Thirteen-year-old McKenna Pope is not a fan of Hasbro's girl-only marketing scheme of their Easy-Bake Ovens. She also doesn't like it that her 4-year-old brother Gavyn Boscio feels like he can't have an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas "because only girls play with it." So she decided to do something about it.
During a recent shopping trip with her parents near their home in Garfield, N.J., McKenna discovered that the toy ovens didn't come in any gender neutral colors and that the products were only displayed with smiling girls, TIME reported. The eighth grader was so incensed that she told her mother Erica Boscio that the product's packaging was "detrimental to society."
After doing some intense online research about the mini-ovens, including reading up on Easy-Bake's FAQ and watching ads of the product, McKenna decided to create her own video and start her own petition to promote gender equality in the product's packaging. In her short, one-minute-long video, McKenna tapes her younger brother giving into the gender stereotypes portrayed by the packaging.
Her petition, which has garnered nearly 28,000 signatures, hopes to convince Hasbro, the creators of Easy-Bake Ovens, to include boys in promotional materials and to offer the mini-oven in primary colors, TIME reported. In a statement included in her petition, McKenna wrote, "...boys are not featured in packaging or promotional materials for Easy Bake Ovens -- this toy my brother's always dreamed about. And the oven comes in gender-specific hues: purple and pink."
"I feel that this sends a clear message: women cook, men work," the 13-year-old said.
McKenna added, "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. There are, as a matter of fact, a multitude of very talented and successful male culinary geniuses, i.e. Emeril, Gordon Ramsey, etc. Unfortunately, Hasbro has made going against the societal norm that girls are the ones in the kitchen even more difficult."
According to TIME, Hasbro has yet to respond to the petition.