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The gender coding time of year has started off with a bang. Every time I turn on the TV I am assaulted by commercials featuring little girls playing with plastic stoves and oh, how cool it is and they talk! Apparently, when she wasn't off having adventures featuring sharks, shipwrecks and the rescuing of handsome princes, Ariel was busy filleting fish. I was unaware.
So, sorry. Pardon my sarcasm.
Did you SEE how much junk she had in that cavern? Do you know how much TIME it takes to accumulate that much stuff? How much searching and exploring has to be done? I guess the marketing peeps over at Disney don't really think so.
What really got me, however, was the Dora the Explorer stove.
I am incensed!!! Dora the freaking Explorer has a plastic pink stove!! When does Dora have time to cook???? She's EXPLORING!! What the fuck?! And the worst part?! The very best of the worst part? The stove includes a little phone that rings and when you answer it Dora's friend Diego asks what's for dinner.
*facepalm*
OMG! Are you kidding me right now?
Two of the more proactive female characters for young girls have been chained to the stove.
I mean seriously. Seriously.
And of course that got me to thinking about Buffy and the way that Joss rewrote the blonde cheerleader stereotype. Even Heroes is getting involved with Clare, although with a different purpose and, perhaps, to a lesser degree. I love, and everyone has talked the subject to death, I am sure, how Buffy moves throughout the series from passive to active. As she grows, the movement from WTTH to Graduation, we see her evolve from the hand to the mind. She moves beyond just action (Giles does most of the thinking and deciding) to a planner (the definitive moment in that arc, of course, coming in LMPTM). Even Cordelia, the other obvious female stereotype in the Jossverse, recasts herself over the seasons in very surprising and aggressive ways. Perhaps, even more startling than Buffy's evolution since she begins the series having already begun her evolution. Cordelia we watch from beginning to end.
I find it vastly disconcerting to see marketing that implies, what I see, as a regression, a movement away from action and back into passive gender models. Not that there's anything wrong with home and hearth. Not at all. My mom stayed home until I was maybe eight or nine years old. But, seeing characters that function outside of traditional gender codes of behavior recast into a traditional model is just wrong and disturbing. If they were going to do this, couldn't they have picked a character that already functioned as part of that (gods, I am completely losing my words) behavioral model?
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this? Am I being overly sensitive? Maybe it's just a pink plastic stove and who cares? Would YOU buy one for your daughter? What if your son wanted one?
I'm curious.
Oh and a note to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
glossing: THANK YOU!! I will email you later. But everything made perfect sense and thank you thank you thank you!!!
So, sorry. Pardon my sarcasm.
Did you SEE how much junk she had in that cavern? Do you know how much TIME it takes to accumulate that much stuff? How much searching and exploring has to be done? I guess the marketing peeps over at Disney don't really think so.
What really got me, however, was the Dora the Explorer stove.
I am incensed!!! Dora the freaking Explorer has a plastic pink stove!! When does Dora have time to cook???? She's EXPLORING!! What the fuck?! And the worst part?! The very best of the worst part? The stove includes a little phone that rings and when you answer it Dora's friend Diego asks what's for dinner.
*facepalm*
OMG! Are you kidding me right now?
Two of the more proactive female characters for young girls have been chained to the stove.
I mean seriously. Seriously.
And of course that got me to thinking about Buffy and the way that Joss rewrote the blonde cheerleader stereotype. Even Heroes is getting involved with Clare, although with a different purpose and, perhaps, to a lesser degree. I love, and everyone has talked the subject to death, I am sure, how Buffy moves throughout the series from passive to active. As she grows, the movement from WTTH to Graduation, we see her evolve from the hand to the mind. She moves beyond just action (Giles does most of the thinking and deciding) to a planner (the definitive moment in that arc, of course, coming in LMPTM). Even Cordelia, the other obvious female stereotype in the Jossverse, recasts herself over the seasons in very surprising and aggressive ways. Perhaps, even more startling than Buffy's evolution since she begins the series having already begun her evolution. Cordelia we watch from beginning to end.
