How would you encourage girls to play with engineering/science toys? Also, if the favorite color of a girl (or boy) is pink, why shouldn’t there be engineering/science toys in that color?
I think the point of these products is to make clear that “Girls can play with engineering/science toys!!” Yes, there are engineering/science toys out there and probably none of them say “Boys only!!” However, I would not be surprised if the pictures/ads mostly showed boys playing with them and all the colors are what small children have probably learned to associate with “boy colors”.
It seems like you really want the “pastels/pinks = girls” problem fixed and would prefer not to deal with toys that play into that assumption. I agree, but we have this other problem that a lot of girls learn that they should play with dolls while boys should play with engineering/science toys … maybe this problem is more important than gendered colors?
As for the “special girl toys”, my only hope is that girls will play with the “girly” engineering/science toys, see that they are (hopefully) the same as the “boy” engineering/science toys (minus the color), and reject the idea that girls need “special girl toys”. Also, if I am understanding what types of toys you are talking about, it seems like most of those “special girl toys” play into the stereotypes of girls outside of favorite color (they involve cooking, caring for children, etc.) rather than simply using different colors for the same toys.
