Here come the FEMINISTS (original) (raw)

I came across these magnetic words for children at Amazon, aimed at children from 4 and up. They're like magnetic poetry - a bunch of single words on magnets designed for writing sentences, letters, poems or whatever on your refrigerator or other magnetic surface of choice.

Like with almost everything aimed at children (hello Tesco with your blue and pink English school dictionaries!) they come in a boy's version and a girl's version. I am amazed and dumbfounded at the differences between the word sets.

Girls:

clothes, hairband, heart, love, sparkle, perfume, beads, necklace, furry, lipstick, ribbon, handbag, want, glitter, fairies, fluff, candy, flowers, wings, sherbet, bubbles, sweets, pink, make-up, skipping, magic, dancing, ballet, bunnies, rainbow, ladybird, lemonade, stars, sky, shoes, chocolate, doll, party, secret, diary, hair, jewels, princess, queen, tiara, ice-cream, teddy, music, sunshine, birds, butterfly, sugar, angel, diamond, cooking, friends

Boys:

boots, glue, monster, scary, bones, racing, moon, helicopter, aeroplane, tractor, money, lorry, wizard, conkers, frogs, sticks, mud, dirt, spiders, snails, stones, bubbles, sweets, flags, magic, pond, string, grass, rugby, bug, dogs, caterpillar, cobweb, worms, dinosaur, dragon, bike, scooter, forest, treasure, climbing, swinging, skeleton, running, ghost, trees, swimming, lawnmower, treehouse, blue, football, chocolate, car

Reviewer C. Hurley "Zoonie" had it spot on and said everything I wanted to, but more succinctly and with more humour:

I was so pleased when I found this list of primary, targeted words guaranteed to widen every little princess's vocabulary just enough for her to play with and absorb these crucial messages which will help her form the limits of her intellectual boundaries in years to come.

Thank goodness the set excludes any complicated words like Doctor, or Car, or Career, or heaven forfend: Reading. We don't want our little ones to get silly ideas in to their heads. The right social conditioning from as early as possible will present the world with compliant, self absorbed, distressed, depressed and anorexic teenagers who are all the more willing to spend, spend, spend on hopeless diet cures, makeup, hidden, guilt ridden chocolate (one of the special words placed here!) and anti-depressants which will really make life worth living.

I particularly like the pink packaging, covered in stars. One might, startlingly, have thought that the words list had basic references to Astronomy in but thank goodness, those fears were allayed straight away as I eyed up the list of words envoking fantasy parties of frills and ruffles, endless Disney Princess re-runs and a future of anorexia driven depression and body hate.

Well done, Indigo worldwide limited, for creating such a wonderful gift, to help shape a bright future for your little one.

Is this what they mean by 'starting them young'?

Crossposted to personal journal, feminist_rage, feministparents and Feminist Mums.