I just wanted to add on to this thread. I teach Alice in three Intro to Programming classes that are about 60% boys at the high school level. I haven't had any complaints from boys that Alice is "too girly". When I set up programming challenges to have students learn particular techniques, however, I try to keep the choice of characters up to the students.

One of my assignments was called THE SUPER-STRONG HANDSHAKE. I merely wanted students to learn the "setVehicleTo" method. So I said something like this:

Create a scene where two characters shake hands. The one character, however, is so strong that she (or he) actually lifts up and "shakes" the other character. [Note: some characters have no elbow joint--like the Coach.]

Students approached that assignment in many different ways. Lots of girls had a girl lifting up a big guy, and many boys designed it so a little old lady lifted up a bigger character.

Boys also find the kitchen knife and tank pretty quickly....