The Importance of Gender Neutral Toys

I wasn't planning on writing about this topic. I figured that it was common knowledge that it is stupid to have a "girl" toy aisle with all the cooking toys and fashion dolls and a "boy" toy aisle with all the building toys and superheroes. Apparently, I have too much faith in humanity. 

If you haven't heard yet, Target recently announced that they are going to move away from gender-based signs in their toy aisles. While this doesn't mean the Easy Bake Oven will now be found next to Bob the Builder's Workshop, it does mean that you won't see a sign that says "Girls' Building Toys." Yes, that sign exists. 

My local newspaper asked their Facebook fans for their opinions on this announcement. There were way too many comments saying it is stupid or they don't believe that the gender distinctions matter. That kids can play with whatever toys they want. While that sounds nice, it just isn't true.

I have a 13-year old daughter. She plays both sides of the "girly" game. During the day, she is building bridges and solar powered cars, but at night she is decked out in a pink leotard for ballet class. Yet, if you walk through the toy section in Target, there is a definite divide between what girls play with and what boys play with. The girl section is bright and pink and, for the lack of a better word, girly. The boy section is a little darker and tends to be filled with blue and black hues. It is definitely a different world.

Let's look at one specific toy now. The almighty Lego. Lego has girl toys and it has boy toys. In the girl section, you will find Lego Friends. I'm pretty sure this is where Barbie went to die. The Lego Friends are a group of girls that play with animals, go on tour as pop stars, and hang out at the juice bar. You won't find any of these things in the boys Legos. 

Over in the boy section, we have castles and pirates and ninjas and Batman and Superman and pretty much every superhero you can name. Granted, no one is coming out and saying only boys can play with these sets. But it can be very difficult to tell a child that it's OK for girls to be ninjas or Batman or whatever. Heck, some adults don't even get that concept. I have seen adults give me the stink eye for buying my daughter something considered "boyish." 

Why is it important to have gender neutral toys? Because we, as a society, need to stop having this disconnect between what girls can and can't do. We have a serious lack of women in scientific fields. While I'm not completely placing the blame on gendered toys, keep in mind that the science kits are generally in the boy aisle of the toy section. There are a lot of adults that won't even walk through the aisles of the opposite gender of their child. Those kids may not even know that there are microscopes and building blocks and robots out there for them to play with. Let's stop making this a boy and a girl thing. Let's just make it a toy thing. Put the Hulk next to Elsa in the aisle. Put the Easy Bake Oven over with the tool sets. And stop making everything color coded. There are more colors in life than just pink and blue. Let's show our kids the whole world, not just the limited slice companies want them to see.  

Movie review: Shrek Forever After

My family went to the local drive-in theater to catch the latest Shrek film. Not only did they have someone walking around in a (pretty awful) Shrek costume, complete with a Fiona handler, they also had pony rides and a couple of miniature donkeys. This was probably the absolute perfect place to watch a children's movie.

When we last left our favorite ogres, they were happily retired from royalty and living in their beloved swamp with their three children. However, Shrek has grown weary of the day-to-day responsibilities of being a husband and father, along with being a bit of a celebrity. After a hectic birthday party for the triplets, Shrek comes across Rumplestiltskin, who hates Shrek for taking the kingdom of Far Far Away from him. Shrek makes a deal with Rumple to make him an ogre for one day in exchange for one day from his childhood. Everything around him changes, and not always for the better.

All three of us enjoyed the film. As usual, the bounty hunter, in this case the Pied Piper, is the best character. We all giggled whenever he came on the screen. However, I am glad that the franchise has come to an end. I don't know where else they could take the movie without killing off the fun of it. Also, I'm not really sure that this is a "must see" movie for the theaters. If you are a big fan of Shrek, then by all means rush out to see it. (You probably already have.) If you are only a passing fan though, wait until the DVD release. You aren't missing all that much.

Favorite Friday

SO ADORABLE!

Movie review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel

Like many children of the 80s, I watched a lot of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" cartoons. When the first movie came out, I was, like almost everyone I knew, hesitant to enjoy it. Would a live-action/CG Chipmunk movie be anywhere as good as the cartoons we so fondly remembered? I enjoyed it, but it felt like something was missing.

