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Stephan Savoia / AP
Hasbro's Easy-Bake Oven comes in two colors: purple and pink.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Four-year-old Gavyn Boscio loves to cook and asked for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. But when his big sister went to buy one, she discovered to her disappointment that it comes only in girly pink and purple, with girls — and only girls — on the box and in the commercials.
So the eighth-grader from Garfield, N.J., started an online petition asking Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro to make the toy ovens in gender-neutral colors and feature boys on the package.
By Friday, 13-year-old McKenna Pope's petition had garnered more than 30,000 signatures in a little more than a week.
And celebrity chef Bobby Flay, who owned an Easy-Bake Oven as a boy, is among those weighing in on her side.
In a video McKenna made to accompany her petition on Change.org, Gavyn whips up a batch of cookies and tells his sister he wants a dinosaur and an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. When she asks him why there are no boys in the commercial for Easy-Bake Ovens, he explains: "Because only girls play with it."
Julio Cortez / AP
McKenna Pope, 13, right, and her brother Gavyn Boscio, 4, pose Dec. 6 for a photo at their home in Garfield, N.J. Pope started a petition demanding the toy company Hasbro make its Easy-Bake Oven more boy friendly.
"Obviously, the way they're marketing this product is influencing what he thinks and the way that he acts," McKenna said in an interview. She said her little brother would probably be OK playing with a purple-and-pink oven by himself but would be too embarrassed to use it in front of his friends.
A spokesman for Hasbro did not return calls for comment.
In a letter McKenna received on Monday, a Hasbro representative told her the company has featured boys on the packaging over the years and said a brother and sister were finalists for the Easy-Bake "Baker of the Year" award in 2009. Hasbro also pointed to Flay as an example of a chef who traced his career to an early experience with the Easy-Bake.
McKenna found the response disappointing.
"All they really told me is that boys play with their products. I already know boys do play with your products, so why are you only marketing them to girls?" she said. "I don't want them to make a boys' Easy-Bake Oven and girls' Easy-Bake Oven. I want them to make an Easy-Bake Oven for kids."
For the first time in history, Mattel is introducing a Barbie construction set, and some toy catalogs have raised eyebrows by adopting a gender-neutral tone that includes girls playing with Nerf guns and boys playing with dolls. "I don't care what they play with, as long as they're out of my hair," said one mother of five. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
The debate over whether toy companies are reinforcing gender stereotypes — pinks and princesses for girls, guns and gross things for boys — seems to flare every year, particularly at Christmas, and has involved such things as LEGOS, toy microscopes and Barbie dolls. Now, it has extended to another one of the most beloved baby boomer toys, introduced in the 1960s.
Flay, 47, said he asked for an Easy-Bake for Christmas when he was about 5. He remembers it as a "putrid green" and recalls baking cakes with his mother from mixes. (The Easy-Bake Oven back then used a light bulb as a heating element; now it operates more like a real oven.) At the time, he said, the stereotype was that only women cooked, but a lot has changed since then.
"I cannot tell you how many young boys are my fans. And they want to grow up, and they want to cook," the Food Network star said.
Jim Silver, a toy expert and editor-in-chief of Timetoplaymag.com, played with an Easy-Bake himself when as a kid and said boys still play with it, just as girls play with Hot Wheels cars. He said Hasbro is simply marketing to the audience most likely to buy the oven and there's nothing wrong with that.
About seven years ago, Hasbro had a cooking product aimed at boys, the Queasy Bake Cookerator, which included recipes for gross-sounding treats such as Dip n' Drool Dog Bones and Mud n' Crud Cake. "Sales failed miserably," Silver said.
Flay said he is not surprised it failed because Hasbro was trying to appeal to boys in a stereotypical way. Instead, he urged the toymaker to think about widening the market for the Easy-Bake.
"Why not actually create something that everybody knows the name, but also it comes in different colors so that boys, girls, doesn't matter, they can pick what color they want and it will make them a little more comfortable to buy it?" he said.
In the meantime, he said, Gavyn's family should buy him an Easy-Bake Oven anyway.
"Absolutely. If that's what he wants, why not get it for him? I mean, who cares what color it is?" he said.
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Is purple only for girls?
Yes. Unless you're royalty.
Chalk it up to stupid gender stereotypes. If you went out and bought all blue or pink stuff for your kid before they were born, congratulations, you contributed to the problem.
