McKenna
Pope only wanted to get her little brother a Christmas present. Her four-year-old brother Gavyn loved cooking
and baking and wanted an Easy Bake Oven, so she decided to get him one. But she quickly discovered, much to her
disappointment, that the classic child’s product only came in pink and purple,
and only had pictures of girls on the box.
So McKenna wrote a letter to Hasbro, the company that produces the Easy
Bake Oven, asking why the toy was only marketed towards girls. Hasbro’s vague response included an
acknowledgement that many boys use the product, but not much else. Which brings up an important question: if
they are aware of the young male interest in the Easy Bake Oven, why do they
only market it to girls? If the first
thought that popped into your head was “because only girls like to bake,”
please smack yourself on the back of the head.
Sadly, that may be exactly what Hasbro is thinking. Despite much evidence to the contrary,
American society as a whole still tends to view those who like things intended
for the other gender as abnormal. Little
girls only like pink and cooking and dolls, while little boys only like dinosaurs
and guns and gross stuff! Hasbro has
been guilty of this exact reasoning before, even when trying to expand into new
markets. Seven years ago, Hasbro tried
to make a male-only version of the Easy Bake Oven: the “Queasy Bake Cookerator,”
which included instructions for disgusting-sounding snacks like Dip n’ Drool
Dog Bones. Needless to say, the product
tanked. In my opinion, what Hasbro
should have done was market the toy to both genders, instead of attempting to
sell separate girl-only and boy-only products based on stereotypes. But alas, stereotypes run deep, and no
stereotypes run deeper than gender stereotypes in advertising and the media.
It’s
not just the Easy Bake Oven. You’ve seen
it everywhere, especially around Christmastime.
There are miscellaneous pink frilly things that have only little girls
in the ads. Commercials for action
figures contain violent sound effects and explosions, and show only boys
playing with them. And let me tell you, it’s
not just kids, either. Everywhere you
look, even the most commonplace, gender-neutral products are subtly marketed
towards one gender or the other. Think
about yogurt commercials. Have you ever
seen a guy enjoying yogurt in any of these commercials? I know I certainly haven’t. This is ridiculous, because there is zero
reason why such an innocuous food should be marketed towards the women that
seem to almost exclusively populate the commercials. I’m a guy, and I like yogurt. It’s delicious, and I know I’m not the only
guy who thinks that. So why isn’t yogurt
marketed towards me? Is it because it’s
too healthy for men to enjoy? Almost all
healthy foods or diet, low-fat anything is blatantly marketed towards women
(Except Dr. Pepper Ten, but… let’s just not go there). Meanwhile, advertisements involving grilling,
or tools, or yardwork are conspicuously devoid of women using the product, or
in some cases, even in the commercial at all.
These media-perpetuated stereotypes are all completely ridiculous. Plenty of men like eating healthy. Plenty of women enjoy yardwork or fixing
things. But either of those situations
probably seems bizarre in your mind.
Imagine a man eating Lean Cuisine, or a woman working with power
tools! It simply seems abnormal because
your mind simply doesn’t make the gender connection. After all, you’ve never once seen a man or
woman doing those respective activities on television, so unless you’ve seen it
in real life, it doesn’t even register in your mind as a possibility. I hate, and I mean hate to have to use the term “brainwashing,” but that kind of is,
in essence, what’s going on. Except it’s
less “mind control” and more “the media, as a substitute for life experience,
placing a specific set of expectations in your head.” You don’t ever see something on TV, so you
don’t expect to see it in real life, and if you do see it in real life it seems
outlandish. Like men doing “womanly
things,” or women doing “manly things.”
The media is simply perpetuating stereotypes about gender roles that,
like all stereotypes, are very rarely true in real life. But the thing is, these gender stereotypes
are slowly starting to become true, because everyone is going with the crowd
and not doing activities or using products that are apparently not intended for
their gender. Remember Gavyn and the
Easy Bake Ovens? When McKenna asked her
brother why he thinks there are no boys in the Easy Bake Oven commercials, he
replied "Because only girls play with it.”
This is coming from the boy who himself wanted one! Is that opinion his own, or one planted in
his head by the media? McKenna thinks
the latter is true, explaining in an interview: “Obviously, the way
they're marketing this product is influencing what he thinks and the way that he
acts.” As you can see, not only is the
media and marketing regularly employing gender stereotypes, they’re slowly
making us believe that these stereotypes are true! And now, people who defy these gender
stereotypes are openly ostracized. Bronies,
a large fan base of grown men who enjoy the revamped My Little Pony, were
commonly accused of being gay, or portrayed as pedophiles hunting for little
girls on the internet. Product marketing
and the popular media have convinced people that guys are not supposed to like
something so quintessentially feminine, and therefore they are either “not real
guys” (which is also fairly offensive towards gay males), or they have dastardly
ulterior motives. It’s almost as if the
constant flood of stereotypes is slowly chipping away at our ability to be
accepting of other people.
I
think it’s pretty much the consensus that stereotypes are dangerous in
society. The type of gender stereotyping
that you see on TV every day is especially bad because everyone accepts these
stereotypes, but without actually noticing them. How many people didn’t notice that yogurt
seems to be marketed almost solely towards women? Yet how many people thought that the idea of
women grilling or men eating Lean Cuisine was a bizarre one? Most people views these stereotypes as truth,
but don’t acknowledge that the source of this “truth” is predominantly advertising
and entertainment. Now, keep in mind
that it doesn’t go quite so far as sexism; the media does not preach the
superiority of a specific gender. But
they do plant pre-conceived notions in one’s head about how each gender should
act. It’s ridiculous, and needs to stop. People feel afraid to do something that they
are told their gender shouldn’t do, for fear of judgment and even retaliation. Don’t be the victim, and don’t be the
antagonist. If you want to do something
unexpected of your gender, go right ahead and do it. And if you see someone doing something
outside of their gender’s norm, stop and think before you lambast them. Ask yourself “Is there any real reason why
they are not allowed to do what they want?”
Often times, the answer is No, there is no good reason to antagonize them. Be accepting of the choices of others, and
feel free to stand up to gender stereotypes and be yourself, not what others
expect you to be. And in case you were
wondering, McKenna did go ahead and get that Easy Bake Oven for Gavyn. She decided that if he really wanted it, he
wouldn’t mind if it was pink and feminine.
And that is just the right philosophy
to have.
(Sorry about the ginormous paragraphs, guys. I never intended for this to be a written essay.)
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