Category Archives: Toys & products

Ask M & Ms to stop sexualizing female cartoon characters

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Yesterday, I blogged about how, except for the pink ghetto, female characters marketed to kids are usually shown as a minority. They are also sexualized. See the M & Ms below as a typical example. Ms. Brown, the new female M & M character, also shown in heels, is missing from this photo. You can see her here.

I wrote about how presenting females as a minority is dangerous because it normalizes invisible women. Adults stop noticing that girls have gone missing. So do kids.

Females are 51% of the population but we manage to make the illusion of a female minority real when it comes to power positions across America. At the top, women are stuck at 16%.

Where else are females a minority? In the imaginary world, a place where singing lions befriend warthogs, rats can cook, and toys come to life, where anything should be possible. So why is the animated world so sexist? Why do the female M & Ms have to be in the minority, wear high heels, and bat their eyelashes? Why is this OK with parents? What is this gender stereotyping teaching our kids?

A couple things happened after my blog yesterday.

I got even more than the usual amount of hate emails on SFGate: Who cares about M & Ms, I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I can’t write blah blah blah.

Then I saw on FB someone had blogged on About Face about the same sexualized M & Ms issue and was asked by her sister: who cares?

And finally, my daughter is turning three this week. When I went to Party City this morning, I was greeted at the door by a giant green M & M in go go boots. Every kid who walks in the store sees that. It is messed up. It’s no better than that cartoon Camel selling cigarettes to kids. Sexualizing girls is dangerous, and it needs to stop.

So, if you think the above picture is messed up, if you think female M & Ms should be allowed to wear sneakers and run around just like the males get to do, please go to M&Ms Facebook page. Ask M & Ms to stop sexualizing cartoon characters. It’s bad for kids.

Reel Girl rates M & Ms ***SSS*** for extreme gender stereotyping.

Gendering kids food: M & Ms keep females in minority and in high heels

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Until last month, there was just one lone female M & M. The green one.

Then just before the Superbowl Time Magazine reported on the debut of another, bringing the female-male ratio to 1: 3:

“M&Ms already has characters based on the other colors in its candy rainbow (red, yellow, blue, orange and green), but until now the candy has gone largely male-centric. Green has been the lone female. Brown will join her, with high heels in full view.”

I suppose we grateful she’s not Mrs. Brown and that she’s wearing glasses. I hope with those pumps that it’s before Labor day.

Why isn’t Pebbles on the Cocoa Pebbles?

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I was always kind of bored by the Flintstones when I was a kid, but the episodes where Pebbles came on were my favorite. As were the episodes with Tabitha, Samantha’s daughter on Bewitched. Probably because I was a kid and a girl and I liked seeing a kid and a girl on TV. Remember Pebbles? Fred and Wilma’s kid?

Well, guess what: She’s gone missing from her eponymous cereal. No kidding. It’s all Fred and Barney. Do you know how hard it is for a girl to get a cereal named after her? And then no picture? WTF?

I know what you’re thinking. Cocoa Pebbles is bad for you anyway. Who cares? But this is fucked up. Kids study these boxes.

The only female represented on all four sides of this box is one small picture of Wilma. She’s not in the games or activities section either. She’s not doing anything remotely fun or cool. Unlike Fred and Barney, she’s not driving  a car. I suppose women in the Stone Age couldn’t drive.

What’s Wilma doing in her little pictture? She’s pouring milk above a caption that reads: “Are your kids getting enough Vitamin D?”   See her there above the advertisement for no less than four products starring with Fred? I guess the moms are supposed to relate, but what about the kids? The female kids.

Why is Pebbles missing? Where has she gone?

Cereal boxes are yet another way the media tells kids: males are important, females are invisible.

And let’s not forget that the Flintstones is derived from The Honeymooners. All these shows, all these narratives about women and men and the roles they are supposed to play are in life are showing up to teach our kids in 2012.

Read more about gendering cereal.

