(Newser)
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McKenna Pope, 13, has a message for Hasbro: It's time to bring gender equality to the Easy-Bake Oven. McKenna wants the toymaker to market its iconic product to boys as well as girls, because her own 4-year-old brother loves to cook and wants an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. But right now, no boys are featured on the packaging or in commercials for the toy "because only girls play with it," her brother explains on a video McKenna posted on YouTube. The New Jersey eighth-grader wants that to change, the Los Angeles Times reports. In addition to the video, McKenna started a Change.org petition that has gotten more than 25,000 signatures so far.
"[I] found it quite appalling that boys are not featured in packaging or promotional materials for Easy-Bake Ovens ... and the oven comes in gender-specific hues: purple and pink," she writes. "I feel that this sends a clear message: Women cook, men work." Hasbro might want to listen to McKenna: These days, dads are doing more of the family shopping than moms, which has led to a few changes in the toy industry as toymakers attempt to appeal to little girls and their fathers, the New York Times reports. (And McKenna would probably be happy to read about the toy catalog that has flipped traditional gender roles.)
