DailyDirt: Toys For Girls
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Every parent wants to encourage their kid's natural interests, but there are a ton of other influences in the lives of little kids -- like toy makers and advertisers. It can be difficult to find purely educational toys that aren't trying to peddle a bunch of other stuff. For parents of little girls, the toy aisles seem particularly loaded with questionable themes. Here are just a few examples.- Lego Friends is a line of toys aimed at girls that are reinforcing some stereotypes. Lego is trying to expand beyond its traditional customers of little boys, and the company has done a lot of research to try to create a toy that girls want to play with. [url]
- Gwen Thompson is an American Doll introduced in 2009 -- as the world's first "homeless" doll. Gwen was a limited edition doll (sold for $95), and hopefully she isn't living on the streets anymore. [url]
- Chemistry sets have changed a lot over the years (mainly to make them
boringsafer), and a few of them are now geared exclusively for girls. Some parents are offended by "science kits" that are basically advertisements for cosmetics and perfume, but there are a lot of toys that are simply advertisements for other products.... [url]
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Filed Under: advertising, chemistry set, dolls, education, gwen thompson, lego, toys
Companies: american doll, lego
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UNLESS:
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-10/justice/pennsylvania.young.murder.defendant_1_juven ile-homicide-jordan-s-attorneys?_s=PM:CRIME
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Toys for Girls?
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Re: Toys for Girls?
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I Saw One Blogger Write ...
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As a girl, I would have loved to have purple legos, although I wouldn't have liked the fact that they clashed with the rest of the lego colors. I think it's good that they recognize girls aren't as focused on putting together full sets (so they bag the pieces differently). I and girls I knew who played with legos, used legos to support stories. While I had a lot of cool sets, I don't think I ever finished putting one together - that wasn't my priority. Instead I created houses and things for my other toys (I preferred the playmobil dolls) and then played out fantasies.
Lego's current "girl" offerings are more along those lines. Lots of Harry Potter, with some Disney princesses. However, I've got no idea what's going on with the "Bikini Bottom Undersea Party" (Spongebob) and I'm not thrilled about the wedding stuff.
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/catalog/productListing.jsp?_requestid=1816975
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Regarding the toys: I agree that it's good that they're not pushing the worst of the stereotypes, but it's still taking normal gender-neutral toys that kids in general enjoyed, and making a small segregated crappy version what girls get. That gives the message that normal/mainstream things are male by default with a "feminine" version being a more limited girly-looking version, and that 'real' boys/girls wouldn't want certain toys. That results in different abilities being strengthened through play in the two sexes, then gives them the impression that they're better/weaker at certain things because those interests or abilities are inherently gendered (which can push kids to weaken or neglect what they're good at in order to follow their gender identity or avoid possible bullying).
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Buy Cardboard Instead.
An architectural supply store will also have various kinds of wood shapes, which you might look into.
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Tekton Coping Saw. They're Chinese, of course, but I got some of their files, and they seemed to be reasonably decent workmanship for the price.
http://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-6865-6-3-4-Inch-Coping/dp/B000NPUKSO/ref=sr_1_3?s=hi&ie=U TF8&qid=1346321615&sr=1-3&keywords=coping+saw
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Here is a useful book, perhaps a bit advanced for children, but they can grow into it.
Minor C. Hawk, Theory and Problems of Descriptive Geometry, Schaum's Outline Series in Engineering, 1962
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/176-8481616-5685606?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks& ;field-keywords=Schaum%27s+Descriptive+Geometry
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Parenthetically, think about giving your child a set of good-quality mechanical drawing tools. I was given a set at the age of seven. Most of them stood up to childhood play, and I used them when I took mechanical drawing in engineering school, fifteen years later. CAD/CAM software is inappropriate for children. It saves a great deal of trouble in writing all the annotations and comments which an engineering drawing must have, but it buffers the direct experience of drawing lines and circles. For children, you want that direct experience.
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Recommended Drafting Tools.
