I'm completely speechless in the face of this new evidence of a campaign designed to ensure that little girls have no contact with anything not specifically designed to encourage early on-set vapidity. So I turn to Lilith Attack to explain:
We gals like to hit the malls and talk on cell phones while putting on lipstick in the car between our business deals! We'd rather buy a clothing shop than Park Place or Broadway; it's a better investment for us ladies.Indeed.
"This is Monopoly like you have never seen it - dressed up in pink and all about things girls love! Buy boutiques and malls, go on a shopping spree, pay your cell phone bill, and get text and instant messages. You and your friends will adore the funky tokens, cool buildings, and cute illustrations. Best of all, the game is stored in a beautiful keepsake box which doubles as a jewelry box. Cool game features include: 8 collectible tokens just for girls, keepsake storage box with removable tray and mirrored insert, pink gameboard with fun properties, pink and purple translucent boutiques and malls instead of houses and hotels, Instant Message and Text Message cards instead of Chance and Community Chest, pink Title Deed cards, redesigned Monopoly money, flocked banker's tray, 2 pink dice, and instructions. Paint the town pink with Toys R Us Exclusive!"
For $29.99 all this sexism can be yours! Or for $10.99 you can play the original "boys" version. Price disparity unfair? Suck it up, Princess.
Now, I know some people out there are saying, 'so what's the big deal?' I once had a friend make a case for 'I love shopping / math is hard' Barbie as an fine toy for youngsters. So, let me try to explain... kids are in the process of forming their ideas about what it means to be a girl vs. a boy, and they want to gender identify appropriately. So it is a bad idea to teach any kid that being a girl is essentially about being a shopaholic pink fluff-brain. By promoting the idea that women care about nothing but shopping and gossiping and all things cute, we are selling sexism - this time with "pink and purple translucent boutiques and malls instead of houses and hotels"- to our children.
Just to clarify... this toy is bad bad bad when given to actual children. But... oh-so-funny if given to... (you'll just have to wait until Christmas to find out!)
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8 comments:
Oh! Oh! Are there pompoms included in the set? Because then I think Agincourt and I should *totally* be getting one!
Oh, no... you guys are getting sexy turkey day outfits... it's been decided.
Oh, HELL naw.
This sort of thing makes me mad. Parents buy these sexist toys for their kids and then say things like "Boys and girls are just different because my son plays with toy swords and my daughter plays with dolls." But who bought them the swords and dolls? It isn't like girls have some cell phone talking gene, and this game sends a bad message.
And even more frustrating...when you have a girl who likes pink and purple (my daughter) with a mom (me) who refuses to by any Disney Princess or Barbie or Bratz or the like...It's impossible to find normal things that happen to be pink! (However she can also wield a mean sword and I think she may deconstruct our home with her tool set)
(got here via Ann Bartow).
I think Xena would be throwing in her flying ring and binding her feet if the creaters of this stuff ruled the world entirely. So glad they don't! (I also got here by way of FLP)
You are right that there seems to be a scarcity of pink toys that aren't incredibly gendered in some other way as well - my personal least favorite (which I might have mentioned before) is the pink "Discovery Diamond Dust Microscope" that the Discovery Chanel promotes as the feminine version of their normal microscope. Because, you know, diamonds are a girl's best friend.
I did find this inflatable pink sword, but it looks like kids who like pink AND science or sports or... anything other than diamonds and cuteness will just have to perhaps wear pink while playing pirate or surgeon or law professor.
Hey, lawyers, as much as I enjoy chatting about pink toys and gender stereotypes with you, I might need your expert opinions on another matter (here), one where I find myself talking a bit out of my area of expertise. If anyone has a minute, it would be nice to have some more legally-minded opinions about Jamie Leigh Jones' lawsuit against KBR.
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