Signal Amplification

[andrewducker]

From the website of the Early Learning Centre.

For the little princess in the family we have great feminine outfits like Butterfly Fairy, Sleeping Beauty, Ballerina and Nurse’s uniform. Why not add a medical case for that extra touch of authenticity.

The boys are catered for too, with great Doctor, Policeman & Fireman uniforms, not to mention fantastic Pirate and Knight costumes. All these can be combined with a range of accessories so your child will really look the part.

Because, apparently, boys can't do ballet, and girls can't be doctors.

You can contact them via the page here if you'd like to express your displeasure.
(cheers to momentsmusicaus and erindubitably for the linkage).

Comments

[kynn.livejournal.com]

i commented thusly:

Regarding:
http://www.elc.co.uk/children%27s-dressing-up-outfits/5540,default,sc.html

Hi, the 20th Century called, and they'd like their dated and offensive gender stereotypes back.

Regards, the 21st Century

[chipuni.livejournal.com]

Bloody. Fucking. Hell.

Let's get a little bit of history, shall we?

The most successful pirate in all history was Cheng I Sao. This pirate had a fleet of 1,500 ships and commanded 80,000 sailors...

...and was female.

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Here is my email. I'll probably make a journal post with this actually.

I would like to tell you a little story.

My little cousin Emma just turned ten. She's a bit of a tomboy - plays football, does karate, and even when she was much younger made such fashion statements as layered teeshirts with skulls and crossbones on them (she wanted to be a pirate).

For Halloween last year, she wanted to dress up as Dennis the Menace, because he was her favourite Beano character. My aunt got her her stripey jumper, black shorts, a toy dog and a black wig of spiky hair. She paraded this outfit for me when I visited their house, and was very pleased with herself.

A few days later, my aunt told me, Emma came to her and asked her, in a worried tone, whether it was 'okay' for her to dress up like Dennis the Menace, because she was a girl. Her mum, realising she must have told some other children at school about her costume and been mocked for it, told her, quite correctly of course, that she could dress up as anyone she liked for Halloween and that of course it was okay to be Dennis the Menace.

This seemed to make her feel a bit better, but then as Halloween night approached, my fiercly independent, individualistic, pirate-loving tomboy cousin came to her mum and said she didn't want to be Dennis the Menace anymore - could she be Minnie the Minx instead?

Dutifully my aunt made her an orange pigtailed wig and beret combo, and come Halloween Emma went to her school party dressed as a girl comic book character instead of the boy character she had really wanted to be.

And this:

http://www.elc.co.uk/children%27s-dressing-up-outfits/5540,default,sc.html

is what made it happen. Is this really the kind of copy we should be seeing on websites in the 21st century?

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I feel slightly sick ...

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Did you see the link I posted on twitter which had their entirely useless and insulting reply to a complaint about it?

http://homelifebalance.blogspot.com/2010/07/early-learning-centre-what-are-they.html