I find it vastly disconcerting to see marketing that implies, what I see, as a regression, a movement away from action and back into passive gender models. Not that there's anything wrong with home and hearth. Not at all. My mom stayed home until I was maybe eight or nine years old. But, seeing characters that function outside of traditional gender codes of behavior recast into a traditional model is just wrong and disturbing. If they were going to do this, couldn't they have picked a character that already functioned as part of that (gods, I am completely losing my words) behavioral model?
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this? Am I being overly sensitive? Maybe it's just a pink plastic stove and who cares? Would YOU buy one for your daughter? What if your son wanted one?
I'm curious.
Oh and a note to
glossing: THANK YOU!! I will email you later. But everything made perfect sense and thank you thank you thank you!!!
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 06:24 pm (UTC)From:In a word: no.
It's deeply disturbing, and deeply depressing, like most of the world of Stuff For Kids. And I honestly don't know what I'd do if Lillian wanted one. On the one hand, it's an upward battle against the forces of gender stereotyping and coding. On the other, well, I remember how cranky my mother's refusal to buy me Barbie dolls made me.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 08:05 pm (UTC)From:Mostly he used it as an additional roadway for his cars. **g**
no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 08:07 pm (UTC)From:Nope, one of the guys I live with was subjected to a rant on this fromme yesterday: I was flipping through a Christmas catalogue and landed on the page with kitchen/tool-bench playsets. Every single kid pictured at one of the kitchens was a girl; every single one at a pretend construction workbench was a boy. FFS.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 09:15 pm (UTC)From:I had Barbies as a kid. I played with them with my brother because he had He-Man 'action figures' and all of our dolls went on adventures together. But when I look at the marketing for Barbie, the things that she represents in the mainstream, it drives me bananas.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 09:17 pm (UTC)From:Right on!! That's what I like to see. Let's think Outside of the Box! If I had kids, I'd probably be more interested in getting one of those stoves for my son then my daughter. I'm sure I'd be giving her tonka trucks and plastic tools. And that would actually make perfect sense because her momma is pretty fond of the power tools, baby!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-02 09:19 pm (UTC)From:I had a mini-drunken rant with a guy I know last week because that dumb Dora the Explorer commercial had just shown.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 01:09 am (UTC)From:(Though I get frustrated with my family when they freak out over my niece liking monster trucks and over my nephew liking barbie and pink and thinking his grandma's shoes are pretty.)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 02:25 am (UTC)From:Apparently, when she wasn't off having adventures featuring sharks, shipwrecks and the rescuing of handsome princes, Ariel was busy filleting fish.
Wouldn't that be, like, half-cannibalism/murder on Ariel's part? *shot*
No, sorry, I don't have anything really intelligent to say, other than if I would ever have a son or daughter, if they wanted something that was "outside" of what their assumed gender roles would be, I would get it for them (price tag notwithstanding).
I haven't watched Dora the Explorer, but the name makes me wonder if there's some sort of Dora-themed "science kits" (like things about geology or animals or those crystal gardens or something) out there, and if there aren't, there damn well should be.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 02:42 am (UTC)From:i have a huge problem with the inherent assumption that girls are the only ones who can and should enjoy domestic tasks. the dynamic that you speak of chaps my ass. it's like 'they're really girls because of...' or 'no matter how far you go, you best take your stove with you, bitch'. drives me nuts. when Fisher Price makes a garage with a stove on the back, well, we'll talk. is it a regression, though? i don't think so. i've been a child, been teaching children, been a nanny, and a parent for thirty years that i can remember and toys haven't really changed that much at all.
let's not jump on the toy manufacturers alone. they make these things because they sell. parents buy them because their children identify with them. the fault goes way deeper than just the toy makers. what it says is that shows like Dora are great and maybe today's four year olds won't be buying pink plastic stoves for their daughters but today's parents sure are. the kids are still being programmed. and that is a huge concern. Buffy's great, but she's an exception to the rule.
