I hope you're ready to be blown away, because everything about this video has got it all: a hearty rejection of princess dogma, children scream-singing about female empowerment, a giant Rube Goldberg machine...
It's the wondrous creation of GoldieBlox, a toy company that aims to inspire the next generation of female engineers and builders by designing construction toys from a female perspective and thus "disrupt the pink aisle." This isn't the first inspirational anthem we've seen from them, and I doubt it will be the last.
This video opens on three little girls disinterestedly watching some bland show about giggling lil' princesses; fed up with it all, they go on to engineer an enormous machine out of sparkly pink baby dolls and tea sets (way to use the master's tools to dismantle the master's playhouse, little ones). In the background, we hear an eight-year-old covering "Girls" by the Beastie Boys: "It's time to change. We deserve to see a range. 'Cause all our toys look just the same, and we would like to use our brains. We are all more than princess maids." TRUE THAT, CHILDREN.
DISCUSSION
Can I just say that it's really frustrating buying toys for my nieces and nephews, because everything is so much more "genderized" today than it was even a decade ago?
EVERY. FUCKING. TOY.
Want to buy a doctor play set? PINK FOR GIRLS. Either that or they get a nursing set. Because only women are nurses.
Want to buy LEGOs? GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE. Boys get all the branded ones (eugh), and PINK FOR GIRLS.
Everything. Gendered. FOR YOU INCONVENIENCE.
I just want to buy my nieces and nephews toys that are fun. Can any of it not be branded to some mega-corp's shill product with focus group bullshit? Can we just raise kids with fun toys they can all enjoy?
No?
EHHHHHH.