I know I am, but am I alone? Paw Patrol

[monkeymamma]

Right, this is really grating my cheese right now.

My kids love Paw Patrol. Obviously. They are 2 and 5, so... of course they do.

They are boys. This is relevant (though it shouldn't be).

Their favourite character is Skye. Probably because she has a helicopter and is a nice bright colour (pink). I can promise you I have not encouraged this in any way (Chase is obviously the coolest imho).

Bought PJs for the youngest DS, he was pleased as punch. Bedtime comes, he puts them on. DS1 is puzzled. "Someone's missing," he says, ominously, pointing to his brother's chest. I spot exactly who he means. There are five pups featured and Skye has been omitted. Presumably she's not a "primary" pup. WTAF? She does way more rescue missions than, say, Zuma. Or even Rocky. Cue me going on a rant about everyday sexism etc etc. To the bemusement of my offspring.

Since then I've noticed that EVERY SINGLE BIT of PP merchandise is the same. If you want a t-shirt, bag, sock, shoe, lunchbox, drinks bottle etc with Skye on, you have to buy one with JUST her (or her and Everest) and it will be 100% pink or purple, or covered in frills. I've got no objection to buying these for the boys whatsoever, but I know that other people think I'm making an aggressively feminist statement with my DS2's pink frilly Skye socks. And he'd be way more pleased with socks that have all the pups together, the whole point of the show is team work right?

Just - why? Why to the manufacturers and designers think boys won't buy PP merchandise with all the pups on? Or that girls (or boys) who want pink and frilly will somehow be put off by the inclusion of the male pups on their things. Kids clearly love the show - they won't stop buying it because there are all the pups on all the things.

Fully prepared to be told 'there are bigger problems in this world' - there so clearly are! This has just been bugging me for a while and I needed to get it off my chest!

I agree. Although my 5 year old DS is currently very disappointed that none of the main characters in My Little Pony are boys, he loves that show and the boys are only fleeting bit parts. I suppose there are lots of shows where the main characters are all boys but he feels excluded.

Same issue with Star Wars.

Why the fuck do they think that boys wouldn't want a complete collection of figures?

lettoysbetoys.org.uk/star-wars-leia-toy-marketing/

Oops, bold fail!

It does seem odd that they think boys and girls will both watch the show but won't wear something with the whole group on. It's clearly saying that Skye isn't equal with the rest - someone drew the whole group then decided to delibrately leave out the female one. That was an active choice, seems bizare and would love to hear the reasoning - had they tried producing clothing with all of them on and parents who would happily let their boys watch a cartoon with a female character refused to buy clothing with the whole group on unless the female character was removed?!

Not to excuse the sexist marketing but the lack of Leia toys produced recently had, in part, to do with Hasbro having the license to produce Star Wars merchandise and Mattel having the license to Disney princesses. When Disney bought Star Wars Leia fell into both camps so neither company could make her figures. It's why Playskool heroes produce Rey, Phasma, Hera and Sabine but no Leia. Mattel's license has expired now, so hopefully we'll see a lot more Leias soon. (And thankfully they've promised no more slave Leia.)

Yep!

My DC is a DD, if that makes sense, and I notice the same problem! It gives the message that (a) only girls are allowed to like female characters, (b) that girls are ONLY allowed to like female characters, and that (c) they need to be segregated from the main action and coloured in some stereotypically femmey colour, preferably with glitter.

Makes me want to barf! Insidious sexist rubbish.

My boys both love their pink Skye armbands and oddly have refused to wear blue and red Marshall and Chase T-shirts. Like most of you, I'm sure, I'm subjected to Paw Patrol every day.

I agree the lack of Skye makes no sense and can only assume it is because she came later in the series and they already had a shed load of stuff without her on it

YANBU, OP.

I had a rant about this today! My five year old DD loves Paw Patrol. I recently bought her a Paw Patrol lunch box and drink bottle which she happily took to school. When i made her lunch this morning she told me that a couple of girls were 'mean' to her and said 'Paw Patrol is for boys'.

WTF?

I asked her how did she respond to that and she said she told them that 'Paw Patrol is for everyone!'

It was very proud mummy moment.

But i still feel so very cross!

It's insidious how gender socialisation occurs at such a young age.

Yep, my DD has 'boys' paw patrol pyjamas as she wanted the ones with Marshall and Chase on them. I managed to find her knickers with chase on and she was over the moon!

The fact they've made a token girl dog with pink eyes and then as an after thought threw in a purple dog "for the girls" tells you everything you need to know.

Why aren't the boy dogs stupid colours? Can't the girl dog be dog coloured?!

ALso rubble is the best and Chase is a twat

Wrong thread sorry

My daughter loves rubble and Skye. Won't mention Everest. Can never get anything together of these pups. Either girls or boys. Extremely annoying.

When my son's were younger they loved a show called Sky Hawk's which was a similar theme to paw patrol but again with one token female character called Piper who was my sons favourite of them all but it was impossible to find piper merchandise to buy for them because everything had just the male characters on which they didn't like. Its not a new thing tv shows have been trying to gender assign kids into catagories for generations

My sons favourite is Skye, he noticed that shes not on his pjs too. I bought him the weebles and it was soooo hard to try and find Everest, 4 months it took to find her in the shops.

And in my opinion Marshall is the best

I hate all this subtle sexism too. DD loves the Lego movie, on!y PJs I could find were in the boys section in john Lewis and are blue.
I tend to buy her boys PJs anyway because they are so much nicer, lots of bold primary colours and dinosaurs, cars etc.

Can't she wear blue pyjamas Nquartz?

I had to buy my dd a Marshall t - shirt from the boys section of Primark. Incidentally the quality of the t -shirt was a lot better than the girl Skye t-shirt. It was much thicker and the stitching looked neater.

Yes, she can and does. My point was that only boys are meant to like the lego movie

I'm going to assume it is simply a company decision based on boys (or more likely their fathers) not buying a product because a pink character is on the item. Girls or their parents wouldn't not but something because a male character was included but I'm absolutely sure they would lose sales in many countries if Skye made her way onto products designed for boys.

DD got into Paw Patrol and it made me wince right from the off - why is there only one girl? Agree this just contributes to the embedding of sexism in later life.

But YABU Chase is a knob. I hate his voice.
Rocky FTW

I agree the lack of Skye makes no sense and can only assume it is because she came later in the series and they already had a shed load of stuff without her on it

I know Everest came later, but I thought Skye was in it from the start? I'm sure she's already a member of Paw Patrol in the flashback episode where Rubble joins the team. I've watched way to many episodes of this shit

My DS's favourite character is Everest. Trying to find merchandise with her makes me want to pull my hair out.

I managed to get him a soft toy from China on EBay.

My DD wanted a Chase dressing gown. It was clearly in the boys' section. I had to stop myself from saying it was for boys and pointing her to the pink princess dressing gowns. I frightened myself with how much I buy into the whole message without even thinking about it.