Recently we received an email that stated:
“Just FYI, I was planning a girl’s birthday party with a space theme, and while I was shopping on your website I noticed you have “Space Odyssey” listed under boys parties– can’t they be both? Just pointing it out because it’s hard enough to encourage girls to feel like math and science are for them too, without these subtle messages about what girls and boys are supposed to like.”
Signed,
Barbara
Barbara didn’t know it, but she had hit on an internal debate we’ve had off and on about our site for some time. The debate being which of our party themes should be classified as boy parties and which should be girl parties?
Disney Princess Party
Hot Wheels Party
Literally, every time new themes are added we struggle with this. For instance, where do we put “Smurfs”? Both boys and girls like the Smurfs. For that matter, why do we even have to label the more “obvious” themes as boys or girls? I’m sure there are boys that like “Tangled” and there are girls that like “Hot Wheels” or “Star Wars”. Does anyone remember Boo, the boy who wanted to dress up like Daphne from Scooby Doo? Heck, my own daughters used to love Diego more than Dora.
So, why do we even do it?
The simple answer is we felt we needed a way to break up the large number of themes we carry, so that they’re easily viewable on one page. And, in looking for ways to break them up, we followed the established industry norm of using “boy” and “girl”. In no way are we trying to make any kind of statement when we classify our birthday themes as “boy” or “girl”.
Both boys and girls, are big fans of tie dye !
Without the breakup, the pages will load slower, and products are a bit harder to find. And, while there is some overlap of themes that appear on both pages, too much overlap will have a negative effect on our site architecture. Despite this, I think that eventually we will have some kind of “all” feature for customers to choose.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback Barbara, and I hope you understand (even if you don’t agree) where we’re coming from. In the meantime, I can at least make sure that “Space Odyssey” becomes an option on the girls party page.
We have gone back and forth on this issue a number of times. One suggestion that has been tossed around quite a bit, is categorizing themes by age. But in a way, that is just arbitrary. Do you do ages 2-5, 7-9, 10-13, etc.? What if you put Beyblades into the 7-9 year old category; then the mother of the six year old boy who has his heart set on a Beyblade party might not be able to find it. No easy answers, I’m afraid.
That’s right, Tracy I had forgotten about the age debate. If I remember that would have divided it up into even more pages, and perhaps hurt the overall customer experience (i.e. made some themes even more difficult to find). Plus, popular themes like say Batman or Twilight would appear across these age lines which could cause other issues.
Wow! In an age of automatic replies I have to say that getting such a thoughtful response from a company owner is impressive. I can certainly understand the dilemma you face in simplifying the search process on your site, and I’m very pleased that you would consider my concerns.
As I browsed around the web, I noticed that space themes were specifically labeled “boys” a lot, actually. It got me thinking about the message that might send to both girls and boys. Age might present some challenges for categorizing themes, but I think when we label something like space or science as boy vs. girl, one or the other, it has the potential to limit what they think they can achieve. It’s complicated, but I just try to be mindful of those little signals, and I’m glad that as a parent you could understand!
Thanks so much for the personal attention, and for making the change– a little encouragement for girls to love science goes a long way (just ask my Mom).
Sorry for the delay in replying, (our overly vigilant comment filter put your comment in the wrong category!) Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I am the mother of two daughters who love space, dinosaurs, and frogs, just as much as they love littlest pet shop or my little pony, so your concerns really resonate with me. Your comment has sparked discussion around here at Discount Party Supplies that hasn’t died down yet, and I don’t think it will, anytime soon. We will continue to try and make our products accessible to all of our customers, in the best way possible. We really appreciate your feedback, and if there are any other concerns or questions you have, don’t hesitate to let us know!