106 thoughts on “Riders

    1. Spud

      I’m sick of this crap too.
      Guess what… if you go into a little kids clothes shop, most of the girls clothing will be in a lovely pretty pink, with princess / flowers and all sorts of nice cartoons… with boys clothes mostly ‘boyish’ colours with sports, superheroes etc…

      WE KNOW THIS!!

        1. Well, that's that

          I know a lot of not so little girls who *need* to have the pink Chanel bag, and never shut up about Kate Middleton. It’s misogyny driven by women themselves. Stuck in a peer pressure loop that few escape and those who do are shunned and bitched about.

          1. Sidewinder

            Yeah it’s nothing to do with crap like this being shoved in their face from infancy. Goodness me no.

    2. Paolo

      I don’t understand. What’s wrong with this? I can’t read the smaller text; is there something sexist in there about a uterus or a husband?

  1. kellma

    If people stopped buying them, they would stop making them….Personally, as the mother of two girls; I go for the fire truck every time.

    1. Owen

      Everytime? How many trucks do you need to build a dyke?

      —- I hope you get the pun in that and not get offended.

      1. kellma

        I get the pun and no I’m not offended. It was funny. When it comes to trucks/ride-ons more fun can be taken out of a fire truck (sirens, fireman sam etc) than one that is for princesses. But those princess trucks are there because people buy them – mostly well intended people who don’t want to have to think too much when they have to get their niece/god-daughter/daughter a present…. it’s pink and she’s a girl; job done.

        1. Joe the Lion

          Except it wasn’t funny. It was absurd and pathetic

          Q: how many internet commenters does it take to erect a prick?
          A: not many

        2. Clampers Outside!

          I dunno, it all depends on the Princess. The character in Brave would be a deadly Princess for any girl to enjoy. You could even take herself out and put a Prince in her characters’ place and you’d hardly have to change an ounce of the plot.

          All depends on the Princess stories you tell your kid, if truth be told.

  2. Nicola Carroll

    Who buys their toys in Centra?

    These toys are targetted at the JAY-CIN-TAYs of the world who probably think their little Aaron will turn gay at the age of 2 if he’s playing with anything pink. That’s how the lower socio-economic group think.

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Look, its not Nicola’s fault she gets all her understanding about society from documentaries on Channel 4 and therefore has the compassion of a brick.

    1. SOMK

      Nice projection.

      Firstly you’ve got it backwards, which isn’t surprising, as usually people who spread such nasty rubbish, are only revealing a wretched subjective truth about themselves and how they see the world, as opposed to anything objectively true outside of themselves, pretty much every study on the subject finds that in fact it is the highest socio-economics classes who hold the most nasty views of people in general, there’s some truth in the old saying “if you want to know what God thinks of money, you need only look at the people he gives it to”…

      “We have now done 12 separate studies measuring empathy in every way imaginable, social behaviour in every way, and some work on compassion and it’s the same story,’ he said. ‘Lower class people just show more empathy, more prosocial behavior, more compassion, no matter how you look at it.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2024680/Why-rich-selfish-empathetic-altruistic-lot.html

      Secondly who do you think makes these decisions vis a vis product lines hmmm? As in the decision how to colourise present children’s toys, to which toys to buy in, would these be the lowly paid factory workers (in China) or the better paid higher socio-economic designers, executives, project managers, etc.? Are you familiar with the Sony email links, is the reason why you rarely see Hollywood film depicted gay relationships, black leads or complicated women because a) America is inherently bigoted or b) Hollywood executives are inherently bigoted?

      Thirdly of course blanketly saying things like all rich people are bad and all Hollywood executives are bigoted. or even inferring it, is falling into a similar weak thinking trap (though granted it’s is nearly always more universally moral to punch upwards rather that down) , that leads certain people to sum up the most objectively unfortunate people in our society as being somehow deserving of their status, the truth is more nuanced. Money is status, status is the ability to order other people around, what happens when you give someone a bit of status is very quickly they begin to rationalise and mythologise it as being a reward for their own agency, even if it’s totally random (which really it is seeing as free will doesn’t really exist), like buying a winning lottery ticket, people will say “it felt lucky” or words to that effect. In other words ratioalnising your status by dehumanising that of those beneath you, is sadly a perfectly natural, human thing to do, especially for those who neither think nor question, it makes you only exceptional because you lack the wit not to state as much publicly.