it's not just their daughters suffering for it; their sons are growing up half-human, too. are half the cooking shows on TV not about men? it's ridiculous. PEOPLE need to smarten up. /we/ need to be more demanding about what kids are exposed to. when i taught nursery school, you'd find as many boys as girls in the kitchen. all little children love to care for and nurture others. it's everyone's loss when only one gender gets to do it, and when only one sex gets to participate in those gender activities.
who the hell owns a pink stove when they're grown up, anyway? mine's shiny and black and goes ZOOM. (i swear i don't cook at less than 450.)
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:05 am (UTC)From:The Ariel one is kind of...wtf. I mean, even assuming she does take time from exploring to do "traditional" female things, which doesn't seem likely--she's a princess. Why on earth would she be the one cooking? >.>
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 05:52 am (UTC)From:And a princess who lives under the sea for the first sistxeen years of her life, at that. For heaven's sake, she doesn't even know what fire is, or how to use a fork. How could she handle a stove??
To
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 06:15 am (UTC)From:This reminds me of a Salon article about this subject. Also featuring Dora the Explorer, no less.
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/ 2004/11/24/princesses/index.html
here from metafandom
Date: 2006-11-03 07:16 am (UTC)From:But at the same time I think that the greatest service my momma ever did for me was to teach me that strong women could work and cook and do math and play soccer and read and paint their nails and that there was nothing wrong with any of it, that you didn't have to chose between being a strong woman and baking a cake.
I think I'd be less bothered by the Dora the Explorer stove if there were also Dora the Explorer rocket boots, and Dora the Explorer rapelling gear.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:32 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:33 pm (UTC)From:Okay being grown-up again. LOL. I did think about that as I wrote it but I was so irritated I didn't change it. Maybe she should be sautéing sea kelp or something. :)
I can only HOPE that Dora the Explorer has science kits and explorer kits and things of that nature, pink or otherwise, to peddle to the kidlets. It just makes more sense to me.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:39 pm (UTC)From:Word! I've never considered myself a girly-girl either. I have five brothers and I grew up doing what they did and wearing their hand-me-downs. I am in complete agreement with you. I also grew up with Barbie dolls and baby dolls between playing with my brothers trucks and Transformers. I LOVE cooking (not so much dishes but that's neither here nor there), I find cleaning incredibly therapeutic and I LOVE to crochet!! I also adore video games in which I get to beat the pulp out of people (my brothers are always commenting on my bloodlust) and power tools. But I LOVE make-up, too. And shoes. God, shoes!! So there's absolutely no reason why you can't be both. Your daughter sounds incredibly well-rounded and I love that.
But, as you say, it's a problem of either or. Girls like this and boys like that and for no other reason than the equipment packed between their legs. And you're right it's very obviously a deeper problem than toy manufactures. They sell what people want. But, I don't know, I see it as negligence to make a commercial or feature an ad where the sexes are separated by tasks assumed to be the domain of one or the other. Why not mix it up and include both? Why not have the guy over to help make the meal? Why not let the girls into the garage to help repair the scooter? It's just so pervasive that I think where do we start with fixing this?
Buffy's great, but she's an exception to the rule.
LOL. I am so about watching and tracking strong, alternative, non-traditional female characters that I forget sometimes that she is indeed an exception and that the masses don't get her. It shocks me to come out of my feminist bubble and realize that not everyone is seeing what I'm seeing and the sudden inundation of commercials in preparation for Christmas was like someone snapping their fingers under my nose. I saw it!!
it's not just their daughters suffering for it; their sons are growing up half-human, too. are half the cooking shows on TV not about men? it's ridiculous. PEOPLE need to smarten up. /we/ need to be more demanding about what kids are exposed to. when I taught nursery school, you'd find as many boys as girls in the kitchen. all little children love to care for and nurture others. it's everyone's loss when only one gender gets to do it, and when only one sex gets to participate in those gender activities.
