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The problem here is really media portrayal of who should be playing with what. If Lego / KNex / etc. were actually marketed toward girls as much as boys, more g

The problem here is really media portrayal of who should be playing with what. If Lego / KNex / etc. were actually marketed toward girls as much as boys, more girls would eventually try / use them. That they aren't is due to simple top-down cultural re-inforcement of sexist stereotypes. I suspect that sadly it will ultimately take legislation to regulate media (in particular the advertising industry) to solve the problem, by mandating that gender-specific marketing of a product toward children is illegal, period. (And yes, I mean the toy dump trucks and dolls as much as the technical toys.) It sounds heavy-handed, but there doesn't seem to be much else that will fix it. Certainly not "niche" small-scale products that are essentially mice attempting to balance against the toy company "elephant". The elephant likes the status quo and will only change if you hit it with a cattle-prod.

Vjeubvjshdhr 12y ago
Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Afforess 12y ago
Yes... Legislating gender-neutral advertising for children's toy is clearly the solution for the tech sector gender gap. Give me a break. That is a violation of the first amendment. I don't "get" why anyone cares about the "gender gap". Who cares? If there is overt sexism, obviously that is wrong, but there is no law (nor should their be) that every field of employment should be an even 50/50 gender split. Men and women are different, and differences should be embraced. We shouldn't be legislating society to fit a utopian ideal of exact gender equality. Biologically human genders aren't equal.
analog31 12y ago
I wonder if separate markets for boy and girl toys has a couple of straightforward economic benefits: 1. Two isolated markets are less competitive than a single consolidated market -- possibly enabling higher prices. 2. It's a sort of planned obsolescence, due to the fifty-fifty chance of having to go out and buy a whole new set of toys when the second kid is born.

Vjeubvjshdhr 12y ago

Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Afforess 12y ago

Yes... Legislating gender-neutral advertising for children's toy is clearly the solution for the tech sector gender gap. Give me a break. That is a violation of the first amendment. I don't "get" why anyone cares about the "gender gap". Who cares? If there is overt sexism, obviously that is wrong, but there is no law (nor should their be) that every field of employment should be an even 50/50 gender split. Men and women are different, and differences should be embraced. We shouldn't be legislating society to fit a utopian ideal of exact gender equality. Biologically human genders aren't equal.

analog31 12y ago

I wonder if separate markets for boy and girl toys has a couple of straightforward economic benefits: 1. Two isolated markets are less competitive than a single consolidated market -- possibly enabling higher prices. 2. It's a sort of planned obsolescence, due to the fifty-fifty chance of having to go out and buy a whole new set of toys when the second kid is born.