13 year old girl petitions Hasbro to make gender neutral Easy-Bake Ovens

[MadrasT]

And they're going to do it.

http://consumerist.com/2012/12/17/petition-results-in-hasbro-introducing-gender-neutral-easy-bake-oven/

Petition Results In Hasbro Introducing Gender-Neutral Easy-Bake Oven
December 17, 2012 By Chris Morran

(snip)

The folks from Change.org, where the 13-year-old’s petition to Hasbro garnered more than 44,000 signatures and the attention of worldwide media, the teen met with Hasbro today at the company’s secret lair in Rhode Island (okay, it’s not a secret, but we like to imagine that it’s something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) where Hasbro showed off a black-and-silver prototype.

In her petition, the teen had told Hasbro that though the Easy-Bake had long been a favorite toy of hers, it “promotes gender roles in society. Your packaging for the product and it’s promotional materials advertise baking and cooking as a solely girls hobby. Also, it’s ‘girls’ coloration of purple and pink make it seem as though cooking is ‘girly’, which it is not by any means.”

The new, “boy-friendly” (though we’re sure there are plenty of young females who will also opt for the black-and-silver oven) Easy-Bake is expected to go on sale some time in February.

“I’m very excited that Hasbro is introducing an Easy Bake Oven that will appeal to both boys and girls,” said the young woman who petitioned the U.S. Toy-Industrial Complex. “The Hasbro executives told me that my petition was inspiring.”

I believe they also plan to show boys in the packaging and advertising.



Dare I say it?

Oh what the heck.

"Well done". <== I kill me

[Wait Wut]

1. I would've been a lot more popular with my father...

...if they had made a black/silver version of Barbie's Corvette.

Because the day after Christmas, with some help from my brother's model paint...that's exactly the color it ended up being. Pink??? Ugh. Dad was pretty pissed off. He never understood my lack of desire to be the perfect little princess he had hoped for.

I also cut her hair really short, sewed up an awesome racing outfit and made a helmet out of a bottle cap. I didn't mind being a girl, I just wanted some less girly versions of girl stuff.

I appreciate her work on the Easy Bake Oven. I wasn't as into mine as she seems to be, but ovens should be stainless steel...not pink...ever.

[MadrasT]

2. They have really changed.

Mine looked like this:

?557

Now they look like this:



I like your Barbie Corvette story. I wasn't allowed to have Barbie... "poor role model". The Easy Bake oven was a gift from my grandmother, and my mother flipped out about that because she thought it was encouraging a gender role she didn't want me to adopt. (Woman in the kitchen, etc. etc.)

I loved my oven. I generally used it to heat up frozen tater tots as tasty afternoon snacks, because we could never afford the Easy Bake replacement cake mix packs.

I believe the girl who started the petition did it on behalf of her little brother who was interested in cooking and didn't want a "girly" Easy Bake oven. (As for me, I would have not taken to that purple flowery thing just like you didn't want a pink Barbie Corvette.)

[ismnotwasm]

3. Yeah that pink is irritating

Nothing wrong with domestic things.

My oldest daughter. Who is a decorated combat veteran(served in Afganistan) was into pink when she went home on leave because all she wore over there was army fatigues. She got over it, although she says she still wants a pink crossbow, which of course is more expensive than the regular kind. She is also very domestic now, and STILL a badass when she chooses.

On another note, I have a very good friend who is fighting breast cancer and she HATES all that 'pink for breat cancer' won't wear it. I threatened to get her a pink cap to cover her chemo baldness, she just laughed at me. I'd get her one in desert fatigue colors if I thought she'd wear it. Seems more appropriate, considering what she's going through.

Sweden is working on gender neutral presentation of toys;

The Swedish government has been on the front line of efforts to engineer equality between men and women, with generous paternity benefits and plans to spend the equivalent of some $340 million through 2014 on boosting gender equality in the workplace. Last year, the country famously mulled the use of a single-gender pronoun, "hen," to replace "he" or "she" when a person's gender is unknown or insignificant.

Anna Molin/The Wall Street Journal
In a country of 9 million people, gender equality is seen as a bedrock principle of a productive workforce and a healthy welfare state. Sweden needs women in the labor force to maintain output. State-funded child care structures put in place after World War II have enabled women to return to work after having children, and four different government entities are devoted to the issue.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324205404578147373422297406.html