Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Daddy's Little Girl

I saw this commercial last night and it just hit me in all wrong ways. It was for Playskool’s Rose Petal Cottage, a little lightweight fabric, foldout playhouse for little girls (and aspiring homos). It had all the requisite stereotypical girl things . . . a stove, an oven, a tea set . . . but what absolutely flipped my lid was when the little girl opened her play washing machine and said, “time to do the laundry!”

Excuse me, what year is it again? I half expected there to be a carton of cigarettes in the “freezer” and a little faux martini shaker. It was so offensive it could have been satire, but it wasn’t.

I think little girls and boys should play at whatever they like. If they want to play house, knock it out! No problem. But the laundry thing just reeked of misogynistic bullshit. Who owns Playskool? The Baptists?

It was creepy, creepy, creepy and really pissed me off.

Playskool. Even a little woman’s place is in the home.

5 comments:

hokgardner said...

Don't even get me started on this topic. We're getting all the christmas catalogues from shi-shi toy companies selling educational, organic, hand-carved in Sweden toys, and without fail, the girls are shown playing with baby dolls and pretend kitchens and the boys are playing with science kits and telescopes and remote control cars.

I've sworn off ordering anything from any catalogue that is THAT blatant.

And my 7-year-old girl, who loves everything space-related, is probably getting a telescope for christmas.

Anonymous said...

I got a telescope for christmas last year and I'm a girl! When my kids were little they both wanted guns and camo's for xmas, me trying to be the anti violent person that I am got them wooden handmade barns tractors farmers and farm animals. I went to check on them because I heard alot of noise coming from the livingroom. It was armeggedon amish style. Dead animals and farmers everywhere......and my 4 year old at the time, you guessed it, a girl. Know whats funny, I'd give my right arm for a washer and dryer right about now.

marthachick said...

Most small kids like playing pretend with the things they see their parents doing all the time -- cooking, laundry, yard work, housework. At my casa, that's me and Daddy, not just me. I got no problem with kitchen/household toys. What I hate is the twee styling of these things. Miss V has a super simple wooden kitchen and all her pals (boys and girls) just love it.

That said, she does have a pink tutu. Because tutus are fun, I don't care how feminist you may be.

hokgardner said...

Don't get me wrong, we have kitchen sets and pretend wooden food all over the house. And the girls both have fairy-princess-ballerina clothes that they love. I just don't like the assumption by the catalogues that the girls will only play with the house stuff and the boys will only play with the science stuff. How about showing a boy in an apron and a girl holding a bug-o-scope. That's all I'm asking.

Anonymous said...

And all I want is a washer and dryer so Im jealous of the little bitch in the ad..