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 3 4

Original poster

To think kinder are really sexist?

87 replies

DSM · 03/10/2013 20:00

Kinder eggs have launched new eggs - one with a pink topped wrapped and one blue.

Pink one contains dolls, blue ones cars.

How are they even allowed this?!

OP posts:

AlisonL1981 · 04/10/2013 20:02

I've had 2 pink ones, one with a pony and a glittery ring, the other had a pink padlock. My boyfriend had 2 blue ones both with cars....

AlisonL1981 · 04/10/2013 20:04

And they also sell yellow ones along with the pink and blue ones.

DeWe · 04/10/2013 20:09

Well would you have an issue if they released them with say disney characters in orange eggs, and dragons in green?
If you had a child who wanted a dragon it would be much nicer if they were guaranteed what they wanted rather than having a 50/50 chance of having something they didn't want. Actually it would probably be better for Kinder if they didn't, because there would always be a few parents who opened the egg and said "aw you didn't get what you wanted I'll buy another..."

So what you're saying is that in your mind you equate pink with girls and blue with boys. So actually the gender divide is in your mind....

Ponyo73 · 04/10/2013 20:10

Nail.on.head. OldSchoolMama. Absolute nonsense!

Tavv · 04/10/2013 20:10

Why didn't they put the cars in the pink ones if they weren't pandering to gender stereotypes?

frogspoon · 04/10/2013 20:24

The eggs aren't actually labelled for girls or for boys are they?

Actually I would be quite content as a girl with a blue egg (my favourite colour) with a car inside. I much preferred the toys you had to assemble yourself, I liked the challenge. I was always disappointed to find a plain doll that required no assembly and didn't do anything or have any moving parts (e.g. wheels).

I think it would help to prevent disappointment because parents and kids know what to expect inside.

Ponyo73 · 04/10/2013 20:30

But Tavv, maybe I'm a bit thick but usually girls are drawn to dolls and boys to cars. If a child wants the car or the doll, then the parent just says Okay, you want such and such then pick so and so colour. It 's what was was, is and what shall always will be. There must be pyschology in the choice of colours that we pick. I'm all for genders to go embrace the opposite of what society deems normal but do we have to rail against tradition where most people are quite happy. Are kinder being so offensive? I really don't think so.

Tavv · 04/10/2013 20:32

Tavv, maybe I'm a bit thick but usually girls are drawn to dolls and boys to cars.

In my opinion this is due to gender stereotypes in our society and is down to nurture, not nature.

BikeRunSki · 04/10/2013 20:37

DH bought the dc their first Kinder eggs ever a couple of weeks ago. He didn' t notice the pink or blue foil, but picked uo one of each by chance. He was horrified when he got home as I had been raging about tge ridiculous " shoes" Muller corners.

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 04/10/2013 20:38

We like them - it lets my no3 son have a toy he knows he will like, ie the ones in the pink topped wrappers. He loves the little ponies and things and doesn't like cars, bikes, trucks so it means he is less likely to be disappointed. The reverse applies to no4 son who does like cars and stuff. They are each much more likely to get a toy they like.
WE don't say "girl's" or "boy's" though, we say Pink and Blue and they looked at the pictures on the display stand and wach decided which set of toys they liked the look of best, and chose one in that colour. DD chose a Snickers as she's not daft well aware of the amount of actual chocolate in a Kinder egg compared to a Snickers and Snickers are cheaper (They were buying themselves a little treat with their "pennies from Nanna")

Ponyo73 · 04/10/2013 20:54

Tavv, I am totally in respect of your nature vs nurture theory but as beings, the female race, or whatever we may call it are in fact the more maternal, giving naturally, protecting and instinctively attracting in later years to procreate. There must be something within every female child to nurture as that what we are programmed to do. just as the
males species in nature are programmed in some way to have several matesfor survival.

kali110 · 04/10/2013 23:06

Havent got a problem makes it easier to know the type of toy inside.
I would be angry if a girl couldnt have a blue one and vice versa, but its not.

kali110 · 04/10/2013 23:08

Plus the eggs arent labelled girl and boy.
Im happy as there is a better chance of getting what you want.
As soon as the limited ones go then ill prob stop buying them.

