12:51 am - 12/19/2012
Hasbro says it will soon reveal a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven after meeting with a New Jersey girl who started a campaign calling on the toy maker to make one that appeals to all kids.
McKenna Pope, 13, of Garfield, N.J., got more than 40,000 signatures on her online petition at Change.org and the support of celebrity chefs including Bobby Flay, who backed her call for Hasbro to make a gender-neutral oven and to include boys in the ads.
She was prompted to start the petition after shopping for an Easy-Bake as a Christmas present for her 4-year-old brother, Gavyn Boscio, and finding them only in purple and pink.
Hasbro invited McKenna and her family to its Pawtucket, R.I., headquarters to meet with its Easy-Bake team, and on Monday, they drove to Rhode Island from New Jersey. During the meeting, Hasbro executives showed off a prototype of their newest Easy-Bake: one that's black, silver and blue.
Hasbro has been working on the new color scheme and design for about 18 months, and decided to invite McKenna to see it and offer her thoughts, said John Frascotti, Hasbro's chief marketing officer.
McKenna said the company is doing everything she asked, including putting boys in the ads.
"I think that they really met most or even all of what I wanted them to do, and they really amazed me," she said, adding that Gavyn thought the new design was "awesome."
Frascotti pointed out that the classic toy has had about a dozen different color schemes, from yellow to green to teal to silver, since first being introduced in 1963. The most recent iteration, introduced in 2011, is mostly purple with pink accents.
He said it's sold well since then, and that prompted the company to look for a way to update it and to broaden the consumer base by doing it in different colors.
"It's actually a product that's played with by both boys and girls," he said. "We will continue to offer the existing product too because it's so popular."
Hasbro plans to introduce the new color scheme at the industry's Toy Fair in New York in February. Frascotti said people are likely to see it on store shelves next summer.
As for McKenna's Christmas present for her brother, she said the TV show "Inside Edition" gave the family an Easy-Bake Oven after learning of her campaign. For Christmas, she said, she'll probably buy him some mixes to bake in it.
Source
Gender-Neutral Easy-Bake Oven Announced By Hasbro Following 13-Year-Old's Petition
Hasbro says it will soon reveal a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven after meeting with a New Jersey girl who started a campaign calling on the toy maker to make one that appeals to all kids.
McKenna Pope, 13, of Garfield, N.J., got more than 40,000 signatures on her online petition at Change.org and the support of celebrity chefs including Bobby Flay, who backed her call for Hasbro to make a gender-neutral oven and to include boys in the ads.
She was prompted to start the petition after shopping for an Easy-Bake as a Christmas present for her 4-year-old brother, Gavyn Boscio, and finding them only in purple and pink.
Hasbro invited McKenna and her family to its Pawtucket, R.I., headquarters to meet with its Easy-Bake team, and on Monday, they drove to Rhode Island from New Jersey. During the meeting, Hasbro executives showed off a prototype of their newest Easy-Bake: one that's black, silver and blue.
Hasbro has been working on the new color scheme and design for about 18 months, and decided to invite McKenna to see it and offer her thoughts, said John Frascotti, Hasbro's chief marketing officer.
McKenna said the company is doing everything she asked, including putting boys in the ads.
"I think that they really met most or even all of what I wanted them to do, and they really amazed me," she said, adding that Gavyn thought the new design was "awesome."
Frascotti pointed out that the classic toy has had about a dozen different color schemes, from yellow to green to teal to silver, since first being introduced in 1963. The most recent iteration, introduced in 2011, is mostly purple with pink accents.
He said it's sold well since then, and that prompted the company to look for a way to update it and to broaden the consumer base by doing it in different colors.
"It's actually a product that's played with by both boys and girls," he said. "We will continue to offer the existing product too because it's so popular."
Hasbro plans to introduce the new color scheme at the industry's Toy Fair in New York in February. Frascotti said people are likely to see it on store shelves next summer.
As for McKenna's Christmas present for her brother, she said the TV show "Inside Edition" gave the family an Easy-Bake Oven after learning of her campaign. For Christmas, she said, she'll probably buy him some mixes to bake in it.
Source
If you view more photos, it shows the dresses boys used to wear.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cult
blue was "gentle" and "ladylike".
sometimes ontd and i dont see eye to eye, but this being the first response makes me happy
Edited at 2012-12-19 01:16 pm (UTC)
i deal with this all the time at my mom's toy store. there are so many little boys who want something that's pink or purple (like this one stuffed snake we have) but their parents are all "ew no that's a girls toy!" as if it's bad.
smh
by Pat Kirkham. There are some good essays on that in there
so sick of ONTD's new obsession privilege/race wank
she looks like a mini anna wintour. hbic
Eventually my mom just let us make shit in the real oven with her helping.
A full batch of brownies fresh from an oven>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>a teeny batter thing cooked on a lightbulb.
those treats had cocaine or something in them
It took way too long to bake.
She's 13, why can't she just help/supervise her brother baking in an actual oven?
I'm all for a silver easy bake oven though, I would have loved that when I was little.
Male = standard. Female = other
it ties back to how gender roles in the West are built around patriarchy. this is why women who dress more masculine will never be met with the amount of hate and violence men who dress more feminine would.
Just looked, it was actually called Paradisa not Paradise.
Edited at 2012-12-19 09:35 am (UTC)
i didn't even know there was a gender divide with lego
i also fought my all male cousins over their red power wheels jeep ahah
i loved the power rangers
and always wanted one of those creepy crawler lab things where you make gummy worms and stuff
controlling that bitch to walk/run/jump etc. wasn't easy for me at first.
even in the new games she makes some really terrible life choices
some of the comments in this post are just bumming me out
CAN'T WE JUST BE PLEASED ABOUT THIS
WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.
Girls can use boy toys and not be judged
The reverse is not true
This is established fact and not a difficult concept
Yet, when boys want to play with a traditional "girl toy" it's, "NO NO NO....We can't have that! Let's make it acceptable for boys!" Disney does stuff like this regularly and admits to doing so.
lollllol - please come with me when I visit my mother-in-law tonight, is 6 Eastern good for you? My niece, nephew and their toys will be there too!
also idk if easy bake oven ever should have been seen as a girls toy anyway