Alas! Ironic sexism is still sexism. Just because you say you don’t mean it, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. Don’t mean to be a stick in the mud, but my inner raging lesbian feminist wouldn’t shut up until I responded.
WHAT, in Heaven’s name I ask, WHAT here is worth this much money? Is there a piece made out of pure gold or something? This looks neat - like Hot Wheels when I was a kid, but geeeezzzzee…
What is this about “boys toys”? As a woman engineer, I hate that these stereotypes exist! Even if they’re used ironically, they’re still telling young girls that building things and solving problems is supposed to be something only boys do. Do you think they know the difference? Do you think your sons know the difference when they get “boys toys”? Do you think they don’t repeat everything they hear, trying to separate themselves as “special”?
Let’s try to accept all of the nerds that love woot, and all of the nerds’ children, and all of the future women and men engineers and construction crews who will be playing with these toys. Please, let’s just call them toys…?
I’m offended Woot. As a boy I don’t see the point of specifying certain toys as for “boys”. What if I didn’t happen to like engineering and construction objects? Couldn’t I prefer the colloquial too? HU?! ARE YOU SAYING I CAN’T LIKE CURTAINS AND QUAINT OBJECTS AS WELL?! GETS UP OFF DESK
As I attended a top engineering (number 1 in the US past 11 years) I can say that boys far far outnumber the girls in almost every class (90%+), unless it was like bio-med or something. It’s not indoctrination. People will always do what they want. Do you really consider yourself to be that frail?
Not everyone considers themselves to be “nerds”, isn’t that a bit discriminatory of Woot customers?
Why can’t you just accept that you’re a bit of a “tomboy” (even for associating yourself with the word “nerd”), or discard the whole notion all together? No need to be acting as a “feminist”.
I think the point is that by encouraging young girls and boys to consider trucks and building toys to be “for boys,” the females may be less likely to pursue those types of careers down the road. The fact that 90 percent of your classmates were males may be partially due to this type of thing being ingrained at a young age, not simply because “people do what they want.”
I also went to a top tier engineering school (#1 for civil) and the number of ladies in the STEM classes is rising.
So buy the ‘boys toys’ and give them to your daughter as normal toys. I’m sure Woot! would promise not to label them as such. No need to explain the feminist rants that went along with it.