To All Toy Brand Merchandisers,
Firstly I will start of by saying well done on doing such a good job of indoctrinating my very impressionable child and thus bankrupting me. Your programmes are like crack to my child who obviously needs every piece of plastic tat you put on the market. He even wants to s**t in the pot you designed which is 5 times the price of the one I was going to get in Poundland, kudos to you.
However, I need you to clear a few things up for me. Why is it that all the male characters are on boy merchandise and do not feature any female ones? Try explaining that to an overactive e numbered up to the eyeballs toddler who wants to know why Skye isn't on his cup that I have bribed him with half way round during the weekly shop.
Why is it we gender label everything? Why is it Micky is for boys and Minnie for girls? Why can't girls wear Spiderman T Shirts? Why are girls supposed to like sparkles and princesses and boy’s aggressive violent superheroes? Which are all male. Go figure. Why do we have to target and market gender rather than create gender neutral merch? The message is a very confusing one to me. Are we saying that the female characters are of lesser worth? Is it that only boys can play with boy characters and girls play with girl characters? Can a boy not look up to a female role model? Why are we teaching our children that female characters are worth less than the male ones?
Shall we just cut out the middle man now and say men are better than women? You have a very big influence in our children’s lives, the toys they want, the clothes they wear, hell even the knife and fork that features yet more characters faces. So why the archaic and sexist messages? Why are we continuing to promote that women are not as important as men? Why does my son have to learn that his mother is deemed less important because she is female?
Does Skye from Paw Patrol who is of course the only main girl and dressed in pink sigh, not featured as much because eventually she will go on mat leave and be a complete liability to the Paw Patrol workplace? Shame on her for being able to reproduce.
The girls merchandise is pink and covered in hearts and sparkles whereas the boys all feature messages of power and are enforcing out of date gender sterotypes that in 2017 should have disappeared. Not all boys like blue and guess what not all girls are pink and frilly. You could argue we could just go into the opposite sections and pick up a pink t-shirt just so my son has his fav character on it and myself couldn’t care less but unfortunately society enforced by stupid out of day judgements does.
I am sure you have received many letters about this, and you will get many more. Things are not as simple as they once were and yet we are still living in an age where TV/toys/clothes are all aggressively marketed towards our children promoting the wrong sexist messages. Why can Peppa not feature on any boy’s clothes? Do you know how hard it is to explain why only George is on my son’s underpants when he wants Peppa.
I want my son to grow up in a world where he values and respects a woman because of her worth. Especially in the workplace. That a female classmate/colleague is entitled to every opportunity he has. That she is not side-lined and she is not put in a nice little gender stereotyped box with a pink frilly bow. I want him to see everyone as equal and that someone is not better because of their sex.
I could boycott and not spend my very little money om the crap you design and out but I am a mother of two who is as tired as f**k. Do you really think I am going to deny the demon toddler of your products? No, of course not I am not stupid. I do what I can for an easy life.
But please use your influence to promote equality among the next generation. That female characters are as good as male ones. That they too can hold positions of power and they are not all PINK!
Yours sincerely,
A broke and very confused mother to two boys.
Firstly I will start of by saying well done on doing such a good job of indoctrinating my very impressionable child and thus bankrupting me. Your programmes are like crack to my child who obviously needs every piece of plastic tat you put on the market. He even wants to s**t in the pot you designed which is 5 times the price of the one I was going to get in Poundland, kudos to you.
However, I need you to clear a few things up for me. Why is it that all the male characters are on boy merchandise and do not feature any female ones? Try explaining that to an overactive e numbered up to the eyeballs toddler who wants to know why Skye isn't on his cup that I have bribed him with half way round during the weekly shop.
Why is it we gender label everything? Why is it Micky is for boys and Minnie for girls? Why can't girls wear Spiderman T Shirts? Why are girls supposed to like sparkles and princesses and boy’s aggressive violent superheroes? Which are all male. Go figure. Why do we have to target and market gender rather than create gender neutral merch? The message is a very confusing one to me. Are we saying that the female characters are of lesser worth? Is it that only boys can play with boy characters and girls play with girl characters? Can a boy not look up to a female role model? Why are we teaching our children that female characters are worth less than the male ones?
Shall we just cut out the middle man now and say men are better than women? You have a very big influence in our children’s lives, the toys they want, the clothes they wear, hell even the knife and fork that features yet more characters faces. So why the archaic and sexist messages? Why are we continuing to promote that women are not as important as men? Why does my son have to learn that his mother is deemed less important because she is female?
Does Skye from Paw Patrol who is of course the only main girl and dressed in pink sigh, not featured as much because eventually she will go on mat leave and be a complete liability to the Paw Patrol workplace? Shame on her for being able to reproduce.
The girls merchandise is pink and covered in hearts and sparkles whereas the boys all feature messages of power and are enforcing out of date gender sterotypes that in 2017 should have disappeared. Not all boys like blue and guess what not all girls are pink and frilly. You could argue we could just go into the opposite sections and pick up a pink t-shirt just so my son has his fav character on it and myself couldn’t care less but unfortunately society enforced by stupid out of day judgements does.
I am sure you have received many letters about this, and you will get many more. Things are not as simple as they once were and yet we are still living in an age where TV/toys/clothes are all aggressively marketed towards our children promoting the wrong sexist messages. Why can Peppa not feature on any boy’s clothes? Do you know how hard it is to explain why only George is on my son’s underpants when he wants Peppa.
I want my son to grow up in a world where he values and respects a woman because of her worth. Especially in the workplace. That a female classmate/colleague is entitled to every opportunity he has. That she is not side-lined and she is not put in a nice little gender stereotyped box with a pink frilly bow. I want him to see everyone as equal and that someone is not better because of their sex.
I could boycott and not spend my very little money om the crap you design and out but I am a mother of two who is as tired as f**k. Do you really think I am going to deny the demon toddler of your products? No, of course not I am not stupid. I do what I can for an easy life.
But please use your influence to promote equality among the next generation. That female characters are as good as male ones. That they too can hold positions of power and they are not all PINK!
Yours sincerely,
A broke and very confused mother to two boys.
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| Still trying to explain why Peppa isn't on Elijah's pants, |
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