Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
What happens between the Easy-Bake Oven and the professional kitchen? Think Progress wants to know:
Thirteen year old Mckenna Pope’s little brother loves to cook. But when he watches the commercials for a product he’s hoping to get for Christmas — the Easy Bake Oven — he only sees girls playing with the toy. Because of that, he believes that “only girls play with it.”
Pope is hoping to change that perception with a video and a petition. She is asking Hasboro — maker of the Easy Bake Oven — to start putting boys in their commercials, so that her little brother sees it’s okay for boys to cook.
Okay, so the story so far: it's a classic left-wing cliche about "gender norms." Girls are told to bake and clean; boys are told to fight and earn. (And yes, this still is 2012. We haven't gone back to 1974, when "Free to Be You and Me" was on every record player.)
But here's what I'd say to young McKenna Pope, who seems so exercised about her brother's disinclination to cook: Relax, little girl. When it comes to professional chefs, that industry is, like, totally male dominated.
And liberals are mad about that, too. From New York Magazine:
We live in a golden age of chefs. Between your Batalis and Bouluds, your Vongerichtens and Riperts, your Masas and Morimotos, New York is bubbling over with cooking legends who not only practice world-class gastronomy but also manage to turn themselves into global gajillion-dollar megabrands. So here’s a question: Where are all the women? Despite the fact that women make up the vast majority of home cooks, and despite four-plus decades of modern feminism, women still run just a small percentage of top kitchens in New York and elsewhere. Never mind the Rachael Rays and Nigella Lawsons of the world. They’re TV personalities, not chefs. They don’t turn out hundreds of meals a night on a hot, high-stress line at one of the country’s most esteemed and critically scrutinized restaurants.
But how do those guys even know they want to cook if Hasbro, the maker of the Easy-Bake Oven, tells them it's something that only girls do?
Unless -- brace yourselves -- all of this talk about which toys promote which behavior is just a lot of archaic liberal nonsense. Can't be that, right?
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Comments:
Aug '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Thanks for the post. The most telling example of the hypocrisy involved is in the second extended quote: "Never mind the Rachael Rays and Nigella Lawsons of the world. They’re TV personalities, not chefs. They don’t turn out hundreds of meals a night on a hot, high-stress line at one of the country’s most esteemed and critically scrutinized restaurants." Forget the contrary anecdotal evidence that mounts against our case-- for the purposes of whining we will diminish real female accomplishments!
I'm no foodie... but I don't think the fancy chef is out there cooking hundreds of meals a night either. Thank your short order cooks for that. Also, "cooking" is different than "starting a restaurant."
The issue is this for some people way too fixated on sexuality-- everything is a patriarchal trap. Toys probably don't promote behavior, but marketing does affect people. I won't deny that. But maybe many kids lucky enough to have two parents see mom cooking more than dad? Maybe mom even teaches the daughter how to cook?
With that said... I wish I knew how to cook!
Sep '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Is there a correlation between using easy-bake oven and future vocation? Nope.
Is there a correlation between using non-pink legos and becoming a future architect or engineer? Nope.
Apr '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
My husband and I absolutely do not go in for that gender-suppression-through-toy nonsense (giving our boys dolls and all that) but we did get our 3-year-old son a play kitchen set. It's right next to his play workbench. It's a close call which he loves most: the kitchen or his toy trains.
The kitchen isn't pink or anything, and we didn't get him a tea set to go with it. But there's no reason at all why he'd think that cooking was girly because his dad is a great cook, and we also like to watch Food Network competitions that feature (as you observe) predominantly male chefs. Perhaps Pope just needs to watch more Food Network with her little bro.
Jul '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Why is it that a parent / kid has to look at the picture on the box or an ad to decide what they should do? Why can't a boy just use an easy bake oven? (Are there kids who don't because there are pictures of girls on them?)
My first degree was in Hotel Management and I was the first female chef in the Hotel I worked at (in India). Yes, there was some resistance initially (cleaning a heap of cow tongue / chopping a bucket of onions) but after the initial "trial" everyone in the kitchen loved and "protected" me.
I discovered, to my surprise, that one hardly ever uses a penis while cooking professionally.
Similarly a vagina is completely useless while playing with an easy bake oven.
Am I just an exception? Should I be following pictures / ads / labels? The more important question is why are these parents and the so called "experts"?
Apr '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I didn't really have the money for it when I was in the States, so I don't know if it's true there, but Mrs. of England and I have found that the top women chefs in the UK, Europe, and South Africa, have generally seemed somewhat overrated (not "not great chefs" but "not quite as great as they're billed as").
Our amazing chef friend was a sort of counter example, but has now transitioned to publicly identifying as male. It's one of my favorite examples of the correct application of "the exception that proves the rule".
Nov '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I am shocked, shocked to discover gambling in this establishment!
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Rachel L.: My husband and I absolutely do not go in for that gender-suppression-through-toy nonsense (giving our boys dolls and all that) but we did get our 3-year-old son a play kitchen set. It's right next to his play workbench. It's a close call which he loves most: the kitchen or his toy trains.
