Away With The Fairies

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Oh.

From the pages of thee Xmas Kleeneze catalogue.

Shivvie writes:

Girls can’t use microscopes what with all that glitter in the way.

Previously: Know Your Place

Meanwhile…

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IKEA Dublin.

VanneMoo writes:

Gender stereotyping alive and well in kids’ section in IKEA – apparently only Mum cooks!

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86 thoughts on “Away With The Fairies

  1. Wayne.F

    Maybe you need to get out more, it’s not like they will ask to see your kids willy before, they sell you a microscope!

  2. Neil

    Get over it. If feminists just have things like this to complain about then the movement is doing alright.

    1. NICE Anne

      Yeah cos that is the secret to it. Deciding to let some randomer on the web decide what we should complain about. (Without being actually able to articulate why it is not ok, I notice)

      It is not about in my opinion, this is ok, we should choose the other as our batte. In fact many people can get involved in many battles at the same time.

      This is not ok, this is a symptom of a bigger problem. There are a decreasing number of women entering the sciences, which may not be a problem for little sad sack mysoganists but is a huge problems for the fields within those diciplines as they struggle to recruit from falling graduate numbers. (The numbers of men have stayed pretty consistant for the last two decades. Sources: http://www.education.com/reference/article/gender-academic-achievement/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/celia-islam/closing-the-stem-gender-g_b_3779893.html )

      Part of the problem is what is presented to children as “normal” when they are growing up. A whipped pup expects to stay whipped, a child not shown science n’ engineering n’ building stuff growing up will deny themselves the oppertunity to explore those fields as an adult because of a lack of expose to those diciplines. Rubbish like these catalogues are part of that problem although not the one any one cause.

      So I am glad you are of this opinion that this is all that feminists have to worry about but it is only one of a range of issues as a story from only yesterday on harassment shows:
      http://www.thejournal.ie/open-thread-street-harassment-1751339-Oct2014/
      (Funny enough there were men on that too saying that if that was all we had to worry about, sure weren’t we grant)
      But this is also an issue that scientists worry about too
      This is also an issue that has consequences for those that are not aware of them into their lives.

      Not tell me again how we are all doing well, darlin’.

    2. Sidewinder

      What makes you think this is all we have to complain about?

      Typical standard “there are other things to care about” non argument. Weak as all get out.

  3. The People's Hero

    Hang on a moment….. Remember the Village People…..? YMCA? The hard hat construction worker and New York Cop?! Those that became gay stereotypes? Away with the fairies indeed….. Funny how stuff can be spun to suit a headline…

  4. Disgrace

    Y’know, it might come as a surprise to some, but boys & girls are actually quite different, have different bits and like different things

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Vaginas make you like pink fairy wings and shoes. Penises make you like construction and cars. Boys who like trainers are therefore girls and girls who like cars are boys.

      1. rotide

        I’d say Christmas is great craic round Nigel’s house.

        Daddy, I wanna be a coyboy!
        Son, How about you be a tax accountant! It’s gender neutral, LGBT friendly AND you get a firm grounding in financial practices so that you may adequatly judge your future voting preferences!

        1. Nigel

          Christmas is a christian-capitalist conspiracy to supplant ancient pagan practices and celebrations and suppress the proper rites and rituals of earth worship, human sacrifice and bi-annual financial consultation

    1. Bingo

      This reminds me of the classic ‘Curb….’ episode when Larry buys a young boy a sewing machine.
      Superb!

  5. Brick Tamlin

    Jesus Christ. Are we gonna do this every time there is an ad for girls/boys toys somewhere that doesnt conform to an adults view of equality?

    This is an advertisement that it is marketed towards kids.
    Parents will see the ad and ask their kids if they want to dress up in this or that.
    The majority of little girls out there would rather dress as fairies than construction workers.
    Its not sexist, its a fact.

