HASBRO GENDER NEUTRAL EASY BAKE OVEN CONTROVERSY

December 18,2012:

OH no. I just read that there is a girl. M. Pope, upset at HASBRO because they do not make EZ Bake Ovens that cater to boys.WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!! Are you serious?????? And now HASBRO had a scheduled meeting with her TODAY. Ok, so I have been trying to meet with HASBRO for like 20 years ( since I was like 5) and then a girl complains about the toys not being gender neutral and she gets to meet the executives of HASBRo?? Are you serious??? This is CRAZY.

Let's talk about this story so you guys can get caught up and then I will tell you the facts:

A little girl named McKenna Pope went to the store to buy an Easy Bake oven for her brother. When she went, all she could find were pink and purple ones. As a result she was like,” Oh no, Hasbro doesn’t make Easy Bake Ovens for boy”. That’s not fair she thought. She then created a PETITION on Change.org , for HASBRO to make Easy Bake Ovens for boys. And now all of a sudden she is this hero for standing up for gender equality, etc and she will be meeting with HASBRO today. Ridiculous.

This story is ridiculous. And I will tell you why.



Being the toy fanatic that I am, these are the FACTS:

1. Yes there are more boys than girls in America. This is a fact. I have conducted Census studies, and yes, there are more boys than girls and for YEARS I have been telling toy makers that they need to focus on boy toys because they are a larger market. I have sent them my yearly Census reports. I have sent the reports to Hasbro and Mattel, and of course, they have NEVER responded to me…ever. But the report is something I always send to them, after I do my analysis. In fact, my report is actually copyrighted, you can find it in the U.S Copyright office.

Look at this file from the Census website and look at the 2010 data on page 4. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-03.pdf The data shows that for the ages 0-19, there were more boys than girls in America. Period.

2. Easy Bake Oven—Let’s talk about the FACTs of the EASY BAKE OVEN: The EASY BAKE Oven has EVOLVED over time…tremendously. The Easy Bake oven has been around since the 1960s, and has come in a VARIETY of colors. Any one who knows their toys WELL, knows this. It is a FACT. The Easy Bake oven did not turn PINK until like the mid 1980s, early 90s. Fact 2: there are SO MANY VERSIONS of the EASY BAKE OVEN—there is the original Easy Bake Oven, there is the REAL Meal Oven, there is the oven with the stove top, etc etc. These versions come in SO MANY COLORS… so MANY!!

Now in the mid 2000, the REAL MEAL OVEN was created, by HASBRO. This was created by LAMONT MORRIS, a product designer at HASBRo, an African American man. A man I REPEATEDLY talk about on this website- like over and over and over again. The REAL MEAL OVEN was grey ,blue, purple and it had a boy and a girl on the COVER of the packaging. It was a NEUTRAL Easy Bake Oven. It was great.

And now we have the newer “Easy Bake “ Ovens.

People , get your facts STRAIGHT!! HASBRO HASSSSSSSSSSSSS made gender neutral EASY BAKE OVENS—ALWAYS. Who says boys can not bake in a purple oven—it is society who teaches boys that purple is a girls color. Aren’t there male basketball teams that have purple jerseys?? You see, this whole gender biased “dilemma” is so SILLY!!!! Purple is a NEUTRAL COLOR. PERIOD!!

Fact 3. Let me tell you something else about HASBRO. Do NOT forget that HASBRO created the Creepy Crawler Easy Bake oven. This oven was marketed differently and it was like the oven FOR Boys—marketed FOR BOYS, the way Mattel Hot Wheels are marketed for BOYS. Why doesn’t MATTEL make HOT WHEELS for Girls? Should I start a petition for that? Why doesn’t Mattel make more ethnic looking dolls? Why doesn’t HASBRO make a Glo-Worm that looks more like a guy in the face? Why doesn’t Mattel use girls in their hot wheels advertising? Why doesn’t MATTEL make I CAN BE dolls for boys? I mean, I can go on and on and on and on if you need me to.

I am actually doing a report on Hasbro and whether or not their toys are gender friendly, regarding the packaging, for my PhD program. Email me if you want to see it or would like to discuss it further. And I will also be talking about this at a conference in D.C in 2013 that I submitted an abstract for like 3 months ago--what a coincidence.

Summary: This petition is very silly because Hasbro does a GREAT job at creating gender neutral toys.And they know they do. So why they would want to appease the girl and have her come to headquarters is beyond me. Why haven’t I been invited to HASBRO headquarters? I am the one doing the Census reports and doing the detailed gender equality research on their products?

Anyways, at the end of the day, perhaps the little girl and her family are going to leave the HASBRO headquarters with a car full of free HASBRO toys. Good for them. And perhaps a lifetime of refillable Easy Bake oven toys-good for them again. But people, make sure you know the FACTS before you start judging toy companies. And P.S little girl, if you get an extra HASBRO toy you don’t want, you can always feel free to send it my way.