Comments on: How Pottery Barn is making me sad with pink

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 01:59:42 +0000

When I was in TX recently I found a dollhouse set with tons of cool room furnishing for a BOY. I almost fell over. Of course, the furnishings were BOY things. Because boys don’t cook, do laundry, etc. Wait! What is my husband doing RIGHT NOW? He’s cooking! Dinner! I wonder where he learned that behavior? Stupid people and their gender norms, yo.

By: Imelda Kent

Imelda Kent — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:59:23 +0000

My boy liked to play doll and kitchen set too…But I tried to teach him enjoying boy toys. Slow but sure he start liking it.

By: Rebeccah

Rebeccah — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:15:22 +0000

I had the exact same thought process & experience when I got that catalog in the mail. Yay, holidays! Oh lord, SO much pink … oh, here’s the boys’(sports) pages … Blech.

By: Billy

Billy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:36:57 +0000

Outdated indeed. Whether I’ll be having a boy or a girl, it will be very important for me to expose her/him to both “types” or toys and colours and all, let the child make the choice.

And the header – very nice!

By: vee

vee — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:58:27 +0000

Infuriating (and worse) isn’t it. It really is amazing what gets gendered in the toy aisle too – we got a vet set for my nephew last Christmas and it was “for girls” I discivered, wrapping it up. WTF? So boys don’t like animals or want to care for them when they’re sick? Or maybe they’d rather be doctors you know because, well, they get paid a shed-load more than vets, right?

By: Man-annie Oakley

Man-annie Oakley — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:47:01 +0000

We bought Wil a kitchen set for his 4th birthday… very cool retro CraftMaid – non-gender specific. He loved it, in fact he and his girl friends STILL play with it and he is almost 8. The other day he saw a commercial for the Barbie Nail Salon or some crap and he came in and said “I bet if I was a girl I would really like that toy, but I’m a boy and I cant have that”. All I could do was tell him that he actually could have any toy he wanted….. made me so sad. Sexism – alive and well in the toy aisle! Love you and Happy 7 months W!!!!

By: Helene

Helene — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:09:26 +0000

Aw, looks like my second mail didn’t go through? Or my English is still worse than usual

I wrote you a (loooooong) email yesterday about my old blog and how it was up to you to link to it or not since it might look scary to some. And then I thought I had scared *you* away! My provider was bought by another and there have been all kinds of email and Internet troubles lately, I’ll try to send it again.

Also, I so completely agree with your post! I was telling some friends the other day that having a girl in that world where everything is gender-specific and girls get the pink and the play makeup and all the passive toys scared me… And I made the friends laugh. Honestly, if our girl ended up verystereotypically girly, I wouldn’t know how to help her! I hate pink, never knew what to do with dolls once I have made them clothes or furniture, don’t know how to apply makeup, hate shopping (except for books), love outdoor sports. Guess we’ll see! At least, she won’t have war toys marketed towards her. The last catalogue I saw didn’t have primary colours for boys, it had camouflage colours, argh.

Also, my nephew, then 2 years old, kept wanting to play with the little girl’s dolls at the playground, so my sister bought him one for Christmas. I went all day holding the doll and saying “baby, baby”, so cute! Now he’s not so much into dolls but goes everywhere with his teddy bear, giving kisses to people with it. Doesn’t prevent him from loving tractors too

By: Deb2You2

Deb2You2 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:07:17 +0000

I too wrote a similar post when Max was young. I find it offensive really. In our family, colors are for everyone. The Easter Bunny brought Max a stroller the only color choice was pink. When it needed to be replaced, the only color option was purple. Max needed a belt and not only did the store not have boy belts his size he got his heart set on this pink sparkly one which he has worn to school. Yes, we got it, even though I offended a fellow shopper who kept trying to tell me it was for girls when I pleasantly thanked her for her opinion and smiled and said “colors are for everyone in our family, including pink”. R and N got Max twin dolls when they were born/in the hospital and that is what he wants to take in his sharebox to school on Monday. He is not effeminate, but I despise the stereotypes. Now, I do have to say having 2 boys and a girl that they do play differently. The stroller for Max and R are to run around with and it has wheels and have you seen it fly down a hill? N likes to climb in and out and try to do the straps. What makes me even sadder than the blatant stereotype adds (and really it goes beyond the adds to product development and availability) is the peer pressure from school to conform to those ridge standards…not from the school itself or the teachers, but from the other kids. Okay, I could rant for quite awhile on this one as it is a hot button for me, but I’ll stop. Oh, and R and N are getting a kitchen from Santa with a shopping cart and various fruits, veggies, and pantry items. I know they (and Max) will love it. And, one last thing, I also find it offensive that it is very difficult to find things for girls that are not pink or purple..clothes, toys, whatever. It is so annoying. Colors are for everyone. Deb (Deb2you2)

By: Antropologa

Antropologa — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:51:44 +0000

What’s really privately hilarious to me about your post is that for my little girl’s first birthday I got her pink, monogrammed luggage from PBK. Isn’t that just ridiculous?

By: meanmama

meanmama — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 01:28:27 +0000

I think many of us have written this post. When you have a boy (or boys!!!), you go through this angst. Everything with boys is marketed as rough-and-tumble. Every shirt has a ferocious animal or a truck or sports or, my favorite was a onesie that said, “Big Man on Campus.” And I’m sure if I were a mom or daughters, I would be saying the same things, only the girl lamenting version.

My husband and I did get our boys a doll. They had a kitchen we found on the street (it was a horrendous plastic pink Cinderella kitchen!). They have been given every opportunity to embrace their “nurturing” side. They have gradually veered away from the dolls kitchen. They love love love trains, and one of them loves trucks and cars too. These are typical “boy toys.” Instead of being bothered by this, I enjoy their passion for these things and enjoy watching them play with them. They play with them in such fun, creative way. Lots of pretend play and interesting scenarios. They love those toys and, in a way, they nurture them. They love their favorite animals too and speak sweetly to them. I think what I like is *how* my boys play, and *what* they play with seems less important. But I do hear ya on the gender-specific marketing bs.