“I Hate Math” from Basic Grey

I realize, I’ve been off the grid for a few weeks and am drafting a post to update my readers as to why, but I came across this product this morning and had to share:

Love them all except that one in the middle on the right: “I Hate Math.” Seriously? I realize that some people truly do hate math. Great. But guess what, scrapbookers are actually doing math when we scrapbook! One of our basic tools is a ruler, which we use to measure. It’s not just for straight lines!

Mattel figured out that selling products to girls that utter phrases like “math class is tough” was a bad idea back in 1992. This product from Basic Grey further encourages girls and women to internalize the belief that math is hard or that they should hate math when the reality is that both boys and girls can do very well in math. It is messages like these that tell us (girls and women) that math should be something we hate that is the problem. (Read more about gender and math here.)

Basic Grey, you are were one of my early, long-term favorite manufacturers, but I am done with you. I wasn’t pleased with your use of cultural appropriation from the Winter 2012 CHA show and this just seals the deal.