clickies

[phinnia]

clickies from frankincensy and mactavish, and also some twitter people, including warren ellis. <3

swedish schoolkids scold toys 'r' us for gender stereotyping don't read the user comments. i usually don't but was apparently possessed by some kind of pollyanna today. ugh. *shudder* they make me feel dirty. assholes calling boys changing diapers 'fairies' just to

Comments

[hobbitblue]

The comments on the toy article are the typical "oh noes weird european guys said America is bad and wrong, wahhh" you see (same as the kind of inane comments you get when anyone dares criticise something British, I hasten to add). I'm really surprsed at the number of people saying 12 year olds have no concept of gender, and the ones saying there's no difference between boys and girls toys in stores. Obviously I don't have kids so don't really keep track of things, but was quite shocked when I went into the toy department of a big department store a few months ago, because it was easy to find the girls toys. Everything. Was. Pink. Everything. Pink dolls, pink teddies, pink handbags, pink pens, pink sparkly schoolbags, pink pencil cases. And the boys section? A wide variety of colours and things that didn't involve being pink or needing a love of dolls. I'm glad they sell toys online, because how your average little boy that might want to play with a doll could even *dare* step into the Realm of Pink I don't know, I felt pretty

[curriejean]

Oh my god, that kitten.

And go kids! The pink vs blue in toys is excruciating. I wanted Ninja Turtles and trucks as a kid (fortunately I wasn't very swayed by the gender bias), and my Nana told me I couldn't have "boy's toys." I loved her to death, but I'm still glad Mom scolded her for that one -- "She'll have whatever kind of toy she pleases, thank you."

Still, it was a little hypocritical. I loved my brother's legos, and so what did I get for christmas from my parents? A pink knockoff lego-wannabe DOLLHOUSE with only enough peg-bumps to change the positions of the pre-made 'legoish' furniture.

So I continued building weird car-things in my brother's room instead. The chairs made okay car seats.

I read a couple comments against your advice, caught myself swearing at the computer, and came back here. Just... just. >_