What was missing....was the Chipettes. In the 80s, there weren't a lot of good female characters. Sure, there was She-Ra and Jem, but that was about it. While the Chipettes weren't particularly strong girls, they were good counterparts to the Chipmunks. Whatever the boys could dish out, the girls could too and that was what made them loveable.

So the Chipettes have now entered into the live-action world of the Chipmunks. I loved the Chipettes singing, but their personalities seemed a little off. Britney was always a little more selfish than she was in the movie. Yes, she looked out for her sisters more than Alvin did for his brothers, but in this version, she was just a little too altruistic for their sakes. Jeanette wasn't quite nerdy enough. She should have been able to match Simon fact-to-fact. Yet it was Simon that had to help her when the girls were in trouble. In my opinion, only little Eleanor fit her original personality. She was a tad shy with a heart just as big as her tubby body. Perfect.

One of the things that surprised me was that Zachary Levi, of Chuck fame, played the lead live-action male in the show. I don't remember seeing him in any of the commercials. We all know that good old Dave Seville got laid up in the hospital thanks to Alvin's antics, but we never saw who was taking care of them while he was out of commission. There is no better nerd boy than Zachary Levi. Dave will always be the number one guy in the Chipmunk's lives, but I really hope that the writers find a way to get Toby into the third movie.

Both my sister and I enjoyed the movie just as much as my daughter did. There are some really funny jokes and, as usual, the singing was fun as well. I can't say that it is absolutely worth the money to see it in the movie theater, but it is definitely worth a rental once the DVD or Blu-Ray hits shelves.

Game review: Camp Funshine: Carrie the Caregiver 3

Ah, Carrie. How she has grown. First she was a babysitter. Then she was a preschool teacher. Now she is a camp counselor. The gameplay is the same as the other two. Drop the waiting kids to their seats, bring them the things they need, hang their finished project (in this case, tie-dyed shirts) to dry. The most complicated part of the game is trying to get everything done before the kids get angry.

I found this version to be more enjoyable than the preschool version. The things you were asked to deliver to the children made sense. You weren't asked to do things that they could do themselves. There are also some slight additions to the game. Some of the tables have two seats. Those tables require two people to be seated before they will start the project. If you don't have two children available, you can pull another counselor in to help the child. I didn't find it particularly necessary though. You know that those tables need two children so you just try to wait until you have two children. Otherwise, sit them at the one-person tables. Not a difficult task.

This series isn't my favorite time management game but this particular one isn't terrible. I wouldn't plan on wasting a lot of time on it though.

Game review: Kindergarten

Way back in October, I played Carrie the Caregiver 2, which was nothing spectacular. Figuring it was going to be along the same lines, I tried Kindergarten. Let me start off by saying that my daughter is currently in kindergarten so I have a pretty good grasp on what kids that age can do. This game should have been named Daycare or Babies or something. Parents drop off their little darlings and it is your job to feed them bottles (?), change their diapers (?!) and put them down for naps. While kindergarten kids do take short naps, they definitely are not bottle-fed nor are they wearing diapers. It's rather offensive to kids to put a kindergarten title on a game about babies.

The game itself is boring. In the early levels, you spend a lot of time standing around waiting for one of the babies to want something. Then it gets annoying when, for example, one child is playing in "the box" and another one immediately wants to play in it. Well, the thing only fits one kid at a time so you have to wait for the first kid to stop playing in it. Of course, this upsets the second one. It is also annoying to have to click on the rug to put one child on the floor before picking up another. You should be able to click on the second child and have them switch places. It would have made the gameplay a lot more streamlined.

Also, about this clicking on the rug thing, there are no "slots" for the kids to fit in. They basically sit wherever you click. This makes it possible for you to have two children sitting directly in front of each other. Then, if the child in the back wants something, you can't click on him/her. You need to move the front child in order to get to the back child. This could have easily been avoided by dividing the rug into invisible slots. Each child would automatically fit into the slot closest to your click. Since the children don't move around on their own, there is no reason to not have a specific spot for them to sit in.

I think that there were a lot of good intentions with this game. However, the developers just didn't pull it off very well. There were so many problems with the gameplay that I quit the game halfway through my 60 minute trial. That says a lot right there. While I would like to see the problems listed here fixed, I'd rather see them fixed as an entirely new game instead of a sequel. They need to get rid of the Kindergarten title on this one.