Feminism Catch-All (with FAQ)

Bloo Driver wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Meet the Staff of "the leading communications provider to South East England".

I was scrolling through that, wondering what it was I am supposed to "get" here, and then when I hit the bottom, I literally let out a low, sad chuckle and said "oh" out loud.

Yep. Then I thought about how all of the women are fairly attractive and thought, "We'll that seems statistically improbable..."

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Meet the Staff of "the leading communications provider to South East England".

I was scrolling through that, wondering what it was I am supposed to "get" here, and then when I hit the bottom, I literally let out a low, sad chuckle and said "oh" out loud.

Yep. Then I thought about how all of the women are fairly attractive and thought, "We'll that seems statistically improbable..."

When I hit the bottom, my only thought was how someone had a dream of creating 'The League of Extraordinary White People'.

Mystic Violet wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Meet the Staff of "the leading communications provider to South East England".

I was scrolling through that, wondering what it was I am supposed to "get" here, and then when I hit the bottom, I literally let out a low, sad chuckle and said "oh" out loud.

Yep. Then I thought about how all of the women are fairly attractive and thought, "We'll that seems statistically improbable..."

When I hit the bottom, my only thought was how someone had a dream of creating 'The League of Extraordinary White People'.

Careful now. We're litigious with regards to our trademark.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:
Mystic Violet wrote:
Chumpy_McChump wrote:
Bloo Driver wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Meet the Staff of "the leading communications provider to South East England".

I was scrolling through that, wondering what it was I am supposed to "get" here, and then when I hit the bottom, I literally let out a low, sad chuckle and said "oh" out loud.

Yep. Then I thought about how all of the women are fairly attractive and thought, "We'll that seems statistically improbable..."

When I hit the bottom, my only thought was how someone had a dream of creating 'The League of Extraordinary White People'.

Careful now. We're litigious with regards to our trademark.

I used to think I was an Extraordinary White person. Then I found out I was just extraordinarily white.

Hunger games nerf toys for girls (predictably Pink n' Pretty)

Eureka, said the brains at Hasbro: let's produce the Nerf Rebelle range of toy weaponry for the "ultimate in girl-power outdoor play". The items – called the Pink Crush Blaster, the Guardian Crossbow and, yes, the Heartbreaker Bow – all come in pink, with prettily patterned soft darts.

Although on the other hand...that's a pretty frickin' sweet crossbow.

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2013/11/12/1384272231975/Gritty-in-pink---the-Nerf-009.jpg)

I would so use that to play Walking Dead with my friends if I was 20-ish years younger.

Or, you know. right now.

stevenmack wrote:

Hunger games nerf toys for girls (predictably Pink n' Pretty)

Eureka, said the brains at Hasbro: let's produce the Nerf Rebelle range of toy weaponry for the "ultimate in girl-power outdoor play". The items – called the Pink Crush Blaster, the Guardian Crossbow and, yes, the Heartbreaker Bow – all come in pink, with prettily patterned soft darts.

Although on the other hand...that's a pretty frickin' sweet crossbow.

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Lifeandhealth/Pix/pictures/2013/11/12/1384272231975/Gritty-in-pink---the-Nerf-009.jpg)

It's especially egregrious because it's not at all in keeping with the color theme for the Hunger Games books or movies. Orange/red with a black background would be more appropriate.

I saw something similar in a toy store leaflet the other day. At first, in the 'girls' section, there were nerf guns for 'Rebellious girls'. They were pinkish in color and the box cover had two (white) girls holding the guns James Bond intro style.

I thought 'too bad about the pink crap, but hey at least it's progress'. Then I saw the nerf guns in the boys section. They were the bazooka's to the girls' glocks. Like hundred times bigger and more powerful.

Farscry wrote:

It's especially egregrious because it's not at all in keeping with the color theme for the Hunger Games books or movies. Orange/red with a black background would be more appropriate.

Although the difference and the high color value make it easier to pick out in the hands of the footsoldiers of those who support traditional gender binaries.

And this is a problem for girls, how exactly?

The parents of girls can continue to buy their girls either the same ones the boys have been playing with for years and now the ones who want to have pink ones now have the choice to do so... expanding the demographic.

All I see is another awesome choice for girls and a really unlikely choice for boys. And yet somehow this is oppressive? Some girls want to kick-ass and be perceived as feminine while doing so.

On the double plus side - the girls with the pink weapons will be much less likely to be shot by overeager police officers during the course of their eventual abuse of existing justifiable shooting scenarios.

I (and my daughters) generally prefer something like this:

http://www.jeremyclough.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/steam2.jpg

I didn't do that one, but I've done others like it in the past. They take paint very well, if you get the right stuff. There are tutorials online all over the place on how to do this in various ways. I don't have any pics handy of any I've done, though.

It just reinforces the stereotype that anything that is "for girls" needs to be pink and have cute sayings like "Heartbreaker" or "Pink Crush". Instead of just having a toy "for kids".

I mean, if you go to the nerf website, they have a filter choice specifically for gender. That shouldn't even be a thing to pick to begin with. What is even worse is the choices are "Boys" and "Others" "Both".

EDITED because I double checked the filter and I was wrong.

Ooop--my bad. Not others, it says "Both". Fixed the mistake!

CptDomano wrote:

What is even worse is the choices are "Boys" and "Others".

Wow.

Edit:

CptDomano wrote:

Ooop--my bad. Not others, it says "Both". Fixed the mistake!

