It pretty much addresses most of the issues already discussed about whether Rebelle is a good thing or not; I personally tend to just look at it more that "awesome new blasters coming out!" rather than worrying about whether it's for girls, boys, barnyard animals or whatever:) Have a look over at Buzzfeed- do you agree or not?
(You'll notice the images are from Dutch blogger Neder-nerf but sourced from Basic Nerf )
First off, I completely disagree with her ridiculous comparison between the Power Pair and the Rampage. Basically apples and oranges. There IS a 'boy version' of the Power Pair, it's called the "Eliminator" (you could also say Jolt).
ReplyDeleteSecond, the whole 'collectible darts' stuff is equally silly. Let's see how many 'boy darts' Nerf has released. So we have Sonic Micros, Sonic Whistlers, Orange Streamlines, Taggers darts (orange, green, blue/white), Elite Streamlines, all the different camouflage darts, Whiteout darts, Gear up darts, Glow-in-the-dark Suctions and Streamlines, Original Mega Darts, Larami Darts, BBB arrows, Titan rockets, etc. etc. Hmmm...
And the final little blurb about coloring. Go into any Babies 'R' Us or whatever baby merchandise store you want. There is a pretty darn obvious "Boys are blue" and "Girls are pink" thing going on. It's not like Nerf/Hasbro went out and said, "We're going to make the Rebelle line spinach-throwup green!" or something like that. I'm not even defending Nerf/Hasbro (and I'd hate to after how much they have screwed the Super Soaker line over) but the Buzzfeed Article has just as much in the content department as it does in the spelling one.
I gotta say, I loved those misplaced modifiers like this one:
"Set to debut in stores this fall, girls can now look forward to playing with blasters of the “same performance” as the boy’s blasters."
Why are GIRLS set to debut in stores this fall? I thought women were no longer supposed to be treated like objects? Okay, I'm done here, time to go rant somewhere else. Cheers.
*And by spelling I meant the "to" instead of "do" on the Rampage line. The misplaced modifier part has more to do with grammar.
DeleteWell, some things may have changed but some will stay the same.
DeleteAll the fairy tales which we listened to as kids shows the male saving the female. And they are often treated as objects (Cinderella: the human all-purpose cleaner0 in them as well. This is due the fact that they are the MacGuffin aka the wanted object and focus of the stories.
And in that episode of the Simpsons called Mona leaves-a, at the beginning of the episode in the stuf'n'hug store, lisa tries to get the "male jobs" uniforms but the store attendant insists for it (the toy dolphin) to wear a "female job" uniform ( such as she wants the doctor uniform and attendant suggests for nurse, she wants prince uniform but attendant suggests princess, she wants CEO uniform and attendant suggests CEO's secretary). shows something doesn't it.
And also as little kids the girls are usually seen wearing the pink or the white dresses.
And in The power rangers franchise the females only go the yellow or the PINK or the WHITE. and one of the female villains that later became good was purple.
in short we were taught that females were beneath males even in today's society because we were taught this from very early on. And all those things which happen every day show this point.
I believe that it is due the above reasons. oh and many NGOs are trying to empower females to stand up to exploitation.
You can decide for yourself. email me your thoughts at email (foreverlegonerfing@hotmail.com)
While I think the naming scheme is a little out there on the gender front, the Rebelle line looks like a smart business move. One has to admit that toy "guns" are a traditionally male-dominated market. Besides, who's to say that boys won't buy Rebelle, and girls won't buy Zombiestrike? I'm a grown-ass man, and I look forward to the strange looks that I will be getting from the cute girl at the checkout counter and the parents trying to shield their children from non-traditional gender roles.
ReplyDeleteOK. Rant over.
My 13 yr old daughter, who's current favorite blaster is the roughcut, oohed and aahed for days when I showed her these. Her first question was, "are the the same power as the elites?" She knows what really matters. Should we be surprised that one of the largest toy companies in the world knows how to market to target audiences? And should we be surprised that some idiot gets offended when it works?
ReplyDeleteIm just going to say im taking my crossbow into nerf wars with pride. They will fear my pink, purple and white furry gender stereotypes be damned. This to me just sounds like the op is reading wayyyyyyy into it. Sure nerf didn't have to paint literally every one of the blasters pink ill give them that. But on the topic of the comparisons the rebel line is just launching and we didn't get the raider until way after the maverick and Recon launched, its only a matter of time until the rebel line gets a high capacity blaster, i mean the taggers didn't get the swarmfire for forever.