    1. ReproBertie

      The majority of people don’t see the issue while they continue to reinforce the stereotypes on young boys and girls by ignoring ads marketed at children that show boys dressed as construction workers and girls dressed as fairies.

      1. Brick Tamlin

        Its a fact that advertising is focused based on previous sales and interest.

        When was the last time you looked at a webpage with google ads?
        Those ads are based on your cookies, so stuff you might have searched for on amazon or ebay or whatever else will show up there because they know you showed an interest in those items or may even have bought one.

        Girls traditionally dress up as princesses or fairys or witches or whatever and boys traditionally dress up as police, builders etc. and these ads are designed because of that.

        I’ve said this on this website before. The advertisers couldnt give a sh!t what your son or daughter dress up as as long as you buy their goods. The ads are presented this way because they know this is how the majority of their goods are sold.

        1. Sidewinder

          Previous sales and interest? So basically when a two year old is told to dress as a fairy becaise she has a vagina its based on previous sales and interest?

          Or do you mean more long term? Which is also the same crap cop out because pink shit and house keeping stuff has been marketed at anyone possessing a vagina for decades, from infancy to death.

          Do you seriously think that if you had a girl and a boy who aren’t constantly exposed to this sh1te they would still choose the same things?

          Girls don’t like pink because they’re girls. They like it because they’re told if they don’t then they’re not girls and the same goes for boys.

          1. brick tamlin

            Yes previous sales and interest from specific demographics.

            I apologise if that offends you, but lets be clear, in neither of my previous posts did I say that this was also how I see things. Or that I thought it was right or wrong.

            I’m trying to make a point that advertisers do not care what your child dresses up as as long as they sell products. If girls traditionally dressed up as elephants, that is what they would be shown dressed up as in the ads. Like it or not it is a fact.

            So you can spout as much vitriol at me as you want if you think its gonna change things. Otherwise please dont try and put words in my mouth.

    2. Casey

      Children take their cues from adults.

      What you present to children as “normal” and “acceptable” when they are growing up is what they generally accepted as the norm when adults.

      Imagine any child (of no specific gender) not shown building blocks, lego, construction sets not even a Bob the builder toy. They are growing up without being exposed to the multiple fields that these toys spark enthusiasm for.

      Now imagine a boy growing up bombarded with images of boys in a dress, in a princess crown, with a want, playing with dolls.

      Why is that right for any boy? Why is it right for any girl?

      I am sorry that you are all so terrified by the point of gender neutrality and equality, you must be all very insecure in your manhoods. I am not. It’s a very nice feeling, I hope you get to experioence it one day.

      1. rotide

        The other day, Pink Legos were declared as a war crime against gender neutrality.

        Surely a pink lego set sparks interest in engineering amongst girls that might not otherwise be exposed to it, references annes post above.

        1. ReproBertie

          So girls are only interested in pink things? My sisters happily played lego with us when we were kids without the need for pink lego. The introduction of pink blocks is no big deal. The issue with the Lego Friends line is the activities it offers in the line aimed directly at young girls. There are no Lego Friends construction sets, or Lego Friends science labs but there is a Lego Friends shopping mall.

        2. Casey

          That would be a fair point and an excellent observation if the “pink” lego sets were as complex and as interesting as the equivilant age sets in the other colours.

          My daughter hates the pink lego “cos it is boring and there is nothing to build.” I consider this as fair and as accurate a review as those that come from any sociologist as to what the problem is with the sets.

          In lego city, she has made an oil tanker, a horsebox, a caravan, a fire truck and some sort of helicopter speedboat hybrid thingie when she got bnored with the instructions. In the one pink lego set she got for her birthday, she put up a fence around a house that took three minuites to make and put some flowers outside. Time to complete 3m25s. Time to complete the horsebox, 4 hours 45m (some interferance from Daddy) and a patched finger.

          1. Casey

            Re- the instructions thing. Yeah, she can go either way on that one. Sometimes she follows them and sometimes she makes these yokes that would not be out of place in a Frankenstin toy lab.

