Board Thread:Wiki news and announcements/@comment-71.196.91.106-20130511202955/@comment-23891957-20131011234059

Vielle wrote: That is not true. Most time stuff products are released they don't even mention it is for male, but when they make a change to a different audience then they announce it because it gets bigger recognition and the audience changes. Nerf has been oriented to males this whole time since the 90s it has always been like that until now I don't know what the problem is it is just targetting an audience not focusing entirely and limiting who can buy it.   The bolded-out part is exactly what's wrong with Rebelle- by focusing entirely on girls and not even attempting to make it gender-neutral, Hasbro has effectively attached the stigma that boys who own these blasters don't know what they're doing and/or are immasculine. Now take that and invert it- say that the product focused entirely on BOYS and dosn't attempt to be gender-neutral. The difference here is that when it's oriented for boys the stigma turns from "They don't know what they're doing" to "They're excluding girls which means that they devalue them which is sexist!"

That's basically where I'm coming from.