  3. Reegore

    What the hell are you talking about? When you were two would you have wanted a princess car or a workin-9-to-5-female-equality-gender-unspecific car?

    1. Starina

      At that age I wanted the jeep version that my rich friends had. princess car? why putt around in that when you could have a dinosaur-hunting, mud-splashing, go-anywhere jeep?

      1. Don Pidgeoni

        Agree. Compared to the awesome toys we got as kids, and GIRL kids at that, I think things are going backwards. Lego is all pink and lame rather than something gender-neutral and designed to encourage kids to make whatever they want.

          1. Casey

            I am that Dad!

            Thanks Don, I really enjoyed that conversation with you and again apologies for messing up your Amazon recommendations.

            The problem is not as simple as just the colours of toys, my wee girl has a pink hard hat after all, it is the lack of complexity and the social stereotyping that comes with most “choices” that are aimed at girls.

            The lazy cliched thinking seems to be if a toy is to be for a girl – Make it pink, easily to assemble and something related to a notion of feminity that people started to challange in the 1940s when women had to take over the roles of men in being bread-winners, engineers, factory workers ect.

            I don’t want to raise a daughter with a take the easy way, cliched way out of a problem, I want one that will sit there for 6 hours and assemble that Lego Artic station. I don’t want her sitting demurely on a Princess cart, I want her to be the firewoman dashing to save the day in her fire truck with the bells ringing and the sirens going.

            There is harm is pushing little girls (and grown women) down the narrow path of outdated thinking, they lose the inate ability to think of male dominated professions as something they might have an aptitude for which is a shame.

            Do you know what the woman with the highest IQ in Ireland does? She works on a checkout. Apparantly her apptitude is for science and maths.

        1. B Bop

          Good Times, I had a Sindy formal dining room set -I grew up to have same…shunned Barbie-too pink & gaudy.
          I loved my Star Wars toys …grew up to hate the 3 remakes…though may be on board with the latest instalment.
          Agree though girl toys are ridiculously pink & princessy these days, accompanied by said little girls in perennial princess costumes.

          1. Bexbot

            Shout out for Sindy and her normal coloured lifestyle. She also had a jeep, a beach buggy and had loads of accessories for sports and jobs.
            How people cannot understand that this sort of gender binary from a young age is one of the biggest issues for gender inequality is astounding to me. Look girls, have a pretty pink thing, look boys, have a career that proves that you are a manly hero – cos god forbid either group would want to do anything else.

  4. Murtles

    Yes because in the history of the world every little girl that ever wore pink and played with dolls or loved being a princess grew up to be an underachieving baby making machine living off her husband. FFS let kids be kids and play with whatever they want and stop pushing your narrow minded ideals of gender roles on them.

  5. erm...

    or, you know, they’re cheapo toys for kids rather than sociological statements regarding gender imblance in everyday settings, but whatever…

  6. K

    More inspirational messages for young boys. Aspire to be a fireman and only be relevant and of interest because of your ability to put out fires and be ogled at on calendars.

    1. Draxx Ltd II

      Haha brilliant. I’ve studied gender for the past 3 years in college and I still can help but laugh at the offended by everything brigade who take offence to this stuff. Yes it supports and reinforces traditional gender roles but is that such a bad thing?. Any situation can be twisted to hold a negative, just like you so humorously did with your comment

      1. All the good ones fly south for winter

        “I’ve studied gender for the past 3 years in college ”

        Translation

        “I’ve poked spy holes in the cubicle walls of both the ladies and the gents toilets”

  7. Eamonn Clancy

    You should have checked to see if they sold hammer, wood and nails. Then you could have built a bridge and got over it.

    1. Mani

      People who use this phrase should be dismembered and their limbs and torso added to a giant charnal bridge that will be used as a warning to anyone who would use it as a de-facto full stop for arguments.

      1. pedeyw

        Can we add “political correctness gone mad” and incorrect use of “check your privilege” to that list?

  8. Odis

    Why stop at pink toy cars. Isn’t it time we built a collective bonfire to burn all the Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and the blatantly racist Snow White books.
    End misogyny now.