            Dammit, I am raising a mechanical engineer!!

          2. Casey

            Thanks Don, I am doing my best.
            I like the sound of that retirement home.
            There you go everyone, the best reason possible for intelligent choices in the toys that we buy for our kids, a decent chair to put our crumbly auld retired arses on when the time time comes.

            No matter how many times they use the JCB digger toy to uproot the onions. /averts gaze from windows.

        3. Sidewinder

          Yeah, regular lego does that too.

          If you have to use pink lego its probably because sh1te like this has taught your daughter she’s not a proper girl if she doesn’t like pink. I had regular lego as a child and did tech graph, applied maths and honours maths for the LC. No pink lego required because my parents hated that “pink is for girls” bs.

          1. rotide

            Fair play to you.

            I know little girls that will bawl crying unless they have pink stuff! And it’s certainly not learned behaviour.

          2. Caroline

            So it’s innate behaviour? But only for girls born in the last 15-20 years or so? Because before that, it really wasn’t that big a deal.

        4. rotide

          Cheers for the Clarification casey,

          I thought the pink lego set was pretty much like regular lego except pink and it built “girly” stuff instead of “boy” stuff.

          It sounds useless alright.

          1. Don Pidgeoni

            Thats what the pink lego does. Pink lego=girly things=houses and flowers not machines or mad things or using your imagination

          2. rotide

            It takes just as much imagination to build Barbie’s Gym and Mall as it does to build the Death Star

          3. Kieran NYC

            My Amazon recommendations are going to be a bit messed up for a while after clicking on that princess abomination.

      2. Brick Tamlin

        Congratulations on your manhood, and thank you for your concern about mine.
        See my reply to sidewinder above.

        1. Casey

          I read your reply and it basically amounted to: “we have always done it wrong, we should continue to do it wrong. Waaahhh.”

    3. Dublin Hussy

      So deeply sorry that you cannot relate to a debate on an adult scale. Must be awful going through life having a strop everytime people have a conversation that you do not have the wherewithall or ability to join in with.

      Go and play in the sandpit like a good chap. If you are really lucky you might find another dinosaur to talk to.

      I don’t think people need or want your narrow-minded views on the appropriate ways to raise their children or what outdated misogynistic rubbish that the world would be well rid of.

  6. Drogg

    I have one of those ikea kitchens and my little fella loves it and I will have ikea know I do the cooking in my house.

  7. isintheair

    The gender neutral toys gang are back, it must be getting closer to Christmas. They should stop reading the Guardian newspaper, it’s destroying them.

    1. Dubh Linn

      Awwwwww…..
      Is the big man afwaid of gender neutrality and equality?
      Does it threaten his lickle manhood?

      1. Clampers Outside!

        You were doing fine until you started making fun of the size of his genitals.

        Try this on… I bet your breasts are too big to get through turnstiles comfortably and your beetle bonnet curves’ gradient is rounder at the waist than it is down the furry glen.

        Not nice, is it.
        Let’s keep personal insults out of it…. carry on.

      2. Dubh Linn

        I was doing grand was I?

        Well I am a man too and I have balls the size of peanuts and a willy the size of a pin but I am still more of a man than these no-hoper idiots that moan about others that want kids to have an equal shot at life by being shown gender free representations in the images that are presented to them as the norm.

    2. Sidewinder

      The trouble is that the vast majority of toys are gender neutral, they’re just not advertised that way. See the microscope above.

  8. Dubh Linn

    Awwww…..
    Is the big man afwaid of gender neutrality and equality?
    Does it threaten his lickle manhood?

  9. isintheair

    Don, a likkle bit better… Dubh, these people want to brainwash their children in a way they like.

    1. Casey

      “these people” as you call people like me want our daughters and sons to have the same opportunities in life but thanks for misrepresenting us anyway.

      Just out of curiosity, why are YOU so threatened at the idea of the idea of images where the traditional gender roles are reversed?

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