figmentPez
Staff member
From the Consumerist:
Science Toys "For Girls" Don't Need As Much Power
I have a completely different take on this. The lowest end product isn't on sale, and probably exists just to convince people to buy the slightly more expsensive version ("look at all you'd miss out on by going cheap"). The mid-range products sell the most, and thus can have the most color options. The higher-end models sell less, and have less color options.
Neither the ad nor the product itself is implying that girls don't want cool science stuff. When Handspring made PDAs the low end came in black, the high end came in silver and the mid-range came in lots of colors (blue, green, orange, etc.). It's easier to find colored laptops, MP3 players and other gadgets in the mid-range. There is no need to attach a gender agenda to the availability of color in tech products.
Also, saying that girls like pink isn't sexist, nor is it cultural. A recent scientific study showed that women tend to like pink, while men tend to dislike it, and that this color preference is cross-cultural.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/gallery/2009-09/science-confirms-obvious
Image 4 in the gallery: Girls Like Pink
“Biological Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference,” Current Biology, August 2007
- Popsci says:
“It turns out that while blue and green hues have universal appeal, men hate pink, and women love it. ”
- Summary of the paper says:
“Here we report a robust, cross-cultural sex difference in color preference,”
Science Toys "For Girls" Don't Need As Much Power
Budding female science nerds of America, Toys R Us has an important message. This message is: \\"don't worry your pretty little head with the most powerful science toys we have to offer.\\"
Okay, maybe that's not the actual message here. However, it's easy to draw some rage-inducing conclusions from a catalog page showing three Edu-Science brand toy telescopes or microscopes, where the least powerful of the trio is always the pink one.
What's interesting about this grouping is that it doesn't reflect all of the toys in this line. The least powerful microscope, which was not on sale, actually comes in a nice sleek unisex silver.
Do girls have to buy the pink microscope? No, of course not, but there's a disturbing message hiding somewhere on this page.
I have a completely different take on this. The lowest end product isn't on sale, and probably exists just to convince people to buy the slightly more expsensive version ("look at all you'd miss out on by going cheap"). The mid-range products sell the most, and thus can have the most color options. The higher-end models sell less, and have less color options.
Neither the ad nor the product itself is implying that girls don't want cool science stuff. When Handspring made PDAs the low end came in black, the high end came in silver and the mid-range came in lots of colors (blue, green, orange, etc.). It's easier to find colored laptops, MP3 players and other gadgets in the mid-range. There is no need to attach a gender agenda to the availability of color in tech products.
Also, saying that girls like pink isn't sexist, nor is it cultural. A recent scientific study showed that women tend to like pink, while men tend to dislike it, and that this color preference is cross-cultural.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/gallery/2009-09/science-confirms-obvious
Image 4 in the gallery: Girls Like Pink
“Biological Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference,” Current Biology, August 2007
- Popsci says:
“It turns out that while blue and green hues have universal appeal, men hate pink, and women love it. ”
- Summary of the paper says:
“Here we report a robust, cross-cultural sex difference in color preference,”