No, my son is 6 and his favorite color is purple The problem is that it is not even marketed to boys, only girls. And I am reluctant to buy him a purple one, but would have no problem with black or white or silver.
It's like $70 for an easy bake oven! Black and Decker starts around 22 bucks. And comes in colors fit for anyone. For $70 you can find a Delonghi for Christ's sake!
No, of course not. There are a few boys in my daughter's taekwondo class who have purple rooms and there are plenty of men in the business world who wear purple ties. I can see lilac, which has pinkish undertones, being considered more of a girly color, but dark purple is not a gender-specific color and there are plenty of men who wear shirts in all shades of pink and purple anyway, so I don't see what the big deal is.
@Robin Steele, if you want to make a point, it helps not to use absurd hyperbole. An Easy Bake Oven (the one in the picture) goes for $38 at Walmart.
Get the oven and a can of heat-resistant spray paint used for stoves. Problem solved.
Purple and gold seem to be my husband's favorite color (LSU and our daughter's school colors). My favorite color is blue. Colors are only what you want them to be.
Stereotypes are usually a gross exaggeration of some reality. Having taught elementary school for over 40 years, I can confirm that pink and purple have been -- for quite a long time - definitely two 'favorite' colors identified by girls. Blue is a close third. But I've encountered orange, and black, and lots of other colors as well.
As for the Easy-Bake oven, the current fave for appliances in the adult world seems to be stainless steel. White and black are close seconds. Any of those colors might be a good choice for the kids...
This boy will grow up and make someone an excellent wife.
I agree with morrigan that stainless steel, white, or black would be good options. Then just have the sticker accessory packets just like the kind people use on the back of laptops to customize its look. Kids love to decorate and make things their own. Hasbro can then market to both boys and girls and make extra money as kids customize their toy. Especially if they sometimes decide to change the look of their oven with a different sticker packet.
Willy,
And most likely be a better MAN than some like you will ever be or pretend to be.
You bang on the wall and some are surely will come scurrying out. Right, JKLD?
You can buy a real oven (used) for only $25...beats a toy at $70 plus, to learn to cook.
No, Willy, only pointing out the truth. You have a problem with the truth?
I would like to qualify my statement by saying that I am a man, and that I cook or at least assist in cooking dinner with my wife almost every single night, and enjoy cooking.
That said, if the company feels that they will sell more units by selling a product that is more appealing to its target market (small girls), than by selling a more generic product to a larger market (all kids), then that is their choice to make.
As someone eluded too above, if they gave it a generic white or stainless appearance, why wouldn't you just get a regular compact toaster oven instead? Or rather if you have a male son who wants to learn to cook, why not just buy him a regular brand toaster oven for the same money and be done with it?
I must confess: I wear purple underwear. There, I said it. I feel liberated.
It's one thing for an adult man to like/wear purple, but for a little boy, it's easy to see that purple (along with pink) is the color of Barbies, princess costumes and all other things sold for girls. I agree, it's time to get past these gender stereotypes.
For some reason, the idea of the Queasy Bake Cookerator for Dip n' Drool Dog Bones and Mud n' Crud Cake is especially irritating to me.
Kevin, the price I used comes from the first listing on Amazon, a set which appears to include the items necessary to USE the product. BTW, good luck finding ME in a Walmart.
That makes no sense. You'd have no problem buying a b/w one but reluctant to buy purple, his favorite color ??
Only in America.
Mckenna Pope has an excellent point "I don't want them to make a boys Easy Bake Oven or a girls Easy Bake Oven-I want them to make an Easy Bake Oven for kids" My better half is a very good cook and trust me-men who can cook are priceless!!!
Agreed. I think it's time for them to put their foot out of the gender stereotype arena and get with the times. Girls AND boys can cook and bake, Easybake should be gender neutral or at least have more fun colors then pink and purple. I love it when my husband bakes for me, he's a very wonderful cook.
Sigh. They already make an easy bake oven. They chose a color scheme that would appeal to more of their prospective clients.
Who cares if only girls are on the package? You throw that away after you open it up. You only have to look at it for 2 minutes.
I doubt any color or package changes will result in statistically more sales. It's wouldn't be worth the cost to implement and it's not the manufacturer's job to make the buyer feel better about themselves.
