She rips and stains her dresses a lot and slips on the pedals of her bike. Her parents never seem to mind the damage to property and she copes quite well with playing but she raises several points. She's the only girl I have known in my whole life to be allowed to play freely in pretty dresses. She catches her dresses and her sandals on moving parts of her bicycle. I think I've seen every pair of knickers she owns and I'm just a neighbour. She cant see for that hair when the wind blows. She's cold in the evenings. When the kids talk about who they think they are one is always defined as kind, another clever, several alternate for the title of bossiest, but this child is always "pretty"- no reference to her personality at all. She's clearly not just pretty though, she's clearly brave. If I had as much trouble with catching my clothes on things as she does or other children commenting on her knickers when she cartwheels I think I'd give up, sit still and play with something smaller- like a doll... Exactly what little girls are meant to do then. I'm sure her dresses will catch up with her sooner or later and she'll conform to her parents expectations. She's 7 so far. I just can't work it out, why would her mother want her hobbled in this way? Why not love the brave girl you have and send her out in clothes that support that?

Some girls really love dresses and it's probably difficult to get them into shorts or trousers even if the parents want to! It seems a shame though when girls are being restricted from playing as they want, because of impractical clothing and shoes. I would think there could be some compromise, clothes that are pretty and 'girly'-looking, but still practical enough for bike-riding, climbing etc.

Saffron, perhaps she chose those clothes?

Saffroncake, how do you know the dresses aren't the girl's own choice? Don't most 7 year olds choose their own clothes, within reason?

I did wonder MSE, but it's come up in conversation before, her mother chooses the clothes. The girl has said she would like a pair of jeggings like a 9y/o girl she knows and she likes the kitten and puppy tops an 11 y/o she knows wears, and she likes my shoes (like ballet flats).

My girls love their dresses and it doesn't stop them playing, if we know they're going to be climbing we encourage them not to wear something too long, but there have been times we've made an unplanned stop at the park and long dresses haven't held them back.

ouch YANBU

its the maid outfit that got me, FUCKING MAIDS OUTFIT!!!!!

My ds1 would flipping love to dress like a princess everyday. Unfortunately because he's 2, it gets covered in every substance known to man, and so he has to wait till it's out the wash.

Ok, well, in that case they should let her choose what to wear, within reason. But then the same goes for girls who want to wear pink frilly stuff. I think kids should be able to wear what they want up, to a point. Mine knew what they liked from the age of about two, one likes pink and girly clothes, the other likes blue and green and anything with her favourite characters.

It isn't a maid, it's a waitress. Tbh it doesn't bother me what mine dress up in, I remember both of them used to raid the dressing up box at toddler group and end up wearing a tutu, a sparkly handbag, matched with a policeman's helmet! It was only when dd1 went to preschool that she started to comment on whether things were for girls or boys.

No one is forcing you to buy them.

If other parents want to buy them for their children then they should have that option. You can't attempt to restrict peoples options because you dont like it. No one is stopping you from buying the boys set for your daughter if you want too.

Coco - I don't think you've got the point

Well whats the point?

Its simple- buy them, or don't buy them .

Does it not seem odd to you that girls are associated with such a different range of jobs than boys (and with clothes that are reminiscent of 'sexy' adult costumes)? Or that jobs traditionally and stereotypically done by women are less well-paid and respected than those by men?

If no, fair enough you're entitled to that opinion, but that's why 'don't buy them' isn't an adequate answer.

The horse rider and ballerina may well end up earning more than the postman and policeman, the beautician might too, if she starts her own business. I wouldn't call any job "pathetic" Very odd to think that being a nurse is pathetic.

Yanbu - I ruined a trip to Toysrus on Sunday for dds birthday presents by chunnering on and on about the fucking pink versions of everything. It put me in a foul mood the more I saw

Its marketing.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything from that catalouge anyway.

If my dd wanted the boys set I would buy that instead. Its her choice.You don't have to buy what the marketing implies you should.

I just showed the sets to her and she wasn't impressed by either.

But if she was what I am to say; "oh no darling, a nurse's uniform- can't you have higher aspirations than that?"

I think that is far worse, and actually offensive to her grandmonther and great aunt who where and are fabulous nurses.

Why does this even need to be aspirational? Its about fantasy and adapting to a grown-up world. Why panic the fact they but on the beautician uniform must mean they want to be that profession?

If it reassures you my dd has just about every disney princess costume going- but she wants to be lion keeper.

But why does it bother you if other parents wanted to purchase the girls set for their daughters?

Who is talking about restricting people's options or stopping them from buying what they want? Just that it's silly to label children's costumes as being for a particular gender.

How about all MNers send the company a letter of complaint over gender stereotyping? Maybe enough of us doing it will actually make an impact?

The "adult dressing up" angle is interesting: typically, dressing-up nurse costumes are based on a uniform that no UK nurse has worn for many years - the hats went out in the early 90s after a long period of decline, and aprons went even earlier. The maid/waitress costume is the same - even waitresses in really posh restuarants mostly wear plain black clothes these days. Maids do not dress like that either, only in porn movies - much like nurses.

Even more interestingly, the boy costumes have a similar out of date, slightly fetishy angle. Doctors rarely wear white coats - theatre scrubs are more likely. Astronauts (who are often women these days - grrr) float around space stations in velcro-aided work clothes, not Mercury-era silver space suits.

I say bring back dressing-up boxes full of random tat. Children now are being denied the fun of inventing their own crazy fashions from Granny's fur coat and their sister's old tutu.

SDTG Oh dear, I thought as much

IMO all professions that started out as bastions of maleness and have now - due to world wars, better education, reliable contraception etc - become mainly female professions (eg: clerks, secretarys, adminsistrators, teachers, nurses) are not accorded the respect or remuneration they once were.

Had a REALLY shocking conversation with my ds2's godmother the other day..she comes from a family of teachers, has 4 brothers and 3 of them are teachers like her.

She was chatting away about how she and brother has been offered a head of dept jobs at their respective (faith) schools and how "in 5-8 years he will be the HT"

I laughed and asked how she was so sure and she said and I quote
"because he is catholic and a man"

She is just as able as her brother and also a year head and yet she would never have made that comment about herself.....

Coco you are coming across as incredibly naive. Like you say yourself, it is about adapting to a grown up world, so why are you happy with a society that pushes your daughter towards lower status traditionally female roles solely because she is a girl? Why are you happy with the notions that this is what women "should" do?

There is nothing wrong with being a nurse. There is something very wrong with modelling nursing as being female and doctoring as male. And quite honestly I despair of any woman who can't see that.

What's wrong Siamo, is that nursing is a low status profession because it is mainly done by women. Unless we change the foundation of society, every mother of a daughter could buck convention and push her into higher status traditionally 'male' roles, and those roles would become low status. Why? Because women are doing them.