ReplyDeleteThe HvZ bronies will be all over these. Also, I forgot what's so wrong about trying to appeal to the female market, I thought people were supposed to complain when they didn't try to appeal to the female market? The author needs to get a life and let the market decide if Hasbro is successful with these or not.
ReplyDeletePfft. Adult fans of both genders would buy these regardless of the marketing intent.
ReplyDeleteKids on the other hand would naturally cling to gender roles, its just human nature for young boys to have an inclination for toys that are obviously masculine and young girls to go for something that's obviously feminine.
Rebelle is just much more in the line of fire right now just because its the first time that its been done for this sort of play pattern : blasters.
Boys wanted to play with tiny houses like Polly Pocket, Boom : Mighty Max. Boys want to play dress up with 12 inch dolls, Boom : 12 inch Gi Joe. Girls see their brothers playing with He-Man, Boom : She-Ra.
Its the same thing. Buzzfeed and people with similar mindsets should just get over it because gender roles are a reality and not at all negative. Its the perma-cynical people in life who look at things and find bad things to say about them that are making it negative.
Frankly, I'm over the whole boys' vs. girls thing. You can't hold to the double standard the way you used to; those days are waning, and hopefully sooner than later.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how'd she react if she saw a eight year old boy telling his mother how much he wanted the "bow and arrow one"? Will she then turn around her argument and say how boys should stick to boys toys and leave the girls stuff alone? That's usually that double standard reaction I see in these situation.
The Rebelle blasters look cool, simple as that. I plan on picking up a few. And maybe, just maybe, the fact that they are brighter, more vibrant color set is part of the appeal.
"Just make sure the bows are the right color"?
ReplyDeletePLEASE! first of all they wanted them to be stylish and second of all since when are Nerf blasters the same color as actual guns?!?! :P
This women obviously doesn't know anything about Nerf as a brand.
She is also underestimating the power of a women with a Nerf blaster.
I'll be the first to abmit that I have approached a Girl with my Modded alpha trooper only to be taken out by a good old maverick.
So who is more sexist? Nerf or this women that seems to think that Girls can't hold their own with a 6 shooter?
I say that's all the Girls need to give us "boys" a run for our money ;)
The funny thing is most girls that are into Nerf wouldn't buy the Rebelle line. They would be screwing the girls with Rebelle with a Rapidstrike. As for the diffrence between the girls (Rebelle) line and the boys (Zombiestrike) line is just looks and priming systems. Also people are just going to buy the ones that are good and spray paint them. Oh and Briguy Elite isn't the boy's line.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, I'll be doing a full deconstruction on my own blog
ReplyDeleteI'm not usually like this, but she needs to suck it up and write something useful.
ReplyDeleteI like how she mentions 'a cornucopia of pinks, purples, teals...' followed by the dart packaging that includes and image of the Heartbreaker. Katniss Everdeen, anyone?
ReplyDeleteForgive me if my following statement sounds sexist in any way, but standard Nerf blasters are obviously marketed commonly towards boys (how many girls have you seen in their advertisements?), so why is this person complaining? Hasbro didn't have to include a designated "Girls-centered" line of blasters. The market for "Girls who play with 'Boy-focused' toys" is very slim. Hasbro was merely attempting to enter a market that would expand to girls, but also increase profits. Most girls don't want a "Buzzsaw", "Stingray", "Vulcan", or any other masculine-named blaster. That's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteEssentially if you're already buying Nerf stuff, Rebelle isn't aimed at you. Rebelle is aimed at a group of girls that AREN'T already into Nerf BECAUSE it's been a boy centric market.
ReplyDeleteHere's the deconstruction I promised earlier. Toss me a critique or two, for now I hear my pillow calling.
http://coastalbendactionsports.blogspot.com/2013/07/rebelle-cant-please-everyone_5.html
Seriously... As a guy, I can't really understand her reasoning. The comparison is absolutely ridiculous, and she should probably feel bad about comparing to COMPLETELY different blasters.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think the Rebelle line looks cool. It's definitely different.
While I'm actually thinking about it, for the record, I'm 17. I have every intention of getting some of these, the Wildshot in particular. Probably a couple others, if not all as well. Why? Because why the hell not?
I have no problem with this Nerf line, and quite frankly, seeing as how a lot of males will be buying it as well, I can't see why people do have a problem with it.
However, I do think that people who cling to ideals like this one, are the ones who cause the whole "male vs female" problem to begin with.
check my quote about why we are sexist (the one with the Simpsons reference)
Delete