So, does the push against gender stereotypes come and go?

[anarky]

I remember when I was a kid that there was all this uproar about not reinforcing stereotypes in children's TV and toys. It seemed to be doing fairly well.

But, lately, I've noticed everything seems to have moved in the opposite direction at some point. Cartoons that are for girls are about them looking pretty and collecting pretty shells and shit. Toys R Us is segregated into "pink" and "not pink." Try to find clothes or riding toys for a girl that aren't pink. Barbie's stopped being a lawyer or doctor or whatever, and is back to being a moron, mommy, or bimbo. Bratz may be gone due to trademark infringement or whatever, but even Dora the Explorer now dresses more like Dora the Whora.

I saw these sets of Little People at Kohl's (they might be exclusive; I can't tell) that just made my jaw drop and started me thinking about this stuff:
http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/saleeve ... ssell=true
http://www.kohls.com/kohlsStore/saleeve ... es+Set.jsp
(Keep in mind that, whatever Kohl's calls them, Fisher Price calls them "Fun Figures for Boys" and "Fun Figures for Girls.")
So, girls get a bride, a mommy, a baby, a wedding cake, and some girls or women in bathing suits and tennis outfits, along with what looks like either a porcupine or deformed poodle, and boys get pirates, soccer players, a ball, a dog, and a bird? I'm no feminist by any stretch, but I'd be more likely to buy the set marked as being for boys. There's nothing wrong with the figures themselves, but why not put the two girls with beach balls in with the soccer boys and call it "Sports Figures"? (Better yet, since these figures are so androgynous anyway, one boy and one girl in soccer uniforms, and one each in beach uniforms.) Or at least call them "Male Figures" and "Female Figures."

My niece was a normal kid until she hit about 12, and now she's a moron. She chooses to be. She doesn't know who the governor is, she doesn't know how to apply to college even though it's November and she's a senior, and she thinks nothing of dropping $300 on a purse or dress even when the family can't pay their bills in a given month. Most of her friends are like that. From what I hear from high school teachers, most girls are like that now. They make a choice, conscious or unconscious, at some point, to be bimbos, because that's what they see. Don't get me started on the fucking spineless bimbo from Twilight and the damage she's doing to a whole generation; why don't they read different books (or, more often, watch different movies) and take a cue from Ginny or Hermione?

My daughter's favorite toys are baby dolls, trains, cars, and dinosaurs. She likes GIJoe or Spider-Man more than Strawberry Shortcake. People act like that's absolutely bizarre, and don't believe me that she plays with Speed Racer because she saw me watching the cartoon when she woke up from a nap and liked it. They think I'm trying to make her a tomboy and fucking her up for life.

I hope to God that she grows up to be one of the very few normal women around in 20 years. But will this trend, and idiots like Sarah Palin and Paris Hilton and the neutered version of Tinkerbell that Disney is whoring out now, have regressed society to the point where people look at her funny if she does something that requires intelligence or actual skill?

[vynsane]

i have to say i fully agree with you, though my daughter came out of the womb desiring purses and cute shoes. swear to god. she prefers dresses over pants, loves her hair done up all cute, and isn't really into playing in the dirt. but at the same time, she loves to play with my iron man and spider-man figures. she asked to watch speed racer with daddy today, while i worked from home. she loves rough-housing with me (she climbs all over me).

we don't get flak as much as you apparently do. but most of the toys we get for her are more 'classic' and less 'plastic' like building blocks, puzzles, wooden toys, etc. we really like the 'melissa and doug' stuff, as it's rather gender-neutral and made out of wood as opposed to plastic.

[anarky]

We get her a lot of gender-neutral stuff. Thing is, when she's at Grandma's, she watches TV from the minute she wakes up (which she does earlier than at home) until she goes to bed (which is later). Swear to God. I'll take her down there for two days, and she'll know ten new shows when I pick her up. We finally got my mother-in-law to stop letting her watch South Park and Family Guy, thank God--she would turn it on, assume it was a kid's show, and ignore it.

All my wife's family buy her licensed toys from shows that she doesn't watch, or only sees at Grandmas's. They think we deprive her because she doesn't watch Dora the Explorer. We don't ban the TV, but she watches either A) educational stuff on PBS (as opposed to the pseudo-educational Nickelodeon bullshit) or B) stuff Mommy or (usually) Daddy wants to watch. (I've yet to see any ill effects from her watching Samurai Jack.)

She's mostly pretty girly, but I'd rather not convince her at an early age that she has to dress like a bimbo or aspire to be a bride.

[vynsane]

oh my god, yeah, i can relate to the grandma thing. she never gets a nap, watches TV the entire time and goes to bed way too late when she stays at my mom's house.

julia loves 'little bear' and sesame street. that's about all the TV she watches, other than freakazoid, animaniacs and gilmore girls (guess which ones she watches with daddy, and which with mommy...)

my family is a bit more understanding of the toy thing, though my mom always gets her a 'tickle-me-____' for christmas, which just proceeds to freak my daughter out and she never plays with it again. she doesn't like things that can move and talk that aren't supposed to.