GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls • Hacker News Board

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#101

Post by ttttannebaum » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 4:44 PM UTC

Tipzntrix wrote: post #96

ttttannebaum wrote: post #64

Why not call it "GoldieBlox: The Cute Engineering Toy"? Why enforce gender roles? Isn't the title kind of saying "Girls like cute stuff, boys don't ever like cute stuff, and the only way to get girls interested in engineering is to make it cute"? Couldn't we get females into engineering more easily if we stopped culturally delegating "cool" to little boys and "cute" to little girls? [Or the real solution, just stop h…

I think the answer to this has been no, females won't go into engineering more no matter how you culturally delegate personality attributes. Consider the sales of the toys and the admissions rates into engineering programs DESPITE the fact that more women are being admitted to university than men [1], and yet still engineering programs are 80-20 male-female[2], despite the gender neutrality motions taking place and t…

What gender neutrality motions are taking place? Specifically at the level of childhood environments and teachings?

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#102

Post by gadders » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 4:44 PM UTC

mibbitier wrote: post #89

officemonkey wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend's niece reports "LEGO Friends are too easy," but she's the kind of kid who builds the Grand Emporium all by herself.

My daughter loves things like the Pet Shop: http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pet-Shop-10218 Really fun to build.

The reason I like Lego is because I can build stuff with her. Especially when we decide to build something "off-piste".

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#103

Post by meej » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 5:33 PM UTC

Thirty years ago, when I was a six year old little girl, I had these: http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=400-1 http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=402-1

They were my favorite. It never occurred to me that they were for boys, and I don't think anyone else tried to tell me that, either. I loved building houses and hotels with my universal building sets and for a long time they fueled dreams of being an architect, until I discovered engineering.

I know there has always been some gendering of toys, but I feel like we've regressed from where we were as a society when I was a child, and it's terribly depressing.

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#104

Post by meej » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

mkramlich wrote: post #54

Now if we could solve the other great crime against humanity: why aren't there more dressup dolls and baby toys aimed at boys? That gender-biased oppression has got to end.

I am pretty sure both of my little brothers each had at least one Ken doll, at least one Cabbage Patch Kid, several Care Bears, etc... all kinds of toys that would be considered more gendered today. The eighties, man, they were a different time.

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#105

Post by cadamez » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 6:18 PM UTC

labizaboffle wrote: post #60

Mixed reaction. As a father of two daughters, this makes me sick. I'm not a feminist, but I can't stand when people make "things for girls" that are pastel-ly and have ribbons. That does not help them, unless it is clothing or accessories. To make girls want to play with tinkertoys, you make... tinkertoys. My youngest- she loves guns and trucks. I don't even own a gun or a truck! Unfortunately, McDonalds sells "girl…

Younger me was in the same boat as your youngest daughter. It's almost as if girls don't get to have individual personalities and tastes; they have to be a Marketed Monolithic Girl Consumer.

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#106

Post by roguecoder » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

Tichy wrote: post #10

jpxxx wrote: post #7

Can't hate, I love it. Even the pink and cuddly bits. If this product instead had a blue ribbon and alien figurines with the title "Cyber Drivetrain Blast Kit" it wouldn't raise an eyebrow as a gendered or pandering toy. Legos are for boys when 95% of what's on the Lego shelf is boy pirates, boy laserbros, boy Batman, boy bio-alien-robots tearing the shit out of boy bio-dino-robots, etc.

So only 15% of girls liking engineering is a problem, but girls not liking pirates, batman and bio-alien-robots isn't? Where is the movement to get girls interested in bio-alien-robots?

There are! http://geekfeminism.org/tag/wear-and-share-star-wars-day/

The problem appears to be the social backlash little girls face if they like those things.

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#107

Post by roguecoder » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 6:50 PM UTC

labizaboffle wrote: post #60

Mixed reaction. As a father of two daughters, this makes me sick. I'm not a feminist, but I can't stand when people make "things for girls" that are pastel-ly and have ribbons. That does not help them, unless it is clothing or accessories. To make girls want to play with tinkertoys, you make... tinkertoys. My youngest- she loves guns and trucks. I don't even own a gun or a truck! Unfortunately, McDonalds sells "girl…

The solution isn't to expect girls to play with toys that were designed and marketed specifically for boys, as tinker toys were and are. At least, not without putting the same onus on little boys. If boys were eager to play with pink tinker toys, after all, they would already exist.

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#108

Post by Tipzntrix » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 7:54 PM UTC

ttttannebaum wrote: post #101

Tipzntrix wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the answer to this has been no, females won't go into engineering more no matter how you culturally delegate personality attributes. Consider the sales of the toys and the admissions rates into engineering programs DESPITE the fact that more women are being admitted to university than men [1], and yet still engineering programs are 80-20 male-female[2], despite the gender neutrality motions taking place and t…

What gender neutrality motions are taking place? Specifically at the level of childhood environments and teachings?

Parents not buying gendered clothes or discussing their child's gender until after birth, texts using "she" as often as "he" or occasionally neither at all. Overall there's more of that social push than there ever was (perhaps because there was none at all).

In fact, there's even a school in Sweden that went hardline on this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/934063...

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#109

Post by Tipzntrix » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 7:56 PM UTC

ttttannebaum wrote: post #101

Tipzntrix wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the answer to this has been no, females won't go into engineering more no matter how you culturally delegate personality attributes. Consider the sales of the toys and the admissions rates into engineering programs DESPITE the fact that more women are being admitted to university than men [1], and yet still engineering programs are 80-20 male-female[2], despite the gender neutrality motions taking place and t…

What gender neutrality motions are taking place? Specifically at the level of childhood environments and teachings?

I will say that it may take another 10-15 years to see the results of these programs, when these kids enter university. The motions are mostly too recent to affect current post-secondary students.

Re: GoldieBlox: The Engineering Toy for Girls

#110

Post by ttttannebaum » Fri, Sep 21, 2012, 9:24 PM UTC

Tipzntrix wrote: post #108

ttttannebaum wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What gender neutrality motions are taking place? Specifically at the level of childhood environments and teachings?

Parents not buying gendered clothes or discussing their child's gender until after birth, texts using "she" as often as "he" or occasionally neither at all. Overall there's more of that social push than there ever was (perhaps because there was none at all). In fact, there's even a school in Sweden that went hardline on this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/primaryeducation/934063...

All of those things are fantastic but extremely isolated. Some of those things make the news every time they happen. Agendered thinking is pretty marginal.