They're making pink Nerf guns now, Mummy, so girls have can them too!!

[AnnieLobeseder]

... said DD1 to me this morning with her eyes alight.

I just want to weep.

For all that I tell them again and again that girls can have any toy, that there are no girl and boy toys and colours.... the message is apparently falling on deaf ears amongst the onslaught of pinkification my children are subjected to.

DD1 honestly believed she couldn't have a Nerf gun because they were for boys, even though she wanted one. But now there's a pink one, she's good to go.

And still you get people saying that pinkification isn't an issue and you should just ignore it and buy "what your children want".

FFS!

I was only quoting you and replying to your exact words. If you said one thing, but meant something a bit different, how am I supposed to know?!

And if my dd knowing she can have a yellow nerf gun, and indeed owning one just like her brothers, makes me smug, so be it!

Pacific, I presumed it was a tenuous link to the hunger Games et all too. Especially as the majority of them are cross bow shaped.

CoolStoryBro - how was that responding to my exact words? I have explained to both my DDs over and over and over again that girls and boys can have any toy they like. And that they can like any colour they like. And yet despite this, my DDs still think that pink is only for girls, and that they can't have "boy" toys unless a pink version comes out.

I'm pleased for you that your DD doesn't seem to have internalised the infernal "pink for girls" message that they are constantly bombarded with. Really I am.

But how is pointing out "well, my daughter knows she can have any toy" helpful to this conversation, unless you also have any useful wisdom on achieving this to share with those of less fortunate and with more impressionable daughters?

Its not just the internalisation of pink for girls there's also a peer pressure amongst young girls that wasn't there when dd1 was young,she's 14 now.
Dd3 is 4 and already I can see the girls in her class behaving in a queen bee manner,complete with obnoxious attitude. This is the way girls are portrayed as snidey bitchy princesses all glittery and pink.

I just saw this game linked to on another FWRC thread. Ugh. Hey girls, win the game by getting picked to dance with the prince. Lovely.

Its infuriating, isn't it. Take a stand and sign the petition at
www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk

Done long ago, feelathome. I love that campaign very much, and have been following it from the start. I nearly managed to rope a friend into doing their graphic design for them back in the very early days.

But if anyone else on here hasn't signed..... please do!!

It is infuriating. I have signed the let toys be toys campaign and they are one of the few people I follow on facebook. It is also depressing when you hear nursery staff and teachers talking about children in a very gendered way. I'm involved in an equality thing at work but on a bad day I feel we are fighting a losing battle. The thing is relentless.

AnnieLobeseder, there will always be someone that thinks there's no problem because their kids are ok but the overwhelming majority of kids ARE affected by it.

Of course they are. The various marketing department of the toy industry spend millions on advertising to our children, and not only that they always advertise the same message: boys= adventurous & cheeky superheroes, girls = passive, vain and pretty in pink. To think that this has no effect on children is naive in the extreme.

CoolStoryBro here is a link you might find interesting. If you click on "more comments" you'll see what kids think about the issue and see that it really does affect them and limit their ideas of what they can and can't do. I'm glad your kids are fine tho.

Nerf guns are great.

I'm really split on this because they didn't need pink ones, but the girls' range are actually better than the boys.

Yes it does matter I have two DDs and having avoided pink for DD1, as much because it doesn't suit her colouring, or her bedroom, as making a statement.

But DD1 having blue things means, by default DD2 gets girly and pink. there are no other colours

DD2 is far the more girly of my DDs, nature or nurture? I don't know, but I do wonder.

Got to love that there are still so many people who think that it is solely down to the parents whether kids buy into this gendered crap Because everyone knows advertising is so utterly ineffectual, that's why people put so much money into it.

It's all so subtle sometimes. I have been trying to explain to DH about why Diego and Dora piss me off. Why is Diego driving? He's a child. Why does he have a Rescue Pack while Dora has a Backpack? Why is he so much fucking cooler than Dora? DD wants to watch Diego now, not Dora. I can see why but once again she either wants to be the slighter weaker, less interesting girl and loses or wants to be the boy and internalises that boys are 'better'. Grrr.

This reminds me that this morning I drove past a group of school age children (very young, maybe reception age?) walking somewhere. They were all holding official school bags - all the boys had blue ones and all the girls pink. I was so I'm surprised I didn't crash the car! This has got to be the most egregious example of this kind of gender based crap that I have ever seen. What hope is there if this kind of bullshit is now being encouraged and perpetuated by schools?!