Horrifically sexist Fisher Price advert on Mumsnet

[Chagula]

I am so fed up of seeing, on Mumsnet of all places, the horrifically sexist Fisher Price ad for a toy vacuum/duster.

A little girl is playing with the vacuum, pretending to vacuum the carpet, then she does play dusting with the duster that is part of the toy.

She is cleaning things! Like females are supposed to do! And then she has a lovely cuddle with her mother.

Because yes, that's what females do. Clean things, and congratulate their daughters for learning how to clean things!!

🙄

Okay. Let me try and say this slowly.

I am objecting to the advert.

Which only shows females, using a cleaning toy.

My boy loved his Hoover my daughter liked the drill. Sterotyping adverts are drip drip drip in expectations and we need to eradicate them

'Horrifically sexist/- a bit dramatic isn't it ? 🤔
It's not a good on MN but it's hardly promoting child slave labour to show that ad - now that's horrific. Still it's enough to get peeps talking and frothing at the mouth
An advert with a girl cleaning and hoovering, my kids boys and girls used to swap toys and clothles all the time. I don't really think society is going to crash because of this advert.

I think it’s fair enough as the adverts are now, some girls playing and some boys. If all adverts of toys like vacuums etc only featured boys people will still complain there’s no girls

So you want all adverts of toy vacuums to only contain boys?

My MIL bought a toy Dyson for my three sons, and my youngest best (aged about 3) fell passionately in love with it, clasped it to his bosom, and wouldnt let his older brothers so much as touch it.

Adverts should portray boys and girls playing with toys - enough of the toxic gender stereotyping.

I used to work in a toy shop, where we had toys out on the shop floor for children to play with. I had parents being horrified and embarrassed when their little boy played with the toy hoover, sometimes hoovering the shop with great care and concentration 😁 I had a grandparent ask for a nurse's uniform, and when I said we only had a doctor's uniform and would she consider that, she said "oh no, it's for a a girl". I did say "there are plenty of women doctors!" and she replied "I suppose so", but looked rather surprised and puzzled, as though it hadn't occurred to her that there are many male nurses and female doctors.

Children are socialised into these preferences, they're not innate. Parents and other relatives, advertising and marketing, and general social conventions promote them. Children play with what's provided for them and what all the others are playing with. If a parent is uncomfortable with a child's choice of toys, because it doesn't fit gender stereotypes, the child will pick up on that and often go along with the conventions instead.

This kind of advertising has been highlighted before - little girls portrayed as being happy doing domestic work, cleaning up, while the focus for boys is fun and adventure. It isn't universal like it used to be, but outdated gender stereotypes are still deeply embedded, and applied even to very young children who are many years from deciding whether they want to be a stay at home parent, hairdresser or fighter pilot. They are steered right from the very early years.

My husband doesn't hoover much, but I don't cook much 🤷‍♀️

My daughter did an interesting activity in one of her school books last year about 'who does what' around the house....it was interesting which jobs she saw as mine or DH's, and they were split pretty fairly and not really stereotypical.

Really? Steady on there, there are bigger problems in life than this.
Parents are free to buy what they want for their kids and if the kids like a particular toy why not? Why the dramatics ?

I saw the advert although with all the nonsense talk that goes on today about boys & girls I've no doubt there will be people thinking it's wrong to assume thats a boy.
How do you know?😅

Horrific is a bit dramatic. It’s one ad. ONE. Does every single ad need to have both a boy and a girl playing with every toy just to be fair? Even though it’s good to remind children (and parents) that all toys are suitable for all children, sometimes that will mean seeing a girl playing with a vacuum cleaner and a boy playing with a parking garage. Surely that’s got to be ok as long as there’s a general balance across all toys?

Just give them the real hoover while you put your feet up

And I’ll say it slowly too - why does it matter?

There is no point saying this slowly it's written down and most peoeps still don't give a shit about the advert if you are actually reading the responses you will know that.
Object to it as is your right then tell MN how much it takes women back to the stone age. They will probably laugh into their frothy coffees because it's advertising revenue and most people can't get worked up about this stuff, because like I did, they give their kids the choicein the first place.

@CustardForPudding but perhaps that little girl specifically wanted a nurses uniform rather than a doctors one, which would probably just be a white coat and a plastic stethoscope. Nothing to do with stereotypes, she just wanted a nurse outfit!!

Because it is sexist.

Don't we read enough posts on here about the mental load? About cleaning being expected of the woman?

These sorts of adverts feed into it.

No. I want them to contain males and females.

Oh good grief.
They probably picked the kid from the advertising agency that did what was required the best on the day of filming.

Here is the advert, again. Watch it, and tell me it isn't sexist.

Some posters on here need to go and lay down in a dark room for an hour or two it might help.

And yes, I am aware I am giving it extra views, before you bother to point that out to me.

Just sexist? Or horrifically sexist?

And still most people don't give a shit about it. The more you post it, peeps are still going to ignore and you are promoting it by giving it thread space.
Just report it and done with.

“Horrifically” ??
It’s stereotypical I agree but using the word ‘horrifically’ is a bit dramatic.

Horrifically over the top.