How To Make A Toy For Girls: Take Gender-Neutral Toy, Add Fairies And Flowers, Make It Purple

Image courtesy of Eww, fishies!
Eww, fishies!

Eww, fake fishies!

As a child, did you ever have one of those magnetic fishing games where plastic fishes’ mouths snap open and shut and you try to snag them with a magnet? I had one, and I enjoyed that toy very much as a little girl. Let me emphasize the “as a little girl” part. One would think that this is a toy that doesn’t need any girling up, but apparently you and I don’t think like a toy company. That’s why the Tinkerbell fishing game exists. It’s the same thing as the primary-colored, gender-neutral fishing game. Except it’s purple and Disney Fairies-branded. Because it’s for girls!

Reader Amanda noticed this item on display, and saw it in a new light considering the current controversy over the blatant girliness of the Easy-Bake Oven and need for a gender-neutral option. “Oh look, a gender neutral game got a rebrand for girls. Ugh,” she wrote when she posted it on Google+.

If you’re not familiar with the original fishing game, here’s a modern iteration called “Let’s Go Fishin‘.”

chomp chomp chomp

Here’s the Tinkerbell version. It’s purple and has eliminated all of the icky catching of plastic animals. Instead, you use fishing poles to catch flowers that open and close.

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I’m sorry, you use magic wands with strings dangling from them to catch the flowers.

RELATED:
Petition Results In Hasbro Introducing Gender-Neutral Easy-Bake Oven
Sorry, Girls: Your Toy Blocks Cost More, Have Fewer Pieces
Science Toys “For Girls” Don’t Need As Much Power

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