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This looks like a fairly presentable set of compasses. Avoid plastic compasses like the plague, because they don't repeat accurately. Note the "stoppers" at the end of the screw threads, so that the thing won't fly apart if you turn the wheel too far. Also, you can just see it in the picture, but the pins have a small spike in a wide base. That makes for accurate positioning. Incidentally, Alvin is a long established manufacturer, and well recommended.
MAVERICK BOW COMPASS DWG SET Drafting, Engineering, Art (General Catalog)
http://www.amazon.com/MAVERICK-COMPASS-Drafting-Engineering-General/dp/B004CYWWOC/ref=sr _1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1349292120&sr=8-12&keywords=bow+wheel+compass
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It's also nice to have one really big compass:
Staedtler Masterbow Comfort Student Compass for Circles to 10.25 Inch Diameter, Lead and Pouch (551-40-WP)
http://www.amazon.com/Staedtler-Masterbow-Comfort-Diameter-551-40-WP/dp/B0013CKLIU/re f=pd_sim_sbs_ba_3/175-3168917-1357560
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Triangle Set 10" 30/60 & 8" 45/90
http://www.amazon.com/Triangle-Set-10-30-60/dp/B000HFUEOU/ref=pd_sim_ac_4/186-3987966-65499 21
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Alvin & Co. FC88 FRENCH CURVE SET, 8 piece set
http://www.amazon.com/Alvin-FC88-FRENCH-CURVE-piece/dp/B000HEQNFA/ref=sr_1_1?s=arts-crafts&am p;ie=UTF8&qid=1349293285&sr=1-1
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Koh-I-Noor Portable Drawing Board or Drawing Head portable drawing board
http://www.amazon.com/Koh-I-Noor-Portable-Drawing-portable-drawing/dp/B0026SLTIG/ref=pd_sim _sbs_ac_1/184-7377651-1688869
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Koh-I-No or Portable Drawing Board and Head - Drawing Head
http://www.amazon.com/Koh-I-Noor-Portable-Drawing-Board-Head/dp/B001MADQ80/ref=sr_1_4?s=arts -crafts&ie=UTF8&qid=1349293678&sr=1-4&keywords=drafting+machine
Note that the rotating head is sold separately from the matching drawing board and T-square.
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Blue is my favorite color yet it can be difficult to find especially in things like phones or appliances, usually they've got the general black, white & gray, PINK and nothing else.
Make it blue, god dammit, blue!
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He'd build a spaceship, play with it for 8 minutes, then take it apart and build another spaceship. I'd build a house for my dolls and play with it. Then I'd come up with a better design for the house and build additions or tear it down and start from scratch.
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Then again, the only use I ever found in the silly Barbie dolls my relatives kept getting me was in dismembering them, then rubber-banding wheels from other toys onto each individual body part, and rubber-band slingshotting them across the kitchen floor with my little brother, either to see which we could shoot the farthest or in a slightly demented form of bowling using other smallish toys. (Unsurprisingly, when my 7th grade science class had to create rubber-band propelled vehicles, I chose a Barbie leg as the core of mine.)
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Can't be both
It can't be both. I'm a father of girls and for two of them, if you want to market to them, you'd better go pink or go home. The other two, they want their own 3D printer.
It's not wrong for Lego to give girls what they want to play with. It's just too bad they can't let the girls fabricate their own toys.
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Re: Can't be both
Lionel Trains tried to create and market a train set just for girls in 1957. Most girls were incredibly put off by the pastel train set and the product failed to bring in the sales that Lionel had expected. It was also considered a marketing failure for the company.
Turns out girls at the time wanted the same realistic trains that the boys had.
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Re: Re: Can't be both
The linked article (did you read it?) says Lego actually researched the differences in how girls play with their toys and planned the toys around what they observed in that research. My point is that an approach that diversifies available options based upon observed behavior is sort of the opposite of stereotyping.
How is that related to Lionel simplistically painting their trains a different color back in the 1900s?
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Re: Re: Re: Can't be both
The point is that girls will play with whatever they like, regardless of marketing or stylistic design. We can delve into the sociological aspects of feminine design choices if you like, but that's a bit dry for my tastes.
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