this is not about knitting

Well, I've about had it. I just wrote an email to Hasbro, because of this. Just looking at that line "built for boyhood" just makes me SO ANGRY. What the hell were they thinking? And those commercials? Where they have all the little boys riding around on the trucks? They might as well have a big sign that says "NO GIRLS ALLOWED". Which would be fine if it was a fort in a back yard somewhere, but a COMPANY? Voluntarily excluding half of their potential customers? Seriously? In this day and age?

I was so mad. I hope my email made sense, because I typed it through the red haze clouding my good sense. I can understand tailoring a product for girls or boys, but to blatantly come out and say 'this toy is for boys' flies in the face of good business. The parents will buy boys those toys anyway, regardless, but now, what are parents of girls who like trucks supposed to do? I hope they don't buy TONKA trucks! The trucks of sexist pigs...

ETA:

I feel like I should explain a little further that it is actually the Tonka "Tonka is built for boyhood" commercials that I object to. They show a buch of little boys playing with the trucks you ride around on and kids pushing dump trucks and stuff. They're basically toddlers, but the voiceovers and the text specifically say that these toys are just for boys. They say it several times. Anyone with a small child knows that kids watch TV obsessively. They believe whatever they see on TV. So I think companies like Tonka have a responsibility to encourage all children, since kids can't really filter what they see on TV. It is one thing to just show boys playing with trucks. Lord knows that doll companies do that. All the kids in those commericals are girls. And that is annoying, but it makes sense. Those are the people who buy the toys, and I'm not arguing that they should try to push trucks on girls. But by coming out and specifically saying that the toys are just for boys, they're closing the door for those little girls to have any interest at all in those toys. And that, to me, doesn't make any sort of business sense. A little girl looking at a truck toy just sees a truck until they watch that commercial that tells them it is specifically for a boy. So she thinks she isn't supposed to want that.

Anyway, they actually wrote me back. Here's the email response I received:

Hi Kimberly,

Thank you so much for your recent inquiry about our marketing strategy on Tonka. As the mother of a 3 and a half year old girl, I can certainly understand the fun and wonder when a little girl or little boy breaks "stereotype" and plays with non-traditional toys. My daughter is totally into Spiderman, and I LOVE IT!

As a family organization we are committed to finding exciting and appropriate play experiences for boys and girls of all ages, and if you log on to our website at www.hasbrotoyshop.com , I am sure you will find many toys that are both gender neutral as well as gender specific.

The gender specific toys help to build confidence and create wonderful bonding experiences amongst both parents of same sex children and amongst the children who they relate with most.

Specifically on Tonka, there are essentially two reasons why we choose to market Tonka to boys. In all of our research, the overwhelming majority of Tonka interest is with little boys. Further, we have scores of research that tell us about the psychological differences between boys and girls and how they play. In fact, there is some recent research that explains how this can actually be traced back to the actual biology and chemistry in the brain. This research proves to us that while there will be girls who defy these studies, the marketing is best targeted to boys and moms of little boys.

Thank again for your concern and interest, and I hope this letter helps to shed some light on our marketing strategy.

My Very Best,

Angie Salem

Director of Marketing, Tonka brand

Hasbro, Inc.
**************

So, in essence, she's absolving them of any responsibility for encouraging non-gender specific toys because of biological imperatives--boys like trucks and girls like dolls. Any girl that wants to play with trucks is 'bucking the system' (ie: is probably a lesbian to this 'family organization'). Kids play differently. Perhaps. That doesn't really get to the heart of the problem though, which is that they're now influencing how kids play by what they say in the commercial, and they're coming out as a company and saying that they believe that only boys want trucks, and they only really want boys to buy the trucks, when really, parents of boys would probably buy the trucks anyway. It's all just ridiculous.

I started looking into professional organizations for women in construction. There are several: The National Association for Women in Construction, Professional Women in Construction, Women in Construction Company, and Canadian Construction Women. I also found this interesting article about how hard it is for women to find construction jobs, even after they're trained. Hmmm. I WONDER WHY. It isn't because everyone's been trained to think that trucks are for boys, is it?