The kitchen isn't pink or anything, and we didn't get him a tea set to go with it. But there's no reason at all why he'd think that cooking was girly because his dad is a great cook, and we also like to watch Food Network competitions that feature (as you observe) predominantly male chefs. Perhaps Pope just needs to watch more Food Network with her little bro. · 8 minutes ago
Agreed. And this may come as no surprise to you: I love to cook.
Oct '10
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
What company is "Hasboro," anyway?
I've always thought that the outrage over gender-based marketing like this was pretty silly, and they don't reflect reality anyway. When boys play with Barbie, they are making Ken get beat up by their GI Joe action figures anyway.
No amount of "having a boy in a Barbie commercial" is going to change any of that.
Apr '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Rob Long
Agreed. And this may come as no surprise to you: I love to cook. · 19 minutes ago
How fitting! He's already your doppelganger in one way: he sometimes runs around the house yelling, "Hello podcast listeners! I'm Rob Long! Go to Ricochet-dot-com!"
As you see, he shortened the message a bit, but I think he got the gist.
Aug '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Barkha Herman: Why is it that a parent / kid has to look at the picture on the box or an ad to decide what they should do? Why can't a boy just use an easy bake oven? (Are there kids who don't because there are pictures of girls on them?)
...
I discovered, to my surprise, that one hardly ever uses a penis while cooking professionally.
Similarly a vagina is completely useless while playing with an easy bake oven.
Am I just an exception? Should I be following pictures / ads / labels? The more important question is why are these parents and the so called "experts"? · 30 minutes ago
Well, I avoided kitchen sets because they were pink, owned by my friends' sisters (all brothers in my family), and "girly." But I was 5 and stupid. I am now a competent cook, and my forgotten cookies just got 2nd place at the departmental cookie contest. I lost out to cranberry almond bars from a 1948 cookbook.
In unrelated news, thank you for that beautiful imagery. The doctor was just telling me I needed to cut back -and I don't think that will be difficult now.
Aug '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
While not being terribly bothered by the sociology -and like many of the men around here, I too like to cook -it is worth noting there is a difference between a baker and a chef -and I would not be surprised to discover more women in the former category (though I don't know). I'm not all that exercised about the sex of the person baking my cakes or donuts.
Jun '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I think this is another example of liberal victimization. Hasboro is not shaping gender norms. Gender norms are shaping Hasboro. If it was worth their money to advertise to boys they certainly would; the competitive toy market would demand it. On the flip side, Mattel finds it more profitable to market Creepy Crawlers, which makes plastic bugs, to boys - imagine that.
Full Disclosure: After Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, my sister's Easy-Bake oven was my second favorite toy. Today cooking is one of my favorite hobbies (although, still not sure if its the process of cooking or just a means to a glorious end).
Sep '10
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I ended up in my career because my parents bought me the "Sit-In-A-Cubicle-And-Stare-At-Your-Computer Elmo" doll when I was a kid.
Jul '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I remember this one time when I was painting my nails. My daughter, then about 4, wanted me to do her nails as well. Following that, my son, then 2, wanted in. So, I obliged.
It so happened that one of the older female relatives from the hubby's side was visiting, and she got quite upset that I was painting the boy's nails. "Boys should not paint their nails". (this was a 2 year old, mind you). So I told her that I will stop painting his mails as soon as she stopped wearing trousers.
That was the end of that.
Mar '11
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Didn't Hasbro do away with the Easy-Bake Oven? It utilized incandescent lightbulbs as heat elements, and therefore constitutes a crime against Mother Gaia.
If my folks had gotten me that Lil Hacker Logic Analyzer™ set, this stuff would be a lot easier.
Edited on December 7, 2012 at 9:13pmJul '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I was wondering why anyone would buy one of these things for boy, girl, or household pet. Instead of letting them use the toaster oven. Hasbro provided the answer in the FAQ (the Ultimate FAQ). Or close enough.
Q: Why wouldn't I just use a real oven?
A: The EASY-BAKE brand is a fashionable fun food brand that inspires tween girls to bake, share and show their creativity and expertise through an immersive brand experience.
I translate that as: because I'm an idiot, easily dazzled by language.
And wouldn't "tween girls" be something an incompetent Lothario is?
Jun '10
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Easy Bake Ovens are toys. To learn to cook, get in the kitchen. This may be why the best chefs are men — they skipped the toys and went straight to a working oven.
Jun '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
That's where I learned to cook... first with my late mother, then when she married a guy in the restaurant industry, I learned right there in a professional kitchen.
Still love to cook, and I still say that my time cooking for a living (in the family restaurant, natch) was both the most fun I've ever had working and the hardest I've ever worked -- anyone that thinks professional cooking is easy has never done it.
Aug '10
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
Rob Long:
I think it's a fair criticism. After all, I've seen plenty of statistics that indicate that young men learn to cook in much greater numbers than young women nowadays, and that the man is more often the primary food-preparer in relationships.
I played with an Easy-Bake Oven when I was a kid. It was a hand-me-down from my sisters. Also, it was not pink. It was one of the old-style ones that looked more like a real oven, rather than a pink microwave.
I never would have played with it if it had been pink, is my point.
Edited on December 7, 2012 at 10:49pmOct '12
Re: Between the Easy-Bake and Top Chef
I built model rockets and watched "Star Trek" but never made it to space, so much for toys as destiny.