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Should Easy-Bake's Packaging Now Be Gender Neutral?

by First name Last name on 12/04/2012 | 4 Minute Read

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I was watching my local news this morning when I heard the story of eith-grader Mckenna Pope: She has started a petition on Change.org to ask Hasbro to feature boys in the packaging of the Easy-Bake Oven. I'll admit it: when I was a kid I always wanted an Easy-Bake oven. But alas, I always felt ashamed to want a pink and purple toy with girls on the box. Mckenna Pope wants to change that.

It got me thinking, is it finally time for Easy-Bake's packaging to be gender neutral?

I have put together a retrospective of Easy-Bake's packaging from the first one in 1963 to todays 2012 model, you can see first hand the gender stereotypes from the 60's to today. The question I ask you is:

Do those same gender stereotypes still apply today? Should they? 

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"My little brother has always loved cooking. Being in the kitchen is his favorite out of school activity, and he yearns to have the opportunity to cook on his own, or at least with limited help.

Imagine my surprise when I walked into his room to find him "cooking" tortillas by placing them on top of his lamp's light bulb! Obviously, this is not a very safe way for him to be a chef, so when he asked Santa for his very own Easy-Bake Ultimate Oven, produced by the Hasbro company, for me to help him be the cook he's always wanted to be, my parents and I were immediately convinced it was the truly perfect present.

However, we soon found it quite appalling that boys are not featured in packaging or promotional materials for Easy Bake Ovens -- this toy my brother's always dreamed about. And the oven comes in gender-specific hues: purple and pink.

I feel that this sends a clear message: women cook, men work.

I have always been adamantly against anything that promotes specific roles in society for men and women, and having grown up with toys produced by the Hasbro corporation, it truly saddens me that such a successful business would resort to conforming to society's views on what boys do and what girls do.

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.

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."

View Mckenna's Petition

Historical images via TheStrong.org

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Original 1963 Easy-Bake Oven Packaging

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Kenner's Premier Model No. 1500 Easy-Bake Oven, 1970

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Easy-Bake Oven, 1970s

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Easy-Bake Oven 1971

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Betty Crocker Easy-Bake Dual-Temp Oven, 1980

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Easy-Bake Oven, 1992

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Easy-Bake Oven, 2006

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Easy-Bake Oven, 2008

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Easy-Bake Oven, 2012