Hell Yeah!! Can I just say how very glad I am that you came by to comment because ... exactly. I've lost all ability to be articulate about the subject, so thank you!!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:42 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:44 pm (UTC)From:AAHAHAH!!!
It's like we've made so much progress and now it's just going down the drain because people keep forgetting to care.
And that makes me wonder, have we really made much progress down in the grain where it really counts? I mean to the point where it's more than just a "thing you do" because it's PC, but something you do because how else should it be? I put up shelves and drill away with my cordless, black power drill (I am so in love with that thing) because it's something that needs to be done and I have two capable hands to do it with. But I have friends who wait for their boyfriends or brothers or fathers. Hell, they even ask me before they think to do it themselves. Why do they assume that they can't handle it? It's a drill and some screws, it's not rocket science.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 04:44 pm (UTC)From:Re: here from metafandom
Date: 2006-11-03 04:46 pm (UTC)From:But at the same time I think that the greatest service my momma ever did for me was to teach me that strong women could work and cook and do math and play soccer and read and paint their nails and that there was nothing wrong with any of it, that you didn't have to chose between being a strong woman and baking a cake.
I think I'd be less bothered by the Dora the Explorer stove if there were also Dora the Explorer rocket boots, and Dora the Explorer rappelling gear.
I Love You!!!! Because damn straight!! I thank you from the top of my curly-haired MA brain down to my Cherries in the Snow colored toenails.
Another metafnadom browser
Date: 2006-11-03 05:40 pm (UTC)From:Re: Another metafnadom browser
Date: 2006-11-03 06:07 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-11-03 08:44 pm (UTC)From:I hear you.
On the other hand, I'm thinking of Makoto (specifically, the PGSM version), who is strong and tomboyish and still likes to cook. Nothing wrong with that. (No need for the stove to be pink, though. Little girls' ovaries won't shrivel from exposure to strong primary colours, I promise.)
Here via metafandom
Date: 2006-11-03 10:08 pm (UTC)From:So, Mulan. Very kick ass female character. She goes to war, out fights and out thinks her enemies, and ends up saving her entire country. Great, right? Except that almost all the merchandise, from dolls to backpacks to Halloween costumes, featured the dolled up, very, very feminine Mulan from the beginning of the movie. The message seems to be, "Well, yeah, girls can fight and be strong, but THIS is what you should focus on, and THIS is what you should emulate."
Re: Another metafnadom browser
Date: 2006-11-04 01:43 am (UTC)From:EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Louis. With his les poisson.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEE.
Here via furikku.
Date: 2006-11-04 01:49 am (UTC)From:Dora should TOTALLY have rock-climbing gear, or rocket boots, or little science kits.
And wtf. An Arial stove. There are no words.
I'd prolly buy one for my theoretical kids (I have none.) if they wanted one, but it'd probably be more "Do you want to help me bake a real cake in the kitchen?" or something. Or get one of the cool kitchen things that Fisher Price had when I was a kid. I mean, I never used the thing, my sister liked it way more than me, but it was a little plastic kitchen that I strongly remember being white, green, and yellow.
It's stupid that parents buy this kind of stuff and enforce the gender rules on their kids. Why not let the kid have whichever kind of toy they want? My youngest brother LOVES baby dolls, but at the same time, will just as easily set up dinosaurs or little plastic "guy guys" that are set in an epic battle.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 09:04 pm (UTC)From:I mean, the real thing kept burning me. For Christsakes. And you couldn't eat any of the stuff you put on it. That defeated the whole purpose of a stove. I at least liked my toy mop and broom for a while. They had a purpose. They could actually clean. Somewhat.
Anyway, all they taught me was that I did not want to keep playing with them later in life. So maybe the pink plastic stove is a way of getting girls to realize young that they don't want no stinkin' pink plastic stove, because that's what pink plastic stoves did to me.