Shine OnGirl petitions for Easy Bake Oven gender equality
Thirteen-year-old McKenna Pope is asking Hasbro to include boys in its Easy-Bake Oven commercials.
The young petitioner launched her campaign to "create gender equality" after her four-year-old brother Gavyn asked for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas, then confessed that he knew it wasn't for boys "because…they only put girls in the commercial."
See more: Six-year-old girl asks why there aren't more girls in 'Guess Who?' game
McKenna did some quick research and found that the ovens come in just pink and light-purple options. None of the packaging included images of boys.
McKenna posted her compelling argument on YouTube.
"I want my brother to know that it's not 'wrong' for him to want to be a chef, that it's okay to go against what society believes to be appropriate. There are, as a matter of fact, a multitude of very talented and successful male culinary geniuses, i.e. Emeril, Gordon Ramsey, etc. Unfortunately, Hasbro has made going against the societal norm that girls are the ones in the kitchen even more difficult," McKenna writes on Change.org.
See more: Can better toys turn girls into engineers?
"Please join me to ask Hasbro to feature males on the packaging and in promotional materials for the Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven, as well as offering the product in different, non gender specific colors, i.e. primary colors. Please, sign this petition, help me in creating gender equality, and help the children of today become what they're destined to be tomorrow."
As of Tuesday morning, McKenna's petition had almost 25,000 supporters.
Hasbro has yet to respond to the petition.
This isn't the first time a youngster has called out Hasbro for apparent gender inequality. A six-year-old girl wrote to the company to ask why, in their game Guess Who, only five of the 24 characters are female.
See more: The best toys for every age
The toy company replied, using math as its excuse:
"Guess Who? is a guessing game based on a numerical equation. If you take a look at the characters in the game, you will notice that there are five of any given characteristics. The idea of the game is, that by process of elimination, you narrow down who it isn't, thus determining who it is. The game is not weighted in favour of any particular character, male or female. Another aspect of the game is to draw attention away from using gender or ethnicity as the focal point, and to concentrate on those things that we all have in common, rather than focus on our differences."
The little girl's mother, Jennifer O'Connell, wrote back to Hasbro, informing the company that her daughter didn't understand the explanation:
"If anything, your response has left her more confused than before. She is a smart girl, but she is only 6 and still in senior infants at primary school, so she is a long way from being able to grasp concepts like numerical equations and weighting."
She concludes: "Why is female gender regarded as a 'characteristic,' while male gender is not?"
Do your kids associate certain toys with specific genders?