  9. Rep

    Going by my niece and nephew, stereotypical toys for boys and girls are stereotypical because it was what they are into. My niece likes pretty things, and to be a princess. My nephews like to break thinks and run around hitting each other with swords and hammers. They weren’t taught this, that’s just them.

    1. Joe the Lion

      Stupidest thing I’ve read here in quite some time – amazing how this subject gets all the real idiots out in the open

          1. Rep

            My nephews are into breaking things and wrestling with each and anything that helps that they are into. My niece is anything that her mother is into. She is 2. They have no tv, live in the middle of the countryside. With no outside influence and parents that had wanted to get her no typical girly stuff, could you explain why that is the stuff that she wants? And could you do it in a way that doesn’t make you seem like a non-condescending c*nt please?

          2. Don Pidgeoni

            Parents and family send out a lot of signals about gender without thinking about it, like calling little girls pretty but little boys strong. Kids pick that up like sponges and get that that is how they are expected to behave.

          3. Joe the Lion

            Yawn

            I didn’t condescend to you. I called you an idiot because your analysis is bereft. Sorry.

          4. Rep

            Your explanation to my query is ‘yawn’? Super stuff. I feel much more informed now that I have been shown where I was mistaken by being called stupid.

          5. Joe the Lion

            Your ‘point’ I take it is that because your nephew came out of the womb with a willy – ergo he wants to play with fireman trucks. That’s it – right? That’s your point?

      1. Paolo

        No it isn’t. I concur with Rep. My two boys are into diggers, building and fighting. They were not taught that by me. My older boy is in a playgroup made up almost exclusively of little girls. He doesn’t play with their dolls even though the peer pressure must be huge.

        As far as I am concerned, he can play with whatever he likes and that is diggers, lego and toy swords.

  10. Mikeyfex

    What the hell is the point in teaching young princesses how to use circular phone dials, in this day and age?

    1. andyourpointiswhatexactly

      +1. I think people are getting sidetracked above from this, the main issue.

    2. The Old Boy

      What if granny has a heart attack and only an old phone? This is clearly crucial knowledge.

  11. Ultach

    As long as the princess car is marketed equally to boys and girls. Some wee boys will think it’s absolute fabulous. What’s the phone dial for though?

  12. Mort

    Girls are girls, boys are boys, that’s obvious right? My neices (3, 8, 10) got a shed load of Frozen and One direction shite for Chgristmas and they loved it, they also got a shed load of drawing, play dough and art stuff. My nephew (3) got a rake of Spiderman stuff and he loved it. The nephew, I could”ve got him a stick and hoop, he’ll play with anything. If the nieces had gotten anything other than Frozen stuff, there would have been melt downs. The girls never actually play “princess” They love the toys but most of the time they play “school” or “office” which is beyond bizarre! If you give a child a Princess Car doesn’t mean they’ll play Princess, (what ever that is) they can use it as an ambulance, a police car, a train etc. The great thing about kids that a lot of adults don’t have is an imagination.

  13. Clampers Outside!

    My brother took a fit one Christmas because he wanted my sisters dolly. So, my other brother put him in a dress. We have a photo of the incident. No children were traumatised in the making of the photo, but the subject had the living mick taken out of him many years later when the pic resurfaced.

    *moon walks out of the room*

    1. Spaghetti Hoop

      NEED TO SEE PIC.

      The whole ‘Princess’ thing amuses me. I thought all princesses were losers and just marriage fodder for diplomatic international relations. When I was a young ‘un I wanted to be Leonardo da Vinci.

      1. Joe the Lion

        Not any more. It’s what every aspiring two year old female wants to be.

        Personally I blame Paris Hilton. Now every little wan wants to play with her fine bone china dolly.

        Meanwhile every boy wants to be Fireman Sam – a low paid contract worker outsourced to Abtran.

        That’s your money!

      2. Clampers Outside!

        I’d be the one getting hung if I put that pic on the internets :)

        I’ve no idea what I wanted to be when I was a kid… but when I was about 7 or 8 I told my Mum, she reminds me of this one, that I wanted a white wash cottage with a thatch roof in the country and a VW Beetle parked on one side and a red Ferrari on the other. That’s what I wanted, still no idea how to get it…. Haha!

  14. Owen

    I think what we can all learn from the comments on this post is that the live register is WAY higher than the announced 10%.

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