House for sale

You know, I’m a sucker for good marketing. I’m not at all a marketing person, not even bye a long shot, but communication is crucial in any endeavor, and when done right it’s just plain fun. Good marketing is like good broth – the good stuff, condensed.

Wanna buy a house yet?

(No – no ulterior motive. No other reason than “this is great marketing” for posting this or watching it again. Thanks for asking)

(via Joe.My.God)

Harry Potter – Gendered?

Today, a girl in my daughters class asked my daughter “Why are you reading Harry Potter – that’s a boy’s book”.  My daughter doesn’t care – she reads Harry Potter because she likes the story.  But I’m confused – is Harry Potter really considered a boy’s book?  If so, why?

The only thing I can really think of is that the gendering madness has reached a point where everything children do must be gendered, and hence a gender choice must be made for HP. It’s absurd, of course – why would HP be considered gendered?  Sure, like so many children’s books it tends to cast boys as active and girls as passive, but it’s far from uniform (HP has a refreshing number of examples of girls in the active role), and anyway that’s such a cliché that it’s hardly specific to boy’s books.

Either way – it’s annoying  that 10 year old children worry about this rather than just reading the books they like.