We’re not sure if little Riley, 5, was coached by her parents to rail against corporations that reinforce gender stereotypes or whether she’s the kind of baby who orders her own subscription to Mother Jones.
We’re just gonna act like this is unrehearsed.
Standing in the middle of a toy store, this little proto-Steinem loudly bemoans how toy companies trick little girls into obsessing over princesses and making boys gaga for action figures. “It wouldn’t be fair for all the girls to buy princess and all the boys to buys superheroes cause… [some] girls want superheroes.”
Off-camera, Riley’s dad reinforces to her that, yes, certain girls dig G.I. Joe and some boys prefer to comb Ariel’s hair.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Actually, we loved our macho action figures—we used to have He-Man and Lion-O make out all the time.
Fitz
It’s clearly coached, and it’s just as vulgar as people encouraging kids
to speak in tongues and find the holy spirit. Fight your battles, but don’t make
your 5 year old fight them for you.
JKB
@Fitz: There might of been SOME coaching, but I got the sense that she really had issues with being told what to want.
JayKay
Using your child to push your leftist feminazi agenda…Liberals are such a classy bunch.
Aaron
@JayKay:
Yeah but we’re not nearly as classy as people who use the term “feminazi”.
Aaron
@Fitz:
A little girl not wanting to buy pink toys, oh so vulgar!
Pipe down you bigot.
Ian
@JayKay: I know, tell me about it. At least conservatives are classy — they do their raping and pillaging behind closed doors.
Libertarian Larry
Awwww, how cute, a hyper-PC toddler. I bet her parents have her making an “It Gets Better” video by the time she’s 6, because she’s, you know, such a worldly political thinker, this kid.
@JayKay: You MUST copyright “Feminazi”—it’s truly that funny and original. Can’t wait to use it on some true feminazis that I know.
MEJ
@Libertarian Larry:
You MUST copyright “Feminazi”—it’s truly that funny and original. Can’t wait to use it on some true feminazis that I know.
Rush Limbaugh coined the phrase in the early nineties, Larry. As for the rest of your comment-your thinking is as original as Jays.
MEJ
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MEJ
@Libertarian Larry:
You MUST copyright “Feminazi”—it’s truly that funny and original. Can’t wait to use it on some true feminazis that I know.
Rush Limbaugh coined the phrase in the early nineties, Larry. As for the rest of your comment, your thinking is as original as Jay’s.
Libertarian Larry
@MEJ: And you, sir/madam, are repetitious, so there.
ChrisC
@JayKay: At least we don’t go starting illegal wars.
MEJ
@Libertarian Larry:
Blame Queerty’s comment moderation.
Gus
Lighten up, Queers. Daddy has nothing to gain by staging this.
Riley has a valid point…..all girl toys are PINK or packaged in pink wrappings. Boy toys are any color other than pink. If the Tonka truck is pink…..THEN it becomes a girl toy.
Girls get told to play like a helpless princess and wait for a superhero to come to her rescue. Boys get to play superhero.
It’s insane, so insane that even a little 5 year old girl notices.
GOD (gay old dude)
@ChrisC: Hmmm . . . if memory serves me correctly, I seem to recall that Vietnam was a situation begun under Democratic rule (Kennedy), perpetuated by the Dems (Johnson), and ended under a Republican administration (Ford). And regarding that whole Egypt thing in which liberal messiah Barack Obama sent troops there without Congress’s approval . . . yeah, you liberals have NO baggage when it comes to starting (and continuing) an illegal war—keep telling yourselves that. Self-delusion is nothing new when it comes to the leftier half of our political spectrum.
Tommy Shepherd
PROVE to me that the little girl was coached. Otherwise stop conjecturing. Because it makes you look idiotic.
Larry
jesus shit…what do you want to do stone the be-otch??? shut the fuck up…she was cute AND this is not about gays, liberals or nixon…it’s about pink!!!! fucking christ…what hate filled morons
Ian
@GOD (gay old dude): Check your history GOD. The Vietnam debacle was entered incrementally — going back as far as 1950 under Truman. Then furthered (covertly) under Eisenhower. Kennedy inherited the situation and sent in counterinsurgency troops/training. Johnson entered full-swing after a Congressional resolution. So… it wasn’t exactly started the way your ideology wants you to think. History is tough that way.
Carlsbad
Oh, and I suppose little girls are not “coached” every day of their lives to do nothing but like pink, play pretty pretty princess, and nurse baby dolls. Yes, when a little girl questions gender stereotypes, it MUST have been coached, but when a little girl dreams of being a princess all day while boys are out playing superheroes who rescue princesses, that’s just the normal state of nature.
Are you sure we’re still on a queer website?
Tim
Wow, I am constantly amazed at how cynical queerty commenters are.
Dirty Ole Man
@GOD: I voted for Barry Goldwater, gay one, but I wised up in my old age.
Please do the same!
Wow
You go tell them! I will never forget the forbidden love between Ken and I! That Barbie is the biggest fag hag!
Allen D.
@Gus: I remember when I was a kid, that all the aisles of Lionel Playworld (before it became TRU” were open to my curiosity, etc. But I always got the distinct impression that the Barbie aisle was “off limits”. I’ve always thought that was dumb.
The little girl that I was a ‘father figure’ to, picked up on this herself & ranted about it to me (no coaching required).
I tend to take it as “it is what it is”… because I think it would be ‘odd’ to have pink Barbie trucks in the same place as Tonka trucks. Not sure why. Hmmm.
ewe
Put her name on the Ballot. I want to vote her in for President. NOW.
ewe
@JayKay: Ms. Thing? Do you have one shred of evidence supporting your demonization of open minded people?
Michelle Gould
Get real. Go back 200 years and see what the colors were boy boys and girls. All is artificial
Wies
lol when kids are raised on religion it barely raises an eyebrow and now there might be a dad that’s teaching the kid how rediculous our social fabric might be it’s frowned on by alot. Humans are weird.
but i agree Fitz. the battle is not to be fought by kids. but i don’t think she acts it. The reasoning makes sense to her, and why shouldn’t it?
Lou
Coached or not, I really like this young girl a lot. I am a girl, and when I was growing up, my parents would let my older brothers and me play with the same toys, both “boy” and “girl” toys. I can distinctly remember playing with LEGOs, stuffed animals, trains, and also with my own toy horses and doll house. It doesn’t stop there though. I even watched The Looney Tunes, Thomas the Tank Engine, and other “boy” cartoons along with them, as with a few of my little kid shows. I learned to identify with boys my age that they can also like horses and stuffed animals, not just sports and toy vehicles. I am very glad my parents did not enforce me to play with one type of toy, or one type of outfit. They let me be myself and try all kinds of things.
It’s too bad that boys seem to be disgusted by anything with pink or girl characters though. Then again, look at My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Just look at how many male viewers that got.
RVH
@Libertarian Larry: Not only are you a bigot, but you also clearly live under a rock. Pat Robertson began using ‘feminazi’ a long time ago.