The Pyjama Game

[dalekboy]

Lex continues to love pink, and in the last couple of days I've watched him pull the beads off the Christmas tree and wear them like a necklace, and beg to wear Sharon's hairclip in his hair. None of this actually means a damned thing, but I'm still very aware that some of my relatives would discourage this, which I think is a shame

Comments

[vegetus]

I don't really know much about In The Night Garden (though my cousin has told me they are all the rage with the under 5s) but it's weird if you have "best friend" characters that you aren't marketing them together on stuff. Surely that's what the audience would expect/want.

Stupid gender assumption thingies.

Not sure if I've told you, I have a 14 year old male student that has a bright pink school bag (and has had one for the two years I've known him) and I have never seen anyone give him grief about it or say that he was "gay" or anything like that. There seems to be hope.

[kaths]

I bought Clara some PJ pants yesterday with the space shuttle on them. Apparently only boys would be interested in being an astronaut...

[leecetheartist]

Know any at home silkscreeners over there or do you ever do it yourself?

I'd be tempted to cut out a silhouette of the character and silkscreen it on, with the right equipment, simply done.

[cassiphone]

My observations have led me to believe that the people in charge of merchandising have far more narrow-minded ideas about gender roles than people in charge of the TV shows inspiring said merchandise.

Most kids TV shows have strong role models and interesting characters of both genders, but you would never know it from the toy aisle. Wendy from Bob the Builder is a regular casualty of this kind of thinking.

I was really outraged to see how girls were rendered invisible and unimportant in the Harry Potter Lego - I would be all over that stuff for my daughter, but you're hard pressed to get one female character to every six male. Many many Lego versions of Harry, Ron, Dumbledore, Snape and Draco, and even generic boy characters, but does the Quidditch set have an Angelina Johnson? Does it hell!

Likewise, there are almost no appealing boy/male dolls among the Barbies and other super-girlie toys. I really don't think children are remotely as close minded as toy manufacturers think they are, ESPECIALLY in the under four age group.

[mireille21]

J likes to have his hair brushed and tied up in apolytail with an elastic just like mummy does :)