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Disappointment of the Evening
Jul. 22nd, 2013 09:54 pmSo I'm in a very nice toy and hobby shop on the east side of the metro area, looking for a pair of beginners' binoculars for my second cousin's upcoming birthday.
Me: Do you have any binoculars for little kids? Aged three or four?
Shop guy: Boys' binoculars or girls' binoculars?
Me: Uh... gender-neutral, please.
Gender-segregated. Binoculars. W.T.F. Now, the brand I ended up buying is a brand that's explicitly trying to get girls involved in science (by giving them purple binoculars?) but... wow. Y'know, my first binoculars were black, like a little mini version of the high-quality ones my mom used. They made me feel adult. If someone bought me rainbow plastic binoculars I'd have felt someone was shoveling junk in my direction... which is exactly how I felt when I got Astronaut Barbie for my sixth birthday and my little NASA-savvy self looked at that rubbery blonde chick in her pink and silver "space suit" and realized Barbie was some kind of a sham. After that I stopped asking for Barbies.
The girly binoculars come with a booklet for writing down observations of birds. I presume the boys-only binoculars come with a scorecard for how many windows you've peeped into.
Me: Do you have any binoculars for little kids? Aged three or four?
Shop guy: Boys' binoculars or girls' binoculars?
Me: Uh... gender-neutral, please.
Gender-segregated. Binoculars. W.T.F. Now, the brand I ended up buying is a brand that's explicitly trying to get girls involved in science (by giving them purple binoculars?) but... wow. Y'know, my first binoculars were black, like a little mini version of the high-quality ones my mom used. They made me feel adult. If someone bought me rainbow plastic binoculars I'd have felt someone was shoveling junk in my direction... which is exactly how I felt when I got Astronaut Barbie for my sixth birthday and my little NASA-savvy self looked at that rubbery blonde chick in her pink and silver "space suit" and realized Barbie was some kind of a sham. After that I stopped asking for Barbies.
The girly binoculars come with a booklet for writing down observations of birds. I presume the boys-only binoculars come with a scorecard for how many windows you've peeped into.
