Big sister demands gender equality in toy world
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Fouryear-old Gavyn Boscio loves to cook and asked for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. But when his big sister went to buy one, she discovered, to her disappointment, that it comes only in girlish pink and purple, with girls — and only girls — on the box and in the commercials.
So the eighth-grader from Garfield, N.J., started an online petition asking Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro to make the toy ovens in gender-neutral colours and feature boys on the package.
Thirteen-year-old McKenna Pope’s petition had more than 30,000 signatures in a little more than a week.
And celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who owned an EasyBake Oven as a boy, is among those weighing in on her side.
In a video McKenna made to accompany her petition on Change.org, Gavyn whips up a batch of cookies and tells his sister he wants a dinosaur and an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. When she asks him why there are no boys in the commercial for Easy-Bake Ovens, he explains: “Because only girls play with it.”
“Obviously, the way they’re marketing this product is influencing what he thinks and the way that he acts,” McKenna said. She said her little brother would probably be OK playing with a purple-and-pink oven by himself but would be too embarrassed to use it in front of his friends.
A spokesperson from Hasbro did not return calls for comment.
In a letter McKenna received last week, a Hasbro representative told her the company has featured boys on the packaging over the years and said a brother and sister were finalists for the Easy-Bake “Baker of the Year” award in 2009. Hasbro also pointed to Flay as an example of a chef who traced his career to an early experience with the Easy-Bake.
McKenna found the response disappointing.
“All they really told me is that boys play with their products. I already know boys do play with your products, so why are you only marketing them to girls?” she said. “I don’t want them to make a boys’ Easy-Bake Oven and girls’ Easy-Bake Oven. I want them to make an Easy-Bake Oven for kids.”
The debate over whether toy companies are reinforcing gender stereotypes seems to flare every year, particularly at Christmas, and has involved such things as Legos, toy microscopes and Barbie dolls. Now, it has extended to another one of the most beloved baby boomer toys, introduced.
“Why not actually create something that everybody knows the name (of) but that also comes in different colours so that boys, girls ... can pick the colour they want?” asks Flay. “It will make them a little more comfortable to buy it.”
In the meantime, he said, Gavyn’s family should buy him an Easy-Bake Oven anyway. “Absolutely. If that’s what he wants, why not get it for him? I mean, who cares what colour it is?”