... and in the "please fill me with righteous feminist rage" category ...

[nonelvis]

Ouija for girls. In pink, naturally.

Found via the Onion, and yes, it's for real. I couldn't skewer this any better than they did, so go read their article.

Comments

[viedma]

I'm less offended by the pink color than I am by the sample questions. o.O

[nonelvis]

Don't forget: girls are too dumb to come up with questions on their own! And besides, all they really care about anyway is how popular they are and which boy likes them.

[mellificent.livejournal.com]

Well, I know this doesn't really make it any better, but I'm sure this was purely a marketing decision. Pink stuff sells well - going by the number of pink items I see just in the grocery store, it sells really well. And I can't imagine that Ouija boards are really that hot an item nowadays.

[quicksilverjen.livejournal.com]

And now I have a new euphemism for that time of the month - "a ghost punched me in the fallopian tubes." BWAH!

Otherwise, I'm with you - and the Onion. Pink? Suggested questions included? "Who wishes they could trade places with me?" WTFityF?!

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

Wow, I never noticed how... vaginal... the planchette is until I saw it in all it's hole-y pink goodness.

Another thing to hate

[haineux.livejournal.com]

Dell has a special web presence for women, called Della. No, really.

http://www.mayabaratz.com/2009/05/12/della-dell-for-girls-seriously/

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

i only know that commenter isn't me because i am not hipster enough to actually comment on the onion av club site.

[melange428.livejournal.com]

It's not just Ouija. At Toys R Us I saw pink versions of Monopoly (one of the playing pieces was a cell phone; another, a purse), Life, Memory, and fucking TINKERTOYS.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

My first response was that it looked like a box containing a butterfly-style vibrator, which I think was my brain moving slowly down the same alley.

(Really, if you've ever seen the packaging for post-feminist vibrators, they look exactly like this, including the little moons and stars.)

[nonelvis]

A cell phone? A purse? If I weren't already feeling stabby enough already today, now I really want to go on a killing spree.

[nonelvis]

Aww, I'm sure you're more than hip enough to comment on that site.

That was one of my favorite comments, too, though I am also very partial to this one that columbina found:

Here's what you gotta do, go to a flea market and get your daughter an old school Ouija Board. Burn some sage, contact yourself the ghosts of Dorothy Parker, Gertrude Stein and Boudica. Instill in her a strong sense of classic aesthetics.

Then ballpunch anyone affiliated with Parker Brothers.

Re: Another thing to hate

[nonelvis]

The Dell site wouldn't load properly on Safari, so I couldn't see anything. Based on the URL you linked, that's probably a good thing. I am crabby enough as it is.

[nonelvis]

Girls are too stupid to figure out on their own what questions to ask a Ouija board, you know.

[nonelvis]

I'm sure it was, too. But when the revolution comes, the marketing department at Parker Brothers is going to join the one from the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, right up against the wall.

[nonelvis]

I had exactly the same reaction. I'm not sure what that says about us, but I hope it's good.

Re: Another thing to hate

[platypus]

They've actually changed the site slightly over the last few days to make it slightly less condescending. But only slightly. IIRC, the bit that used to talk about recipes or calorie-counting is now "organizing your home office," or something like that.

Re: Another thing to hate

[nonelvis]

I can't decide which is worse: that there might have been no women in Dell's marketing department to tell them how offensive this was, or that there were women, and they just didn't notice the problem themselves.

[prof-pangaea.livejournal.com]

i am probably hip enough, but not necessarily hipster enough, if you know what i mean. i wear dinosaur t-shirts but i don't do it ironically! i wear them cos i really like t-rex.

that was my other favourite quote. well, for what i read of the comments. which were suprisingly amusing and un-stupid for comments left on an article on the internet.

[melange428.livejournal.com]

I believe (if my eyes do not deceive me) that two of the other pieces are a blowdryer and a high heeled shoe. And instead of "Get out of jail free," you get "text message"! Like, OMG! See the horror here (http://www.amazon.com/Monopoly-Pink-Boutique-Board-Game/dp/B000WUVR7I).

Also, from that page, you can view the pink LIFE, the pink Scrabble, and the pink "Girl Talk" Jenga.

[nonelvis]

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I see you also build boutiques and malls instead of houses and hotels. Houses and hotels are for boys! Math is hard! ARGH.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

The pink doesn't bother me, except on a purely aesthetic level. The "suggested questions" piss me right off, thought.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I hate to tell you, but a lot of this is driven by little girls themselves. A lot of them just gravitate to pink on their own, much to the consternation of their parents.

I've made a point of getting my son some pink things (my favorite is a pink bath towel with a ladybug on it). The message I'll try to give him is that boys and girls can like the same things.

I read a piece a while back that said that gender-specific colors for children only became prevalent in the early 20th Century -- except then it was pink of boys and blue for girls! (Pink was considered a diluted version of red, a fierce color, and therefore appropriate for little boys!)

[mmancuso.livejournal.com]

Who cares how many suggested questions there are? The answer is programmed into the planchett.

O K B U T W A S H I T F I R S T

[nonelvis]

You are a very naughty boy.