Sparklingbrook · 04/10/2013 23:12

More discussion here

YoniBottsBumgina · 04/10/2013 23:13

I could be wrong, but I'm sure they are labelled for girls/for boys in Germany. I will check next time I am at the supermarket. DS went straight for the blue one. He's at the age where anything pink will apparently burn his skin off if he dares to touch it. Ugh. Thanks ridiculously gender stereotyped society!

CheapBread · 04/10/2013 23:33

Whilst they do pee me off I am sort of glad there's some hint as to what you'll get as dc likes the cars. However, just today we opened 2 pink ones, one had a pink flower ring, the other a blue chain bracelet, not so girly.

tiggerpigger · 04/10/2013 23:49

Ffs, girls and boys have differences. Why try to make them the same? Nothing wrong with pink stuff for girls and blue stuff for boys. Jesus...

MackerelOfFact · 04/10/2013 23:52

frogspoon I was always disappointed with the non-assembly ones too! A plastic toadstool was boring compared to a build-it-yourself crane or something.

I reckon they've just started to run out of ideas for the little toys, so someone has suggested putting 'girly' items in like plastic rings and things, only to worry that it might put (idiotic) parents from buying the product for their sons, or vice versa. They've got around this by making them pink and blue which is fairly universally understood symbolism.

Of course it's unnecessary but there's nothing to stop boys having the pink or girls having the blue in much the same way as there's nothing to stop a girl wearing a blue coat from the boys' section or a boy wearing a pink one from the girls'.

MOTU · 05/10/2013 00:11

I actually think its good, cos my dd would be bitterly dissappointed by a "fashion doll" but would love a little car-this way I can buy one that she'll really like. I just watched the advert and they don't mention girls and boys, just the colours and the contents.

MomentForLife · 05/10/2013 00:19

I quite like them for the fact that they toys seem to have improved, well as much as they could.

My DD was obsessed with Thomas but has moved on to Princesses and anything girly. Sometimes it's just what they like. Sometimes the Polly Pockets have a ride on the engines and it's great fun.

DontPanicMrMannering · 05/10/2013 00:42

Argh how annoying hope they don't stay.

Dd1 is 4 and is very firmly conditioned already saying she won't wear "boys" stuff ie blue. Or "boys" toys ie fucking Blue.

It's not from us and it drives me mad. She also the other day congratulated me on fitting a new car seat for dd2 as I'd done a "boy's job" Wtf? ??

It is insidious people should care!

KaseyM · 05/10/2013 08:33

"So what you're saying is that in your mind you equate pink with girls and blue with boys. So actually the gender divide is in your mind..."

Hahahahahahaha! So....everywhere you go anything related to beauty and dolls just happens to be in pink and just happens to have pictures of only girls on the cover or be placed under "girls" and everywhere you go toy cars just happen to be packaged in any colour OTHER than pink with pictures of only boys playing with them but the gender divide is in OUR mind?!

Hilarious! All a big huge coincidence and the Kinder Marketing department have been living under a rock for the past two decades.

Disingenuous.

HazleNutt · 05/10/2013 10:05

girls are in pink and boys in blue because they are instinctively drawn to those colours? Well, Not too long ago, pink was boys' colour and blue girls', so our nature and instincts have changed 180 degrees since then?

There's plenty wrong with telling children that they should only play with half of the available toys due to their gender.

HazleNutt · 05/10/2013 10:11

Oh and who mentioned Germany - the eggs are the same blue and pink, but the advertising makes it clear that pink is only for girls. That's what the ad says: New and Only For Girls!
www.femininleben.ch/images/Maedchenei520.jpg

ridiculoussingle · 05/10/2013 10:21

I'm really disappointed. Ds like the little animals you get in the eggs, but he wouldn't be seen dead buying something pink. He doesn't like the cars as they don't work properly. Guess we'll have to not buy them unless there's an alternative colour. Kinder, you just lost yourself a customer.....

Flip

1 2 3 4