I hope the Easy Bake little recipe packs have improved since I was a kid. While it was fun to "bake" the results tasted like sweet spongy cardboard with sandy frosting. My poor parents had to suffer while eating my "creations." LOL
Mom should get him the purple one and chuck the box. With all the male chefs on tv now, the manufacturer needs to keep up! That said - Easy Bake oven = best. gift.EVER!!! Loved mine!!
Mom could also look for a top for her daughter in a style that doesn't drop down over her young shoulder...in purple or pink or whatever.
Isn't it interesting that on the domestic front it's always women that have the traditional role of "cook" when it comes to home cooking, but in the commercial "fine dining" field, throughout history all the great chefs have been men? It's only been in the last few decades that more and more women have been entering the still male-dominated field of being a "chef".
Julia Childs
Betty Freezor, precursor to Martha Stewart.
Also, Julia Child was inspired by Irma S. Rombauer, who published The Joy of Cooking, which is the most-published cookbook of all time, which has been in print since 1936. You can bet that these TV chefs all have a copy of this book.
In the UK, there was also Fanny Cradock.
None of these current famous chefs will be remembered likes these ladies.
Sure you can pull a few token women out of the books - try naming a woman for every male chef you can name. In the real world "women cook, men chef". As soon as you put a dollar value on a profession it becomes respectable for men to pursue. They did the same thing to the medical profession - historically, women were healers.
To jrae-1215199
You need to update your knowledge of the medical profession. For the past decade the majority of medical school graduates have been female.
Most of these current popular chefs will be forgotten in 20 years, while the ones I listed will not be.
Rachel Ray, Giada, Paula Deen, Ina Garten, etc.
College graduates period are more than half women.
The world worries about the dumbest crap.
Agreed!
I second that
i agree.. who cares.. i wouldnt let my daughter play with boy toys personally but hey.. whatever floats your boat
Awww, isn't that nice. I wanted a toaster with four slots for my pop tarts in college, but no easy bake oven, although, we did used to put grasshoppers in my sisters to see if we could cook em.
lol. We had the Salem Witch trials for my sisters dolls. Every one of them were found guilty and burned. Ahhhhh, the sixties were awesome.
OMG Dex - LMAO
Guessing the two of you are men who grew up to be heterosexuals. No wonder I can't relate. haha..
All I can hear is the sound of the point going right over heads.
Well, make 'em stainless steel color.
Fix the purple one up with flame decals and other decals like you could put on a hot rod car--the girls might want that one, too! The marketing folks have done an excellent job of making pink the color for breast cancer awareness. My three kids are young adults, they will be the next parents of little kids over the next ten years. They are not likely to buy anything pink for their kids, they associate that color with a serious issue, not toys. I crochet, and I have been asked to make baby blankets for friends and relatives in sage green, beige and ivory--nobody wants pink, blue or purple, even for girls. The times, they are a changin' again.
In the short term, buy him the purple oven and get a roll of the new duct tape with what you think is an appropriate boy design and cover the thing. Through out the box or spray paint it blue and wrap it in boy paper. He's not keeping the box anyway.
In the long term, Hasbro and other toy makers take note. Color specific toys limit sales on both sides. My nieces prefer blue and green and other lovely colors they dress their dolls in. How about a white oven with two sets of decals: one to appeal to boys and one to girls.
That should be "Throw out the box..."
Recycle the damned box!
The boy doesn't have a mother/father?
You had to go and remind him that he's an orphan? How cruel can you get?
I think Americans want to turn men into women and women into men. It gets more this way every day. Nowadays men who like sex are frowned upon....they are all expected to whine about true love, act effeminate, and be submissive to females while serving their every need and kissing their rears. Look at these sex scandals...the media ponders why a married man could think about sex with a young woman....could it all be about power? Silly...these articles must all be written by women. No straight man with balls and a penis could wonder about such things and come to these silly conclusions.
any excuse for a 'poor poor me' rant, eh pauper?
You sound like you have some kind of sexual confusion, Pauper.
Pauper
How do you define masculinity? What traits must you possess (beyond balls and a penis)?
Most importantly, when did you LEARN to be that way? That's the point of the article. Rigid constraints are placed on men and women and it starts as soon as we're born. Would you feel the same way if you grew up in a more gender neutral environment? Probably not. You would feel more freedom to act as you please, without fear of ridicule from your peers (assuming society was more accepting).
