Princess Awesome: the fight against ’pinkification’ | Society | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/feb/20/princess-awesome-gender-neutral-clothing-kickstarter
After two years of making girls’ dresses featuring designs including mathematical symbols and dancing ninjas, the two women behind a US firm that aimed to fight back against the hegemony of pink found they were struggling to meet demand.
Showcasing graphics designed by rocket scientist Elishka Jepson, Princess Awesome dresses were created by Eva St Clair and Rebecca Melsky for “a different kind of girly girl because girls shouldn’t have to decide between dresses and dinosaurs, or ruffles and robots”.
At the start of the month they launched a campaign on fundraising site Kickstarter, with the aim of raising $35,000 (£23,000) by 5 March to begin factory production. Within three days they had raised the full amount. By Thursday, 2,171 backers had pledged $137,084, making it by far the highest-funded children’s clothing project in Kickstarter history.
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The fightback against gendered toys | Life and style | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/22/gendered-toys-stereotypes-boy-girl-segregation-equality
Three years ago, while she was on maternity leave, Ros Ball and her partner, James, began a diary of their children’s lives. Their daughter Josie was three and their son Clem three months old. They wanted to record the moments when their children were made aware of gender stereotypes; when they were directed towards a view of the world in which girls and boys inhabit separate, rigid spheres of pink and blue – the first sphere passive, pretty and gentle, the second aggressive, active and strong.
The results were tweeted under the title Baby Gender Diary, and Ball, a broadcast journalist who lives in London, couldn’t believe how much there was to write about. On the first day, they went to a pantomime with a toy stall, where Josie’s older male cousins directed her straight towards the sort of item supposedly beloved of small girls: a fluffy pink tiara. One of these boys then chose a flashing torch, in pink, for himself, to which the stallholder responded: “Shall I get you that in blue?” The boy, aged about five, readily agreed to the swap.