School Supplies = Feminism

Yesterday, the Bookworm and I went "back to school" shopping to get all of the "necessary" school supplies that he needs for the new school year. After shopping for his school supplies yesterday I am on my soapbox more than ever and I am on a roll with this Blog Post, so I hope you're sitting down and drinking your coffee while reading this!

I have to admit that before we even stepped into a Store yesterday to shop I was ready. I had my sale papers in hand and had everything circled that was on sale that he needed, and I was prepared that we may have to go to multiple stores to get all the supplies that he needed.

First stop.....Target. First thing on our list were 2 pencil pouches for his binders. The Bookworm immediately spotted the pencil pouches hanging on a rack and went to them to look for 2 that he wanted for his binders. Much to my dismay, there were none for him. Why you ask......they were all "femine". They were all aimed for girls. Pretty pink and purple and teal colors, flowers and circles and dots, cute little kittens and puppies and birds! You name it and it was all for girls! We looked at eachother and said, NEXT!

Next on our list was binders and he needed 2. So we went to the aisle with the binders, and by the way we are still in Target. He begins looking and automatically says I will get a black one, so of course we immediately find a black one. Then he's looking around and the only other color he saw that he could get was white, but unfortunately they didn't have the size binder that he needed. So we look at eachother and I tell him to just put the black binder back that we would go to Office Depot to look for binders. If any place is going to have binders, it's going to be Office Depot. Once again when looking for binders if you were shopping for a girl, you would have had it made! Binders in pretty pink and purple and yellow, with kittens and puppies and birds, and of course there were those with flowers and circles and dots! Yuck! Come on companies that make this stuff, GET REAL, there are boys in this world too! NEXT!

Next on the list was pencils. We automatically found the traditional woodend pencils and colored pencils and threw those in the buggy, what took us awhile to pick out and find were the mechanical pencils! We couldn't just grab a pack of mechanical pencils because most of the pencils were once again femine! Colors of pretty girly purple and pink and teal and yellow and mauve. Gee!! Finally and I do mean finally after much searching, we found a Target brand of mechanical pencils that had red, blue, green and yellow. Solution to the yellow pencils, give them to his sister The Princess! NEXT!

Next on the list was a new book bag. It didn't take him long to scan the aisle with the book bags and the Bookworm immediately say that he didn't see anything. Why didn't he see anything..........once again they were aimed for girls! Pretty colors of pink and purple and teal, kittens and puppies and birds, circles and dots and flowers! We looked at eachother and said lets get out of here! NEXT!

The second stop on our School Supply Marathon shopping trip was Office Depot. Immediately upon entering Office Depot we went to the binder aisle and mind you we needed not 1 but 2, so on the hunt we went for 2 masculine, not femine binders. Of course there were all the pretty femine colors! What colors was the Bookworm able to come out of Office Depot with: Navy and Black! Seriously companies start thinking of boys too! NEXT!

Another item was a hand held pencil sharpener. Now how hard do you think it is to find a masculine pencil sharpener? Answer: Obviously we found out it's pretty hard! After much looking we walked out of Office Depot with a green one. Seriously ready to get home by now! NEXT!

Remember those 2 pencil pouches that he needed, yeah, we found them at Office depot, the only 2 masculine colors that they had navy and dark green! Why is it that girls have so many other options?!? NEXT!

Another item on our list was 3 packs of 5 tab dividers for his binders. Let me just say that we always get these each year at Office Depot because all other stores are ALWAYS out of them! We found them, but of course most of the colors in the pack are once again femine. By this time I was really dismayed ay all the options that girls are offered and very disappointed at how boys are thrown to the back burner. And I must add that while in Office Depot we ran into a Mom and her Son and they were having the same problems as the Bookworm and I were! NEXT!

Last stop on our great adventure in looking for school supplies was Walmart, yep Wally World and if you know me Walmart isn't exactly my favorite store! On the agenda for Walmart was disposable gloves for his Science labs, tissues, paper towels, cleaning wipes, hand sanitizer and notebook paper. (Sorry teachers, but all of the optional items on our list, you can get them yourself because after spending almost $100.00 on supplies for 1 of my children only, you can get your own dry erase board markers!) It was quick and easy to find all of the items that we needed, except for the hand sanitizer, they were all out. In fact the 2 previous stores that we had went to were out of it as well. My plan is to just get it this weekend at a Grocery Store. Oh yeah, and we had luck at Walmart with a bookbag. Not much of a variety of colors for boys like girls when it comes to bookbags. Gotta love that beautiful color of black and gray that the Bookworm picked out!! Wow he had so much variety and color to choose from he couldn't contain himself, so he got a black and gray one!

So, what's my point to this Blog? Companies need to wake-up and realize that there are not only girls in the world but boys also. Why do they make so much stuff for girls and aim their items toward them? Answer: Because they know that girls want cute and pretty and colorful things! And they know that Mom will buy it for them! So that makes money made for Companies. My take, companies need to add more masculine colors to their items. If you are a Mom of boys I know that you are right there with me! How many times have you gone school supply shopping and you've noticed how everything is femine? If you have never paid attention I encourage you to go to your local Target, Walmart, Kmart, etc. and just walk around in the School Supply section.....you will be amazed! I know that I am not alone! So wake up with me Moms of boys, it's time boys are heard and who is the best person to stand up for our boys than us Moms!

My plan, although it may not change the world, but my plan is to write or call the companies that are making these products and tell them to go masculine and cut the femine! Who knows, maybe I'll get some freebies out of it, but best of all I am taking a stand! And taking a stand for my BOY!

Moms of boys....unite with me!