Hasbro makes the Easy-Bake Oven in purple with a pink spatula.
As a mom of two girls, the Pepto-Bismol pink that denotes girls toys makes me ill. The blatant gender-stereotyping by major toy companies is wrong on so many levels, and it often drives me away from the toy aisles of major retailers.
But for my daughter's 8th birthday this year, I ventured into enemy territory because she was begging for an Easy-Bake Oven. This is a girl who likes to cook with me in the kitchen.
She was thrilled to receive her purple oven, decorated with girly swirls, and she has made us many (microscopic) treats.
But it turns out that I'm not the only one who objects to the packaging of "girl toys." Recently Hasbro, maker of Easy-Bake Ovens, has been the target of an effort to change the toy's packaging to be more gender neutral.
McKenna Pope says she started a petition at Change.org because her little brother loves to cook and wanted an Easy-Bake Oven as a Christmas gift.
See her petition and watch a video she made with her brother here. They think the packaging and promotions should include boys as well as girls, and I completely agree. Why should baking be the exclusive domain of females?
A number of male chefs have jumped in to support McKenna and her brother, Gavyn. In fact, they have posted a YouTube video advocating the change.
"Cooking is for everyone -- boys, girls, no matter what age," chef Manuel Trevino says.
And I am completely on board with chef Joshua Whigham, who tells them: "Ask Hasbro for a steel or a black or something really cool oven."
Now if we could just get a petition for Hasbro to stop charging an arm and a leg for refill packages that make six cookies the size of your thumbnail. (Don't worry, I searched the Internet and found some make-your-own recipes that will keep my daughter in batter.)
Colleen Almeida Smith is a Tulsa World assistant editor and mother of a second-grader and a seventh-grader. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/colleenalmeida.
