Roominate: A Building Toy for Girls | Hacker News Reader

Roominate: A Building Toy for Girls

roominatetoy.com

10 pointsunfasten15 comments

The US is really weird when it comes to gender roles. When I was growing up Legos were gender-neutral, and by the time I was in college it seems like Legos were gender-coded. And there were almost no girl lego people :(

The color-coding is not my thing but might be subversive enough to help it get through to girls who are enforcing pinkness on themselves and others.

Three things (I'd like to see): * ship extensions with Raspberry Pi or Arduino integration! How cool would it be if your fan went on only when it's hot or the roman shades went down when it got sunny? * make a little solar panel kit extension for real, so on a sunny day you can have a solar-powered dollhouse.

I don't know. It feels kind of pink lego to me (the marketing successes of which aren't lost here). When my daughter (now 2) gets just _this_ much bigger, I'll probably find myself showing her Adafruit.

To be clear, I don't have a problem with the product itself... more that it's clearly pushing itself exclusively toward girls. My son would _love_ this thing.

Why can't we just give them meccano and Lego the same as the boy kids?

Many of the parents I know report that despite their best efforts, their kids display a powerful innate tendency towards gendered behaviour. So I guess engineering toys "for girls" might be met with greater enthusiasm, even if they're basically the same as boys' toys.

It seems to me that there is a slightly problematic relationship between "toys for girls" and the "anti-pinkification" movement though.

My equally scientific observation is that the tendency comes from the parents. However, it doesn't matter from the perspective of a toy maker, there is a market to be filled, and they seem to go after it.

I wonder the same thing. I have 2 girls (8 and 6) and I kind of cringe when I see these types of learning toys 'for girls'. Slap some Disney colors on them and they suddenly become attractive to girls? My personal experience is that they will play with interesting toys regardless of coloration. Mine have many of the same toys that I grew up with and will play imaginative games with them for hours given the opportunity.

Instead of creating/perpetuating a separate toy market for girls, I'd love to see more efforts to bring girls together (along with boys) to participate in activities that include these those toys...STEAM clubs, etc.

As JoeBoy said, little girls and boys will fiercely defend their perceived gender. I remember being a young girl and my parents expecting me to play with my brother's legos: not going to happen. Then an aunt sent some swedish blocks, which no-one else had, and it was acceptable for me to share and play with these with my brother. I wasn't self-aware at the time to know why (and still can't recall!).

Edit: see children's toys from the victorian era: boys have rocking horses and hoops, which would now be considered girl's toys. Social expectations, anyone?

The problem being, if we decide to give in to our girls' desire to defend their gender, we potentially set them up for a life of buying overpriced pink electric screwdrivers and shit like http://www.amazon.com/BIC-Cristal-1-0mm-Black-MSLP16-Blk/dp/...

Oh, don't give in! That's your role as parent. Do you let your kids eat sugar for breakfast? Fight them for what you know is best, they'll thank you for it. Sneak in some broccoli as it were.

Note: those BIC pens to me seem like a marketing joke: someone at BIC was clever enough to see a way to make money by taking advantage of the deep-set insecurities of grown women.

That's a strange name. It reminds me of ruminant[1], but maybe it's because I'm a not a native English speaker.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant

My guess is that the name is a play on "ruminate", which originally meant "to chew the cud" as ruminant animals do. However, long ago it came to also mean "to think deeply about", as if a person might be "chewing" some information in an attempt to digest it. I'm assuming they mean the latter meaning.

Girls can do wonders with duct tape, craft sticks, paper, scissors, clay, pipe cleaners, and blocks. I am sure boys are good at it too. These toy sets are almost a step back from the crafts.

Instead of wasting money on this sexist crap, build a real dollhouse with your kids from scratch. The process involves the whole family and has interesting parts for any gender.

Roominate is to Erector Set, as GI Joe was to Barbie.

An agitated younger me: "Listen. They're not dolls! They're ACTION FIGURES."

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