Hey, Hasbro, 13-year-old McKenna Pope thinks your sexist stereotypes suck. Her little brother wants an Easy Bake Oven (and a dinosaur) for his birthday, but he feels embarrassed because “only girls play with it.” Where would he get that idea? Well, possibly from every single Hasbro ad—they only show girls using it.
Baking is pretty awesome. Why can’t boys do it too?
Pope, of Garfield, N.J., has taken her fight against the toy-making giant to Change.org, where she’s launched a petition to create “gender equality, and help the children of today become what they’re destined to be tomorrow.”
“I feel that this sends a clear message: Women cook, men work,” Pope, sounding older and wiser than most 13-year-olds, says of the gender-targeted ad campaigns and packaging.
“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.”
The petition has already reached nearly 25,000 signatures.
“I loved my easy-bake oven when I was a boy and I love cooking today,” wrote Kirk Childress of Houston, Texas, after signing the petition. “[A]ll boys should have access to the kitchen. and it’s never too early to let them have that access.”
Here’s a video Pope added to the petition, showing her 4-year-old brother talking about baking (and dinosaurs). This is the unbearably cute face of 21st-century gender equality. Watch it and weep, Hasbro.
