Small-ish thing: Clarkes Law For Girls Toys

I think the trope description is a little more caustic/accusatory/complaining than it needs to be at places, especially the next-to-last paragraph which ends up on a completely unrelated subject. I'm also not 100% on the title, but I have no knowledge of when you need to rename something so I'll leave that to someone else if it's necessary.

It's got really good inbounds for some reason.

Form looking at it, it's written like an Audience Reaction rather than a trope. It could stand some trimming down of the snark.

What the heck is with the last paragraph (before the related tropes paragraph)? Not only is it completely unrelated to the subject, but it sounds like some unsupported conspiracy theory BS.

Well, it is true in some cases (like with ads for preschooler toys) that the ads are aimed more at the parents than the kids, but the whole "magical toys are telling girls to Stay in the Kitchen" thing is a total load.

I agree this has issues. It's all over the place, on the one hand it says "all advertisers claim girls toys run on magic!" and then starts subverting its own claims with exceptions and the line about how this claim is perhaps contributing to girls not being in more technical fields... Arg.

I've killed that line and the bit at the end about how parents don't want their daughters to grow up(really?). Anybody else want to take a crack at the article?

I don't really get this ones name. Okay, girls toys are magic. But, aside from having both magic and technology (for boys), I don't understand what "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." has to do with it. Maybe if the trope was girl toys are exactly the same except billed as using magic, but...

Anyway, shouldn't we have an example list for this? I'm unfamiliar with toys so I can't think of any examples myself, but I don't see any reason to deprieve this from an example list if it is a trope.

I would guess because of how was phrased, that this trope is about when toys are advertised a certain way. Instead of batteries power the electrons so that the circuit causes the heating element 2 create thermal energy, cooking the solution. The toys are sold as "princess ovens, they work like magic!".

I don't see a female only limitation in that kind of trope.

It's just more common in girls' toys. Toys for boys tend to wear their tech as a badge of honor.

So that's what the name refers to? That's... a pretty terrible name.

So this is marketing campaigns? With no examples.

I could see if this was about the toys themselves like Magical Girl toys are pure magical based while guys get Transformers or Gundam models Sentai and such which is tech based, IE

The name is bad snowclone too. I am not opposed to cutting it and let whoever made the page attempt a real YKTTW to develop this with ya know with examples and clear description.

edited 2nd Nov '11 3:53:58 AM by Raso

Raso, this is not some new inappropriately launched page that needs more work. The Wayback Machine has a copy as old as Dec 2007.

It could use some adjustments perhaps, but cutting and re-YKTTW is not really a good choice.

And, quite frankly, cut then re-YKTTW is almost never a good choice unless the plan is a complete top-to-bottom reworking. A re-YKTTW can be done while the page is still there.

edited 2nd Nov '11 4:15:17 PM by Zyffyr

There's definitely a trope here (boys' toys tend to focus on technology, while girls' toys tend to be magic based), but it needs a rename and some serious rewriting.