
Roominate: A Building Toy for Girls - unfasten
http://www.roominatetoy.com/
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kaitai
The US is really weird when it comes to gender roles. When I was growing up
Legos were gender-neutral, and by the time I was in college it seems like
Legos were gender-coded. And there were almost no girl lego people :(

The color-coding is not my thing but might be subversive enough to help it get
through to girls who are enforcing pinkness on themselves and others.

Three things (I'd like to see): * ship extensions with Raspberry Pi or Arduino
integration! How cool would it be if your fan went on only when it's hot or
the roman shades went down when it got sunny? * make a little solar panel kit
extension for real, so on a sunny day you can have a solar-powered dollhouse.

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binaryorganic
I don't know. It feels kind of pink lego to me (the marketing successes of
which aren't lost here). When my daughter (now 2) gets just _this_ much
bigger, I'll probably find myself showing her Adafruit.

To be clear, I don't have a problem with the product itself... more that it's
clearly pushing itself exclusively toward girls. My son would _love_ this
thing.

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kalleth
Why can't we just give them meccano and Lego the same as the boy kids?

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Joeboy
Many of the parents I know report that despite their best efforts, their kids
display a powerful innate tendency towards gendered behaviour. So I guess
engineering toys "for girls" might be met with greater enthusiasm, even if
they're basically the same as boys' toys.

It seems to me that there is a slightly problematic relationship between "toys
for girls" and the "anti-pinkification" movement though.

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utopkara
My equally scientific observation is that the tendency comes from the parents.
However, it doesn't matter from the perspective of a toy maker, there is a
market to be filled, and they seem to go after it.

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miahi
That's a strange name. It reminds me of ruminant[1], but maybe it's because
I'm a not a native English speaker.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant)

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groovy2shoes
My guess is that the name is a play on "ruminate", which originally meant "to
chew the cud" as ruminant animals do. However, long ago it came to also mean
"to think deeply about", as if a person might be "chewing" some information in
an attempt to digest it. I'm assuming they mean the latter meaning.

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utopkara
Girls can do wonders with duct tape, craft sticks, paper, scissors, clay, pipe
cleaners, and blocks. I am sure boys are good at it too. These toy sets are
almost a step back from the crafts.

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tobiasu
Instead of wasting money on this sexist crap, build a real dollhouse with your
kids from scratch. The process involves the whole family and has interesting
parts for any gender.

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namuol
Roominate is to Erector Set, as GI Joe was to Barbie.

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earljwagner
An agitated younger me: "Listen. They're not dolls! They're ACTION FIGURES."