Wonder Woman without pants leads to LEGO without pants

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Hey, kids, meet Wonder Woman, one of the few female superheroes.
Which one of these LEGO minifigs is not like the other? Why do you think the most powerful and famous female superhero is shown in her underwear?
Read more about about sexism marketed to kids through LEGO sets here.
“If I don’t get pants, nobody gets pants” Wonder Woman by Theamat (Cynthia Sousa)

30 Greatest kids cereals of all time, 100% male characters

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And here is my FIFTH blog on sexism in food!

Sorry, people, but these images are EVERWHERE. They tell kids that boys do stuff and girls don’t. Males are important while females are invisible.

Check this link to the 30 Greatest Kids Cereals of All Time sent to me by Lori Day.

Are there any kids’ cereals with female characters? I know there’s that dieter, her greatest accomplishment EVER, on Special K, but I suppose that’s a woman’s cereal.

Hey Goldfish Snack Crackers, girls aren’t a minority

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My daughter is home sick today. She’s lying on the couch, watching TV, and eating Parmesan Goldfish. An ad for Goldfish crackers came on. She thought that coincidence was pretty hilarious. She held up one of her crackers and said, “Hi!” to the Goldfish on TV. Then she looked at down at the package. “Who are mine?” she wanted to know.

They are: Xtreme, Gilbert, Brooke, and Finn.

I know what you’re thinking: Xtreme must be female, right? Or maybe Finn? Pepperidge Farm would never put 3 males and 1 female on a package. So, I went to Wikipedia. Check out these character descriptions:

  • Finn– A cheddar flavored goldfish that wears sunglasses (though not in the commercials).
  • Gilbert– A pretzel goldfish that tends to be a worrier.
  • Brooke– The beautiful and intelligent parmesan flavored goldfish and the only female member of the goldfish club until both Candace and Coral showed up.
  • Xtreme– A flavor-blasted fish who enjoys doing crazy stunts. His real (and embarrassing) name is Fumbleton.
  • Swimmington Von Stuffington III Esquire– Xtreme’s snobby older brother.
  • IQ– A honey graham fish who wears eyeglasses lives in the vacuum and befriends Gilbert and helps him escape out of the vacuum.
  • Candace– A pink fish who wears a red bow on her head and has a small blue star on her tail fin. She has a crush on Gilbert. Candace is also the winner of the “Finn’s New Friend” contest.
  • Coral– A chocolate graham and fun-spirited fish with a Southern accent who currently befriends the club. She is possibly somewhat of a tomboy.

When I created this blog, I wrote that I was going to rate kids media and toys. I never considered blogging about sexism in food. Reese’s Puffs, Special K, M & Ms, and Goldfish have, unfortunately, changed my mind.

My daughter and I made up different names and stories for the Goldfish, of course. But don’t start telling me it’s a free country, and we can just make up anything we like. I’m a creative person, and I struggle with this. Give me something to work with here, Pepperidge Farm! I’m also, like most moms, busy. Can’t I just read the damn names off the bag?

It would be so much easier to foster creativity in kids (and the adults that they will become) if we weren’t mired with the same old, same old ridiculous, gender-stereotyped narratives at every turn.

WTF people, just eat your M & Ms!

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Got this photo from Melissa Wardy at Pigtail Pals. A friend of hers took it in Las Vegas. Aren’t we Americans lucky that we can get a “boys rule” or “girls rule” M & Ms mix?

Can the gendering of products get any more stupid?

Really look at this picture.

This is how fucked up we are about gender. In the future, people are going to look back on 2012 and try hard to understand how intelligent human beings could ever be so deranged.

The absurdity of this product is no different than the relentless, aggressive marketing pushed on kids in movie theaters, Target stores, and at birthday parties across America every single day.

Watch out for gender stereotyping in card games for kids

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My children love card games, and even though I don’t, I’m learning to. Cards are a great activity for the whole family to do together. Playing them also teaches kids math, how to follow rules, strategy, and how to win and lose gracefully.

