[rayiner]

We have a house full of Disney princess stuff for our one year old. It will probably still be true when she's 5 and can actually influence our purchasing choices. But what will the "market dynamics" tell you about her preferences, other than they are stable once we established them?

Anyone who still believes in a simplistic rational actor desperately needs to read the work that's been done on behavioral economics. Dan Ariely's work is an approachable way to start. He hasn't tackled socialization yet, but it still gives you an idea of how human actors don't resemble the platonic ideal at all.

[k_os]

I believe feminism is most prevalent today than it ever was in history, are there any statistics showing that girl toy sales have declined?

From a quick search i find this : http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mattel-net-falls-24-as-barb...

Barbie sales declining but American Girl is up 14%.

You'd think that half a century of counter-culture would almost drive to the ground gender specific toy manufacturers.

[rayiner]

First, "feminism" is too broad of a concept to apply in this context. The subset of "feminism" you're probably talking about, a counter-culture push back against gendered socialization, never got much traction to begin with and is certainly not more prevalent today than it was say in the 1960's and 1970's. The mainstream of modern feminism embraces gendered socialization, and indeed there is a major contingent of modern "feminists" that are quite reactionary (extolling the virtues of stay at home motherhood). Moreover, birthing and medical trends have also gone backwards. For example, formula feeding, which unshackles mothers and allows fathers to assume the primary role in feeding infants, has been on the decline since the 1970's. In 1972, only 22% of women breastfed in the U.S., by 1995 it was back over 60%. We're still limping towards gender equality, but "feminism" as it used to exist is quite dead.

Second, it's ridiculous to think that "half a century of counter-culture" would do anything to impact a sociological phenomenon that has roots in human society dating back hundreds if not thousands of years. Girls are given dolls to play with because the historical role of women has been primary caregivers to children. That was true a thousand years ago, and it's less true but still very true today. In the 2000's, almost 25% of families with children under 15 had stay at home moms, and out of the families where both spouses worked, the mother was the primary caregiver in 70%+ of cases. This sociological fact is reflected in the market. Household products are still marketed to women, and unsurprisingly, so are dolls marketed to girls.

[mdisraeli]

Surely you're just ignoring the other possibility - that increasingly gendered marketing is helping to drive feminism (which, from the people I know, does look to be the case!)