Entries Tagged 'Toys & Games' ↓

Ainsley’s Christmas List this year is simply a list of every commercial she saw inside an hour. No joke.

If your child’s Letter-to-Santa reads like this, download Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhoods’ Holiday Guide.

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The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has finally agreed to research how companies market PG-13 advertising to preschoolers and elementary-aged children.

The idea being that if your movie is PG-13 then you should not be marketing in Happy Meals, because those are generally purchased by small children. Nor should commercials run during television shows mean for pre-schoolers and elementary-aged children. Nor should they hand out movie paraphernalia in schools to primary kids.

Does this mean they shouldn’t be allowed to advertise?

Does this mean they should not be allowed to make their movie?

Does this mean they shouldn’t be allowed to market products in connection to their film?

Does this infringe on their free speech?

No, idiot.

It means, they should direct advertising and marketing afforts to those people for whom the film is age-appropriate, in this case, 13-year-olds and older.

More information about what the FTC has agreed to consider and how YOU can have a real impact on the FTC’s decisions visit Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.

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I thought gender stereotyping was mostly nurture when I had my daughter. I was right. Until I had a son.

Given equal opportunities and equal access to both gender’s toys and games I have to concede:

Zack likes cars, trains, and balls far more than Ainsley does. He is more likely to build stuff with tinker toys and shoot me with his fingers. He can hear a train whistle 2 miles away and point it out. He will inspect tires on machinery.

However, he is also very likely to play dress up, play with babies and Barbies, enjoy cooking and pretend to be the next American Idol or So You Think You Can Dance contestant.

Ainsley’s far less flexible about gender roles and identity than he is. Though, she is seven and he is three and this may account for his willingness to cross gender lines. (Also the fact that we never say, “pink is for girls, boys don’t wear that, what are you gay?” probably has a lot to do with his freedom of play.) I’d love to preserve it in him and instill it more in her.

Ainsley really is more gifted in language, including arguing and negotiating. Zack tends to pretend I never spoke if I say something he doesn’t like, just like someone else I know.

Ainsley is also the natural and obvious leader if she is ever in a group setting with boys.

In fact, it’s so distinct, her natural role as leader, I wonder if the whole gender gap exists because girls felt compassion for boys and threw the game so boys wouldn’t feel so bad.

What observations about gender can you share from your house?

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Look what I found on Julie Pippert’s Blog: Using My Words

My girls are girly girls. They like their dolls, their dresses, their creature comforts. My little one prefers bows in her hair.

But this has never, ever stopped them from reaching out to traditionally “boy” areas of play. One of my favorite photos is of my girls and a couple of friends in princess dress-up costumes paying with Tonka dump trucks outside.

In our backyard, we’re creating a natural habitat. We started with the pond and it has grown from there. We’re planting ecosystem- and fauna-friendly plants, and trying to make sure our backyard helps the plants and animals we share our space with. This gives our children ample opportunity to delve into the world of bugs, tadpoles to frogs, crawfish (yes!), snakes (yes!) and even some cute mammals such as bunnies, not to mention our bird families.

Overall, I’d say our kids are the normal amount of skeptical reluctance to new things, but their natural curiosity leads them to try anyway, which is our general family rule.

So when we got invited to a promotional party at Ridemakerz, I was a little put off by the big focus on boys, even though I understood why it was specifically reaching out to boys. Making a car sounded wicked cool to me, even better than stuffing some bear (although my kids are huge fans of Build-A-Bear).

I RSVP’d my yes, and we went.

Hoo boy.

Read the rest at Julie Pippert’s Blog: Using My Words

Please, use my content on your site and I’ll use yours. It’s the Summer of Link Love - Friends don’t let friends waste good content.

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This would be funny on Saturday Night Live or John Stewart.

As actual marketing targeted to children its disrespectful and inappropriate.

Parents can effectively fight this kind of nonsense. Write a protest letter to Nickolodean, Sponge Bob Square Pants and Burger King and tell them to stop sexualizing girls using cartoon characters, kid’s meals and butt rap. Click here.

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