Chat thread - come chat, rant, or celebrate, here!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

With thanks to the lovely timetosmile - here's the new and rejuvenated Chat Thread.

Space to yak on, rant, post any of the good and bad stuff ... just basically any chat that you don't feel fits into a specific post. With a side order of reclaiming the word 'gossip'.

I agree that toys should be just toys for children, nothing to do with gender. But I still want a discussion on whether we see things targeted at boys as the norm and things targeted at girls as somehow substandard, and the Lego toys are a case in point. (I am nothing if not tenacious. )

Sorry!

I absolutely agree that things targeted at boys are the norm. Girls playing with "toys for boys" causes far less concern than vice versa. No one bats an eyelid at a girl on a blue scooter but a boy on a pink one would get some comments.

Because Lego Friends exists, a friend of mine who buys Lego for lucky dips etc, now buys different sets for each gender because she thinks she should. It's a vicious circle.

Having demanded a discussion I find that I have not much else to say.

But I want to know why I look down my nose at Lego Friends. What's wrong with it, apart from that "it's for girls"? I was going to say that the female figures conforms to stereotyped ideas of beauty etc etc but then Lego figures are hardly supposed to be realistic, are they!? I've certainly not seen actual real boys looking like the green ninja in Lego Ninjago. Then I was going to say that Lego Friends sets are vacuous, but then surely so are made-up ninjas? FFS Lego Friends have karate classes, tree houses (actually DS2 would love that), flying clubs etc. So what's wrong with them?

What's wrong with them is that they are gendered and pinkified when they don't need to be. A pet store, a house, whatever else there is could be part of a generic town (me and DBro had one growing up).

It also seems like: here is Lego if you like pirates, here is Lego if you like space, here is Lego if you like ninjas, here is Lego if you're a girl. It's an unequal (dissimilar?) classification.

It's like magazine sections in stores "Sports/politics/science/women's interest"

I agree that toys targeted for girls should not be viewed as substandard and there are some good ones out there in among all the crap. Lego Friends is crap though not just because it is pink but because it is not interesting or challenging. There's no real building, it's really just mini-fig dollies.

I don't know that Lego Friends is crap (finding myself in the very odd position of defending Lego Friends ) - it looks about the same level as the smaller Lego City models. Which, I suppose, brings us to the point that Doctrine made about it being an unequal classification. Everything else for boys and this limited stuff for girls.

OK - I think it's getting clearer now why I am allowed to disapprove of Lego Friends. Thank you.

Another question:

I'm going to buy a book on puberty for DS1. Now, there are lots of "body books" for boys. But I find it difficult to buy things "for boys" and "for girls". In this case I can almost see that it almost possibly might make sense. But I still want to buy a book for just humans. Would it be terrible for DS to know about periods and growing breasts? Am I misguided? (In fact are there books for boys AND girls in a volume? Must check that out ...)

I had a You and Your Body book that covered both when growing up

I made it through the shittiest work day today without crying!

Doctrine Hope you are OK. What happened?

Does your body book cover puberty and all that?

Let's just say, "Fuck them and the horse they rode in on." is being said a lot this week.

Yes it did but I can't remember the publisher now. Next time I call my mum, I'll ask!

Bump

I'm sick of feminism already. Why do we still need it? More later perhaps. Don't want to out myself! Suffice to say I would like to shove the heads of some people who claim to be gender-blind down the toilet.

Sodding Buzz Lightyear. One female named character and she's Barbie girl busty and waisty even though it's a kids' cartoon and she's a kick ass space ranger princess.

What happened, LordCopper?

doctrine people objecting to positive statements on job adverts. But let me get an opinion. What do you think when you see, on job adverts, statements like "We welcome applications from women/ethnic minority ..."? Is it patronising? Is it off-putting?

No, I don't think it's either.

I saw a "The Doodle Book for Boys" in Waterstones. > Even doodling is gendered.

Sent off message to Usborne book to complain ... Is someone going to tell me I'm oversensitive and have no sense of humour?

I wondered off this thread for ages. Hello again!

Has anyone seen that Audi ad? The one where the woman falls and everything is show to be shoddy? The tag line is something about style without substance? so icky.

But mostly, I just want to rant today about the man in the office next to me. In the last few weeks I've had to "justify" why I am not Mrs DHName (or Mrs DSName for that matter). I've had to explain why DH is perfectly capable of taking DS to an important doctor's appointment while I'm at work as he's a SAHP and that's what SAHPs do. And I've had to avoid commenting on my pleasure about the gay marriage bill because I deeply suspect he does not agree with it. It's so tiring.

Tell me happy, feminist things please?

Hello!

I did see the Audi ad. It was awful in a rather creepy way.

Haven't had a bad day at work, apart from long meetings where I actually just got some work done while not listening. I suppose that's not good, but that stuff really has nothing to do with me. There were 2 women and about 10 men. People who say women talk a lot should come to these meetings.

No Happy Feminist Thing but I talked to at least 3 female colleagues and we didn't talk about men.

So tedious.