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How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?

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allypanda
12/03/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
This reminds me how I always wanted to be in Boy Scouts cause they got to play with knives and whittle and do the pinewood derby. Flipping Girl Scouts sewed and made collages. Boo.

Also, did anyone have that creepy crawlers oven thing!? SOOO cool.
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Jack_Burton
12/03/08

@allypanda: I did! It was rad!

There were 4 colors of "goo" that you heated up in a cauldron-thing, and a bunch of molds of preety odd little demons, imps, monsters, and ferocious animals. You poured the goo into the mold, and voila - you got cool little toys that YOU made!!
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Jack_Burton
12/03/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
I want to see what a Femisapien does if you put it next to the Sanrio section...
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s.alsi.fied
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
My mom used to try to buck this system as much as possible by always buying the little boys Cabbage Patch dolls. They always loved them.

I on the otherhand wanted it all - the 'boy's' toys and the 'girl's' toys and looking back on it, it was pretty clear which was which. My favorite gifts were probably the most gender-nuetral: a national geographic globe and a set of children's encyclopedias.
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Brigit
12/02/08

@s.alsi.fied: I use to record myself reading storybooks from the encyclopedia.

Also, Disney's encyclopedia taught me at a very young age about the huge-ass wasps that hunt tarantulas and inject their eggs inside it, using it as a fleshy nest! Both creepy and awesome.
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Hana Maru
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
While progressive parents do often give some boy toys to girls, I think it would be better if as many boys were allowed to play with ponies and dress like cheerleaders. Men and women recognize "boy stuff" as having inherent value, while we all see "girl stuff" as frivolous. A lot of boy toddlers enjoy putting on lipstick, play-cooking, and Barbies, before they learn that those things are inferior.
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TeFrey
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
I have fond memories of playing "The War Between GI Joe and the Sunshine Family" with my male best friend in kindergarten. Mrs. Sunshine looked really cute in Joe's combat boots.
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Brigit
12/02/08

@TeFrey: My Barbie was married to my male best friend's GI Joe. They had a dysfunctional family... and so did both of us :/
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thesciencegirl
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
Also, I'm forwarding the link to this catalog to my family with a *wink, wink* I want ALL of it.
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thesciencegirl
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
I'm so glad my parents got me the nerdy gifts I wanted as a kid. I credit their unwavering support for my science fervor for making me a scientist today. What if they had said, "no honey, you can't have science toys. Here's an easy bake oven" ???

My parents gave me the best gifts as a kid: a microscope, kits to make my own slides of insect parts, a rock tumbler, a telescope, a bird watching book with binoculars, various insect habitats for all of the creatures I caught outside, etc. They took me to Cape Canaveral for my 16th birthday. I'm so glad they let me be the dork that I was, gender rules be damned. :)
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Wit is periodically disensouled
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
True story: my brother really enjoyed reading Rebecca - so much that he had the book prominently displayed on his bookshelf for years (...that is, of course, until I gently reminded him that was my copy and maybe he ought to return it and buy his own). Then again, my hunting and sports enthusiast father has watched just about every version of Pride and Prejudice ever filmed and will debate the merits of them with you if prompted, so it's not precisely new ground for our family.

In general, though, I think girls get more leeway in this respect. I was allowed to play with my Barbies, MicroMachines, Fun-With-Food, Legos and Construx(sp?) when I was little. I had a rock tumbler and a crystal growing kit and a sewing machine at various points. (In retrospect, I sound rather spoiled, but you have to understand that the aforementioned father makes children's toys for a living and the hitherto unmentioned mother suffered a nearly-toyless childhood.) But my brothers ONLY got to play with the boy stuff. How lame is that?
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Wit is periodically disensouled
12/02/08

@Wit: So maybe the point I was orbiting around is that boys get the really cool toys because the stores know that adults will likely buy toys for girls out of either the boys' or girls' toy list, but will only buy toys for boys out of the boys' list? Therefore, if there is some doubt or a unisex toy (incidentally, I feel like I'm going to hell for that phrasing, if not for the tongue twister above), they put it on the boys' list?
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rah29
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
Count me among the apparently large list of Jezzies who hated so-called 'girls' toys. People gave me Barbies and they just gathered dust; I read a LOT of books about science and astronomy (turns out I'm not very good at it, but I loved it as a kid), had a huge dinosaur collection and played a lot of Ghostbusters. I wasn't even a tomboy in the traditional sense--I hated playing sports or getting dirty (still do). What I really object to is the fact that many of the educational toys like science kits get tagged for boys, while girls are meant to pretend to be mommies or play with dolls that look like prostitutes.

