We were at the toy store today and we were looking at the educational-toys. Boy have they come down in price since I was a kid. There was a microscope kit that looked to have a pretty decent scope for about $30. Mine would have cost close to $100 back in mid 1980’s (I looked it up). though now that I’m thinking on it, the one I saw today is definitely geared toward a low attention span child, It only had a few pre set up slides. The kit I had came with brine shrimp, a frog cadaver, about 30 glass slides, numerous bits of plant matter, a guide book, and it was freakin heavy. not plastic.
There was also a Planetarium. It showed our star view, as well as that of a Galaxy Far Far Far Away. (This is what we bought a a gift BTW) It was also relatively inexpensive, but I have no clue how accurate it is for either. The latter of course being FAR more important in having absolute accuracy :-)
Next to this were telescopes and binoculars. Mixed in with different packaging were the same scopes and voyeur aids, only in pink plastic. My knee jerk reaction was, and I may have said this outloud “What the fuck. why does it need to be pink. as if girls aren’t having enough trouble with the stereo typing,” Melissa said “It gets them a telescope.” She’s right.
While she played with the periscope I looked at the 3/4 of a side of a short aisle of science toys. None of the packaging was aimed at kids. There were no buzz words emblazoned on the packages (with the exception of the Lucas film sponsored items which has the same branding/packaging theme as the other products) nothing like “SUPER ZOOM LENZ” The only thing I saw were clearly printed, larger, and easy to read, fonts, and a picture of a child using the ‘toy’. These weren’t being marketed to kids, they weren’t even being marketed to parents. This was packaging for grandparents. More precisely, people the age of my parents and older. This isn’t about keeping girls in the pink. This is about how to get girls to stop saying “math is hard, let’s go shopping” by marketing hard science to their grandparents. Their grand parents who know that little Suzie likes the stars, but can’t even comprehend getting a girl a telescope because telescopes are for boys. Suddenly there is something pink that Grandma and Grandpa see that Suzie would love because she’s always going on about that Mickey’s dog in outer-space. In the end, Little Suzie has a fuckin’ telescope and Grandma and Grandpa are just the awesome-st. She doesn’t care if it’s pink and ‘girly’ (if she does, there is a little girl that is also awesome) Little Suzie has a fucking Barbie Pink telescope. Your argument is invalid!
For the record, my Grandparents gave me my Microscope it was a pass down from my Uncle whom I never met.
Also for the record, the microscope kits were all unisex. I assume this is because “everyone knows that all girls in science are already biologists or chemists assistants” wish I could remember who said that with such sarcasm.