Augh!

[doronjosama]

ldragoon pointed out the most Sexist Toys of 2007, and she linked to the Rose Petal Cottage commercial on YouTube.

Well, I just have to share: (in the cut)

Watch on YouTube

Gasp! A place of her own where she can dream, dream, dream... OF DOING LAUNDRY?! Are they fucking serious?! You have GOT to be shitting me. Because of course, a little girl only needs to dream about cleaning, baking, having babies and doing laundry. These commercials make me so mad, I want to punch every toy manufacturer in the world in the face.

Rose Petal Cottage... set your imagination FREE! (Provided you only imagine being a domestic...)

Commercials really influence kids a LOT, since they're so short they really catch the attention. Thank god there was a commercial out when I was a little girl that influenced me to think I could do anything and everything:

Watch on YouTube

Okay, sure, that probably wasn't the ACTUAL intent of the commercial, but that's the message I got. Make your own money! Take care of yourself! And oh yeah, you can still be sexy, too. Much better than that whole "you can imagine doing laundry!" bullshit. Bleah!

PS I think the idea of a playhouse for little kids is great, all kids like to pretend to be grownups and do grownup stuff like housekeeping, working, etc. What I have a problem with are these ads, which are sending a horribly sexist message. I also have an issue with the playhouse stuff being marketed solely as "little girl toys"- it's all pink and flowery and frilly, and deeply gender coded. I much prefer the old Little Tykes playhouse, which is red, yellow and blue, and gender neutral... because trust me, kids will play with any toys that are handy. This whole "these are for girls only/boys only" thing irks me deeply.

Comments

[lazalanti.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's amazing. If I was so interested in doing laundry my parents would have made me do real laundry. Unfortunately for them I had no interest in doing laundry or the dishes. I hated baby dolls.

What bothers me about this toy is that there is no sense of adventure. It's just boring... like real life. Why the hell would any kid want that??

[lady-laguna.livejournal.com]

Haha. I hated playing house when I was a little goober. My friend always wanted to and I wanted to play "Turtles and Dragons." (I was the Koopas and she was a Ninja Turtles.) But I can't cook, clean, or wash my own clothes without ruining something (No loss, I own too much clothing as it is). I was raised by my dad and was a huge tomboy... But my dad was an immaculate housekeeper and good cook.

I missed a delicate balance in there somewhere.

Do kids even play with toys anymore? My half-siblings only care about videogames. The little sister is only concerned about makeup, clothes and hair.

[redcoatcat.livejournal.com]

That REALLLY bothers me!
I agree if it was gender neutral, hey kids like doing adult things I know when I was a kid I thought the washing machine was endless fascinating.... Till I had to do my own laundry, then it sucked!

But message this has is all a little girl will ever want to do is spit out babies like a pez dispenser, decorate, bake and do household chores.
Where is Rose pedal Office for the Corporate girl, where she can throw a cell phone into the trash, move her desk around, look out her giant office window, and have a little photocopier/fax machine to kick when it doesn’t work?

=^,,^-

[xianjaguar.livejournal.com]

Ok....why is that commercial so sexist? No one is forcing the girls to buy it or to like it.
What if a little girl LIKES that stuff? What if she WANTS to be frilly and pretend to do the laundry, because that's what she's interested in? And what if everything is gender-neutral, and she can't have fun, because no one is selling the pink frilly home-stuff she wants?

I hated dolls as a girl. HATED them. I played with MLP's and stuffed animals and art stuff. What if no one made My Little Pony, or stuffed animals or art stuff and everyone just made dolls? I woulda been bummed.

I knew girls who LOVED frilly home crap as kids. What if everyone just made the red, blue and green gender neutral playhouses, and didn't make those pink frilly playsets? Those girls I knew would have been mighty disappointed.

Freedom means "Having a Choice".
"Having a Choice" means that toys come in a VARIETY of interest....everything from gender-neutral toys (for kids like I used to be), to those frilly pink home-making toys (maybe there are girls out there who LIKE that), to things like toy guns and robots and GI JOE, and everything in between.

Trust me, girls are NOT going to be brainwashed into thinking they have to be a home-maker, because those toys aren't the only ones being made and there are tons of options out there with their own commercials being aired on TV.

When I was a girl, there were TONS Of Barbie commercials, doll commercials and kitchen playsets, and I sure wasn't brainwashed...because it didn't interest me, and there were a ton of OTHER commercials too that DID interest me.... Tonka trucks, MLP, Tinker-Toys, etc.

I hope we never become a nation where we have to censor our toys to always be 'gender-neutral'. That eliminates Choice and Freedom.

BTW, ironically, while the perfume commercial inspired you, it turned me off. What, I have to work my ass off as the Family Breadwinner at a 9-5 job, PLUS come home and cook for my man, PLUS sex him up too? I already did that for 10 years. It gets old real fast when you're the one running your ass off working multiple jobs, cooking, cleaning, etc. while the guy is earning less than you, and gets off work and sits on his butt... and THEN wants you to sex him up too. ARGH. >:(

It's part of being a kid!

[the-mouthpiece.livejournal.com]

It's true. children will play with whatever toys are handy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrPc9ARvoOs

[hecatemahadevi.livejournal.com]

I'm arriving at the party late. I haven't been keeping up on everyone's blogs, so that's why you haven't seen any comments from me.

I think they should make a matching boys' "Rosepetal Playhouse". It comes in dark and drab colours, has lots of beer in the fridge, a big-screen TV for watching sports, and a wife to give "love taps" to when dinner isn't on the table the second he gets home from work. That way, boys can learn their proper household role too, right?