I am not, however, into Cromwell. He was a douchebag.
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victoriasauce
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
I'm slightly annoyed by the anti-pink/blue attitude.

Dividing toys into sections is not a big deal. There's not an invisible barrier preventing anyone from crossing over and buying whatever they want for whatever child they want.

My son likes to pretend cook. If he asks for a toy kitchen, I'd have to get it from the girls section. Should I be upset that my son is being "told" he can't be a successful chef when he grows up?

Gosh people. Next thing you know we'll want to rid sections all together. Heaven forbid the person who plays Scrabble on their kitchen table is offended that board games aren't in the dining room section.
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SarahMC
12/02/08

@torieandrahmsittinginatree: Actually, as I just said in an earlier comment, sections are often useful, but they are not good when all they do is reinforce and even push stereotypes.
Would you have a problem if toy departments were separated into a "white kids" section, "latin@ kids" section, and so on and so forth?
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Turanga_Leela
12/02/08

@torieandrahmsittinginatree: But why does it have to be separated? Can't it just be "Kids' Toys" without it being divided into toys for boys and girls?
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Hana Maru
12/02/08

@Turanga_Leela: Yeah, there could just be toy aisles, with categories for science toys, dolls/action figures, puppets, puzzles, etc. It's a false dichotomy to say there has to be either gender division or everything in one big pile.
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FourInchHeels
12/02/08

@Turanga_Leela: @HanaMaru: I'd be much happier seeing them divided by age rather than gender. Or possibly just by category like you suggest! Seems to be easier that way, too, since someone has to decide if a gender-neutral toy belongs to one or the other.
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clevernamehere
12/02/08

@torieandrahmsittinginatree: I think one big issue is that 20-30 years ago there wasn't as sharp a divide between boy toys and girl toys. I had a red kitchen set as a child in the 80s and I remember most of my little friends had something fairly neutral. On a recent trip to the toy store the play kitchens were all pink, even though they're a toy all toddlers like.
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SisterSasquatch
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
I feel like all of this gender-inequality in toys has really taken a hold in the past 15-20 years. I don't remember such issues being prevalent when I was growing up (early 80s). Sure, my sister and I had Barbies and stuffed animals and played dress-up, but we also built forts in the yard, loved Legos, Lincoln Logs, and Tintertoys, and put in solid attendance at the local minor-league ballpark with our dad and grandfather. I don't remember any of my friends having only girly toys, either.

I also feel like we were encouraged to really use our imaginations more than I think kids are these days, which is sad. The best toy, in my opinion, is a box of crayons and a pack of paper.
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Brigit
12/02/08

@SisterSasquatch: Or a big, empty box!
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Hana Maru
12/02/08

@SisterSasquatch: This has been going on longer, I promise. Check out Pink Think by Lynn Peril. It's an entertaining read and a feminist take on the enforcement of gender norms for children and the origins and 20th century history thereof. Also, pictures!

[www.pinkthink.com]
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taranwanderer
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
We can't forget that lists like this are probably more made for grandparents, aunts and uncles, godparents, family friends...people who maybe don't spend as much time with the child as they would like, but still need to buy the kid an appropriate toy. Grandma will think that since the science spa treatment is on the girls list, of course her granddaughter will love it! Sigh.
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morninggloria
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
What gender would a Koosh Ball yard tennis set be, I wonder?
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kelsium
12/02/08

@morninggloria: The kickass one, of course.
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linnyt is a walking cliché
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
And they wonder why women aren't going into scientific careers...
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Flowers For Algernon
12/02/08

In reply to How Come Boys Get All The Cool Toys?
Boys do not get the best toys. My sister got an easy bake oven for like 10 christmas in a row and I would have gave my SOUL to have one of those things.

I did get a mcdonalds hamburger maker (it involved cereal?)

But I wanted an easy bake oven so badly.
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Hana Maru
12/02/08

@HalfBloodPrince: She had 10 and she couldn't let you have one?
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SunburnedCounsel
12/02/08

@HalfBloodPrince: See, this is why the patriarchy hurts everyone. You should have had an easy bake oven to play with. That sucks. I think parents can get even more invested in having their boys play with "boy toys" and not turning gay or something then they are with keeping girls pink. And it hurts every kid. And produces grown men who can't cook.
(not implying you can't, just... in general.)
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