Disappointment of the Evening

[mark_asphodel]

So 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.  

Comments

[kyusil]

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.

I laughed because the exact same thing happened with me, only it was a Paleontologist Barbie (in pink camo shorts, no less). And, well, my family knew I'd react with disdain and figured that was worth the $15.

I remember as a kid visiting a fair number of science-oriented toy/gadget stores... are there many of those around these days? Seems like that might be a better route to go for the more dignified "scientist-in-training" toys. Or maybe more of my toy collection came from museum gift shops than I remember. P:

[the_geek]

I remember that the Discovery Channel used to have stores where they sold that kind of stuff. There was one in my local mall.

[mark_asphodel]

I haven't seen one of those in ages, sadly.

[kyusil]

I was definitely thinking of these, but I know there were others.

[mark_asphodel]

Ugh.

There are two awesome museum gift shops in the area but neither of them really does space stuff, which is what I was looking for. Everything else is pretty meh selection-wise. The hobby shop did have some nice stuff, though.

[kyusil]

Oh, I didn't see it as belittling or anything. We all saw the irony and had a good laugh, and I went right back to playing with real dinosaur toys (which were probably just as scientifically inaccurate, but oh well).

I'm wondering now, though, if the "boy" binoculars weren't really more gender-neutral? I can't think of how they would be specifically boy-pandering unless they, idk, turned into a Transformer or something.

[samuraiter]

*headscratch*

Now that's just damned peculiar.

[mark_asphodel]

I guess gender is everything these days. I kind of hoped successive generations would deal with less of that shit.

[amielleon]

I guess marketing needs to make jobs for themselves.

That said, ugh.

[antigonyx]

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. This. I never used them as much as my grandmother would have liked, but they were very dignified binoculars.

A lot of toys, or even most toys, are gendered. Or marketed as such. It's pretty sucky.

[mark_asphodel]

Yeah, I think I gave up when I saw the pink stackable ring toy for girls. I kind of thought the point there was learning different colors?

world's most predictable lua comment:

[queenlua]

a booklet for writing down bird observations, you say?

:DDDDDD

as someone who got into birdwatching at age six with the crappy old binoculars lying around in the garage and a beginner's bird guide i picked up at a national park gift store, i approve of this inclusion

(also the gendered binocular thing sounds p. awful but you already knew that so)

Re: world's most predictable lua comment:

[mark_asphodel]

Yeah, birds are probably a better start for little kids than stargazing (sniff) but I hope the recipient of the toy does both.