There is, of course, a biological aspect that we must recognize. No one would deny that. However, it is both nature and nurture that shape our sense of self - an emphasis on the nurture. We don't come out of the womb with a strict sense of behavioral expectations.
Somehow, my hubby is able to be sweet at times and still enjoy sex, imagine that! And in our house we both share the traditional 'man' and 'women' chores. I can do almost everything he can do, and he can do almost everything I can do. And that doesn't make him less of a man or me less of a woman!
There is some truth to what you are saying. Men are turning into women and women into men and our world really isn't any better for all this "enlightenment"
Allie...sounds like you are one of those know-it-all teenage->early twenty-something girls. I'm sure you have plenty of "poor, poor me" rants of your own. Of course you are entitled to them....because you are a little princess....entitled to everything, yet responsible for nothing.
You are right. They are even trying to put MEN in skirts now. Don't believe it -- just google it. It IS a conspiracy. Women don't wear skirts anymore nor cook etc. They expect the MEN to do it. Womens lib run amuck in the U.S.
Go get'em Gavin, and good for your big sister for her work. Buy Gavin the oven and let him have a blast with it - he's not going to keep the box.
wish the forum would allow you to pull back posts.
What a world we live in when a thirteen year old has a better marketing idea than a large company like Hasbro! Go get em' McKenna! You will be showing them how it should be done some day!
A few years back they made a Queasy Bake Oven for boys. The cake molds were in the shape of bugs, dog bones etc. - maybe it wasn't a big enough seller for Hasbro.
I'm a boy, and I'd like a black one...with wicked red flame decals on the sides! That would be so cool!
I used to steal my sisters because I was hungry. No weirdness about it; guys like to eat. Most guys I know are pretty good cooks for that reason. Lucky is the man who gets catered to and never needs to learn and always eats well. For me, happiness is a large cast iron frying pan, a slow cooker, a good egg pan, and a well stocked fridge.
Boys should have the "Easy Barbecue".
I've loved to cook since I was about 12. I've been doing it for over 50 years now, and all I can hope for is to keep getting better. My wife loves it. I own the entire kitchen - all appliances, and keep them clean, as well as the cabinets, countertops, and floors. I have enough pots and pans to outfit a small restaurant, and I use them all at some time or another. I believe in the right tool for the right job, which is also why I have over 20 different knives, eight different skillets, and four different Dutch ovens, just to name a few. Yes, I also have a cast iron skillet, and a cast iron stovetop griddle. The only thing that stops me from buying more stuff is lack of room, and lack of money. My dream kitchen would have a commercial restaurant double-oven range, with eight burners, a flattop, and an eye-level salamander. Of course, the weight of it would probably collapse the floor if not reinforced, and the cost of retrofitting a commercial range hood would bankrupt me alone. But I can dream. My sister had an EasyBake, but I wasn't allowed to touch it, even though she never used it.
When I was a boy I didn't want an Easy-Bake Oven as much as I wanted the cakes that came out of them. It was the means to my end.
I'd to buy an easy bake oven for my grandson. He'd love it, but not pink. That product is made (obviously) for girls.
I'd also never buy a car designed for women. What would it have? extra mirrors?, holders for nail polish?, pastel interiors? What an insult to women drivers.
Sorry but I just don't get the fuss here. As long as boys and girls, men and women are treated equally who cares that toys are marketed in a gender specific way. Kids will play with whatever toys they like. If you want to buy your boy an oven - no problem. If you want to buy your daughter a toy gun - no problem. We could take this a bit further and stop marketing dresses to only girls and make them non-gender specific so boys can wear them. My point is - let girls be girls and boys be boys. Let them play with any toys they want to play with. Support their desires to be whatever they want to be when they grow up.
The old man brought home footballs, baseball bats and GI Joes when I was a kid....I have a hard time envisioning bringing home an easy bake oven...welcome to the 21st century
I purchased an Easy-Bake oven for my now 19 year-old son when he was 5 years-old -- we shared many wonderful memories baking in that thing, including birthday and holiday cakes. It served as a springboard for his life-long love of all things culinary. Now, he's making plans to attend culinary school and wants to be a chef in his own restaurant some day. It didn't matter what the color of the oven was, but the memories we had using it are priceless.