But what are the card games that we play with our kids also teaching them about gender?

So the all time worst has got to be Old Maid. Ugh. Horrible. Even before I knew I was a feminist, I was offended by this game that teaches kids no one wants to be stuck with the lone female card. I thought this game was so weird when I was a child and I still do. A racist card game would never be allowed to be sold to children. It’s not funny. As far as I’m concerned, Old Maid should be banned for its sexism. Reel Girl rates Old Maid ***SSS*** Do not play this game with your kids, or call it something else and use different cards.

My favorite card game right now is Slamwich. It’s really fun to play for my 8 yr old and 5 yr old. The cards are diverse in the gender representation. Most of the cards are food (the idea is to build your own sandwich) but there are also “muncher” and “thief” cards, three females and two males types. As far as amount, there is one more male thief card than female thief card. Reel Girl rates Slamwich ***GGG***

Another game we play is called Sleeping Queens. Can you tell by the name I have a problem with this game? At least it’s not called Sleeping Princesses, right?

The game was invented by a little girl, so that’s cool, except I wish she wasn’t influenced to play to this “female get rescued” script. It makes me sad about her imagination. The idea is to wake up the Sleeping Queens which you can do by picking a king card or rescuing her with a knight. Not so great. A dragon can block a knight from stealing a queen (we refer to the dragons as she). Playing a sleeping potion puts a queen back to sleep and that can be blocked with a magic wand. Queens are the power cards, the goal of the game is to get them, but they can’t wake themselves up. This game is pretty fun to play. Reel Girl rates Sleeping Queens ***G/ SS***

How about some images of boys with your Reese’s Puffs?

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My kids are obsessed with placing their cereal box directly in front of their bowl at breakfast. Each girl carefully situates her box and then reads it (or pretends to) while she eats. Today, my five year was staring at this picture:

She asked me: “Why do girls always wear pink?”

I wanted to know: Why is there one girl in this group of 5 kids in the “Create your own rap and dancing avatar!” game? Why do kids have to get bombarded from every direction with multiple images of boys and few if any images of girls?

Frustrated, I flipped her cereal box.

Darth Maul, Yoda, R2-D2, C-3PO, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jar Jar Binks and our Token Feisty: Queen Amidala. These images are all advertising pens that are prizes inside the box. My daughter got Jar Jar Binks. She decided to give it to her male cousin. Why do you think?

Can you imagine a cereal box picturing 8 female heroes and villains to 1 male? Or 5 female rap avatars to 1 male?

Reel Girl rates Reese’s Puffs ***SS***

LEGO’s new Town Hall shows potential but falls into gender stereotypes

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It’s so great that a female architect designed and gets to intro the new LEGO Town Hall set. Here’s the video.

Do you think this architect is grateful she didn’t have to play with the ridiculous Friends set when she was a kid?

But my enthusiasm waned when the architect introduced the minifigs. First comes the Mayor, the boss and the most important one, the star of the set. He’s male. (We see his cool office inside as well.) Next comes his secretary, guess what gender?

I was spacing out listening to this video and the reason I even started to pay attention was I heard the architect was going on and on about “a new print on her torso and there is this old tradition that you have to wear something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. And she’s wearing a new necklace and yeah, a new print.”

I did a double take and realized she was talking about the bride. Specifically, her dress and accessories.

LEGO deserves kudos for letting a female intro this set. When she comes on she says: “I bet you’re surprised to see me,” so I’m thinking its the first time she’s gotten this role.  I hope she had a big role in the Town Hall design as well. But LEGO, please try to break out of the gender stereotypes with your minifigs. Remember, you’re marketing these characters to kids. You’re giving kids tools for fantasy play and showing children what they can be when they grow up. Except for the “lady reporter” the adult figs are all limited to “traditional” gender roles. What about a female mayor and a male secretary? Would LEGO ever consider that?

Reel Girl rates LEGO Town Hall ***G/SSS***