Okay, less bad. Why not just do away with the filter altogether though?

Now I go back to apportioning all my angry energy on Lego Friends.

oddity wrote:

And yet somehow this is oppressive?

You're the one who threw out the term "oppressive", not us.

Not everything sexist is oppressive.

I'd like to see them market both colors to both sexes. I have VERY CLEAR MEMORIES of being made fun of as a five year old boy because my favorite color was pink.

It's blue now. I wonder why.

The Hunger Games merchandising is just ridiculous for all sorts of reasons. I mean, c'mon, Subway? A sandwich shop is tied-in to a story of kids fighting to the death?

Oh, and I saw this at Walgreen's a little bit ago - Hunger Games by Cover Girl.

Nobody outside Districts 1 and 2 would be able to afford makeup. Also, District 11 is an Asian woman? If my memory of the book serves me right, they're basically like Black plantation Slaves in the Southern US. Even the geography jives.

But, anyway, back to feminism. This is a story where the heroine is purposefully not girly. She's a scrappy outdoorsman who does what she has to in order to survive. When she does get gussied up, it's against her will; the Capitol's stylist pushes it on her, and she complies, in order to survive.

New topic: Miley thinks she's "one of the biggest feminists in the world."

Let's all recite the wisdom of Inigo Montoya:

IMAGE(http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/9e/9e7e9dea082b041d688e0bd10e2cc0ec984947d11aab246df8cf1be99c09c58e.jpg)

Women for a girl to look up to (in pictures):

Photographer Jaime Moore wanted to mark her daughter's fifth birthday but before switching on the camera, she came up with an alternative to dressing up as a princess – the dream of most girls of her age

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/13/1384341914132/Amelia-Earhart-and-Emma--001.jpg)

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/13/1384341920236/Helen-Keller-and-Emma--003.jpg)

sometimesdee wrote:

Oh, and I saw this at Walgreen's a little bit ago - Hunger Games by Cover Girl.

Yuuuup, I also balked at seeing a commercial for that on TV. The whole idea of makeup in the Hunger Games is that it is for the privileged elite, who are actually the bad guys in the story. Just makes me shake my head.

momgamer wrote:

I (and my daughters) generally prefer something like this:

http://www.jeremyclough.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/steam2.jpg

Can we make you the official Mom of America? If nothing else, our kids would be playing with cooler toys.

stevenmack wrote:

Women for a girl to look up to (in pictures):

Photographer Jaime Moore wanted to mark her daughter's fifth birthday but before switching on the camera, she came up with an alternative to dressing up as a princess – the dream of most girls of her age

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/13/1384341914132/Amelia-Earhart-and-Emma--001.jpg)

IMAGE(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/11/13/1384341920236/Helen-Keller-and-Emma--003.jpg)

Folks, click through and look at all the pictures, they're wonderful!
I love the hellen keller one, too.

If you're looking for more things in that vein next time you need a costume, check out Take Back Halloween, which has how-to's for all sorts of cool semi-historical costumes.

Here's the link to their 2013 Halloween costume contest.

A couple of examples:
Best Notable Woman:
IMAGE(http://takebackhalloween.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/best-three-costumes-1240x700-notable-620x350.jpg)

Best Notable Woman, Junior (Junior winners weren't ranked):
IMAGE(http://takebackhalloween.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/best-three-costumes-1240x700-junior-notable-620x350.jpg)

So that crossbow... I'm not keen on the name, but the design and colouring are really great. I mean, I really want to find a pair for myself.

I probably wouldn't have an issue with them if they weren't Hunger Games branded. Hunger Games isn't about pretty things, it's about brutal and gritty and terrifying things. I think Hunger Games merchandising aimed at kids is fairly questionable as it is, but colouring them pink and giving them girly names also makes them completely tone-deaf.

As an aside, I seem to have less of a problem with the colour pink being marketed at girls than other people. Perhaps because culturally it seems to me to be less of a 'female thing', and more of a 'not-male thing'. I suspect that your chances of liking the colour pink are probably equal regardless of your gender, but boys just deny it because they don't want to seem girly. Silly boys are missing out.

Edit: I just noticed these aren't actually Hunger Games branded. Just "coincidentally" (delete or leave quotation marks as desired) they've been timed to release when Hunger Games is a big deal. I guess I have less of a problem with them then. This is purely from a design perspective mind you, I'd be willing to guess the marketing surrounding the product is just awful.

Edit2: I realise they're from a while back in the thread. My internet broke this weekend, I'm catching up!

I forget if we're putting TvW episodes here too. If we aren't, I'll remove it and replace it with...something. Anyway:

We're GoldieBlox, a toy company out to show the world that girls deserve more choices than dolls and princesses

site
and ad

Argh, I just came here to post that!

We bought the onesie as soon as the video ended. Will post a pic when we get it.

IMAGE(http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0178/6531/products/Onesie-3_large.jpg)

I like it! Can't wait to see the pic in the parent thread, Gravey. Too bad I'm having another boy, heh.

The founder of GoldieBlox gave this awesome TEDtalk about the gender gap in engineering, too.

This is a good first step to get them hooked. A great next step for sustaining the enthusiasm are good math and science teachers that encourage growth throughout their schooling. I will be buying some of these things as soon as I can for my niece (3).

Also:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BZfcyxbCUAARURA.jpg:large)

My 5 year d daughter saw a more straightforward commercial for the GoldieBox and immediately asked for one. I think they really nailed the design.