To feel less than thrilled about pink mega bloks

[TeacupTempest]

that MIL has bought for DD 1st birthday?

I love my MIL. She is a star.
I also realise that many girls love pink.


I had just hoped to avoid the pinkification of my baby for a bit longer.

Surely normal mega bloks are gender less?

[BastardSpiders]

YANBU.

The colour pink is the root of all evil. I would hide those pink megablocks immediately, otherwise she will turn into a brainless bimbo and there will be no way back.

[mrskeithrichards]

I almost wept the day I had to go to the girls aisle to get my ds the sweeping brush he'd asked for to be confronted with numerous pink ones and even a fetching Disney princess dustran set.

[DamnBamboo]

But if a little girl wants a pink workbench (and wants to hammer in pink nails and use a pink drill) why does the colour matter more than the activity?

[anothercuppaplease]

I have been thinking about this - i have two boys who LOVE their lego, and I am really surprised that many of my friends with little girls tell me that their girls never play with lego. I think they are great, for fine motor skills, creativity, imaginative play but do they really have to be pink and pastel colours for girls to play with them? Really?

I think it does matter that it's pink. I think it shouldn't have to be. I think their marketing is lousy, lazy, boring if they think that the only way to reach girls is to have pink lego.

I try to encourage my boys to play with all sorts of toys and you would not believe how much searching I had to do to find a toy kitchen and tea set that were not bright pink...

[DamnBamboo]

Mrs you see, that I would have a problem with. The type of toy that comes in certain colours - rather than the colour per se.

[Peanutbutterfingers]

Damn bamboo, take a look at the pink stinks campaign. If you're on twitter look at #everydaysexism and #nomorepage3

Too many people write this stuff off as harmless. It isn't.

[exoticfruits]

I was 'less than thrilled' with quite a lot of toys. It is what the DC thinks that matters- I doubt whether it will start her on an all pink existence.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

It only matters Bamboo if it is stuck in the girls aisle with the girls toys....in all honesty, if there was one aisle for toys, I would not give a bugger what colour ANY of it was.

[exoticfruits]

Making a huge issue of 'pink stinks' is far more likely to turn them to pink!

[DamnBamboo]

I linked to the pinkstinks campaign peanut earlier in the thread.

I haven't looked at it for a while admittedly, but some years back when I did, I was under the impression that it was the gender stereotyping based on colours that were the problem (i.e. only pink kitchens and hoovers).

I will take another look

[MrsCantSayAnything]

One Aisle for all.

[Peanutbutterfingers]

Sorry, didn't realise it was your link! I find it hard to articulate a lot of this stuff, luckily there are people who do it better.

[DamnBamboo]

I see what you're saying Mrs but as an earlier poster did, I would simply buy what my child wanted, irrespective of section or aisle.

I would have thought that most parents would do that. My son requested a pink trolley for his birthday so I bought it. Maybe it was in the girls aisle ( I only ever shop online and have done so for years) but it didn't matter.

[noblegiraffe]

I was looking at craft sets in Sainsbury's the other day. There was a wide choice of pink ones. Make a friendship bracelet, a fairy wand, a princess crown and so on. There was one that wasn't pink - make a pirate hat.
Apparently boys aren't really supposed to do crafts, is the message there.

And look at their selection of pretend play toys 'for girls' www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/toys_and_nursery/girls/pretendplay/list.html?hnav=4294902251&sort=default

Compared to their pretend play toys 'for boys' www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/shop/toys_and_nursery/boys/pretendplay/list.html?hnav=4294899352&sort=default
Scratch the s, they only have one, a doctors set.

[DamnBamboo]

Peanut that's ok. I linked it but like I said, haven't read it for a while. Will go back and see how things have moved on.

[Iceaddict]

Buy a bag of primary coloured blocks and mix them up if you're bothered by the pinkness

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Bamboo can you not see that at 4 they like what they're told to like? By their friends, by TV, by television shows, by posters, advertising and society in general.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Giraffe Sainsbury's are one of the worst offenders.

[exoticfruits]

Problem solved by Iceaddict.

[DamnBamboo]

That doesn't look good noble.

If this is such a problem, then there needs to be more of an issue, because ultimately, retailers sell what people want. If people didn't want it, they would bin in and produce something that they did want.

But i think this is a little different to pink megablocks.

[DamnBamboo]

Yes, advertising works of course it does.

I can see that this is a problem, but it runs a bit deeper than colour I think.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

If you took a bunch of average 4 or 5 year old chilren and showed them two identically stocked toy aisles....one predominately pink an the other blue...same toys on both....the girls would head for the pink and the boys the blue.

BUT if you take a bunch of kids aged 1, 2 or maybe 3 they would not. They would go for whichever they fancied most and the sexes would be mixed in each aisle.

[MrsCantSayAnything]

Bamboo what are you saying...."it runs a bit deeper" is a bit vague.

[DamnBamboo]

Mrs I can only give an example of the little girls I know, who weren't really encouraged to like pink, but wanted it anyway.

They all grew out of it.

I just can't get too worked up over it.

[DamnBamboo]

No, it's not meant to be vague.

A colour is superficial (quite literally) but the activity that the toy encourages is not.

So in my view, the colour is neither here nor there, as long as the toys aren't sexist based on the role-play they do or don't encourage.

Clearly, this latter point is still an issue.