to be fucked off that stroes still feel the need to define toys by gender?

[GretaGip]

I've been wandering around all day looking for inspiration.

And it seems that within toy sales it's imperatiove to be prosciptive.

Surely one of the major retailers could realise that cupcakes and butterflies for grils and transport and dinosaurs for boys is just ouutdated and break free from the molud and then just sit back and wait for hoards of satisfued MNers to boost their sales.

AIBsimplistic?

Sigh.

[OpheliaPayneAgain]

Last time I looked, children, no people are indeed gender specific. Some vary of course but marketting goes for the mainstream, so until a toy manufacturer decides to go for a niche market, it just isn't gonna happen is it?

[BadgersBottom]

Anyway - seriously - come on - just walk round till you find something you want. You are free to do that you know. If it works for the retailers to bunch stuff together then that's what they're going to do - but that should not in any way define what you end up buying. Get over it - they're not doing it specifically to offend you!

[Fakebook]

Whatever. A majority of girls like pinky butterflies and a majority of boys like cars and dinosaurs.

Stop over thinking it.

[Fakebook]

Oh and do as your name and get one.

[MyCannyBairn]

I bleddy hate it. Even the flipping Book People do it.

[GretaGip]

Blimey.

That's me told, then.

Actually I have 3 girls and 100% of them don;t like butterflies or pink.

How do you like those stats?

[GretaGip]

Do as my name?



Get a Spoonerism?

Oh, Okaaay then.

[SJisontheway]

I'm with you getagrip. It's so depressing.

[Catmint]

It makes me fume, Greta. YANBU

[BitterAndTwistedChoreDodger]

I'm pretty sure the reason that A majority of girls like pinky butterflies and a majority of boys like cars and dinosaurs. is because they have been told that is what they should like.

My DD loved Spiderman and Lego until she went to nursery.

Now it's all pink glittery crap.

[DamnBamboo]

Why don't you just walk up and down both aisles and decide.

Presuambly they are grouped in a certain way because if you like cupcake kits, you may well want something else similar.

I dont' know.

Just buy what you want, what's stopping you.

[WhenShallWeThreeKingsMeetAgain]

Well.......I propose that we treat and dress all babies the same, no-one knows their gender, for 18 years. Then we go...........taadaa.......you are a male (or female).

Get a grip OP. You have obviously not read any of the research carried out with young babies/toddlers. The babies themselves have strong identities as to whether they are male/female. Twas ever thus and ever will be.

And manufacturers will ever thus cash in on it.

[Catmint]

Pinkstinks is a campaign that targets the products, media and marketing that prescribe heavily stereotyped and limiting roles to young girls. We believe that all children ? girls and boys - are affected by the ?pinkification? of girlhood. Our aim is to challenge and reverse this growing trend. We also promote media literacy, self-esteem, positive body image and female role models for kids.

www.pinkstinks.co.uk/

[Catmint]

pinkstinks tagline: there's more than one way to be a girl.

check it out OP

[GretaGip]

Your post doed not make sense, ThreeKings.

[WorraLiberty]

Just buy what you want

Simples

[GretaGip]

Thanks Catmint, I visit PinkStinks regularly.

Tis a great site.

[nancy75]

Shops display their merchandise in a way that works for them. Most big chains will analyze every inch of the shop floor space and how it is performing. If putting all the pink stuff together didn't work profit wise they simply would not do it, the fact that so many stores do present the toys in this way shows that this is how most parents shop for toys. Retailers don't care if you are buying a barbie for a boy or a girl, they just want you to buy it.

[Alisvolatpropiis]

Because it saves time to have certain types of toys grouped together maybe?

Same with magazines. If I want to pick up National Geographic I like to be to see it immediately,if I want to read Glamour the same goes. I do not want to spend ages searching for said magazines because they are all mixed together.

People have genders. What is wrong with things being arranged in a gender specific way? There are no laws saying little girls can't have an action man because it's in the boys section and so on.

[GretaGip]

I can buy what I want.

I can buy what my children want.

But why should they feel that they can't have the tub of dinosaurs becuse some marketin tit has decided to put it in the "Boys' Scetion"?

WHY the fuck do they need to be defined by gender?

[Illgetmycoat]

I agree with you OP. My daughter hates pink and sparkly and so do everyone of her classmates.

The large stores that just stock the pink stuff look so old fashioned. It's like the 50's never died.

Thank god for lego, glue and Harry Potter.

[GretaGip]

Why not have a Dolls and Fashoin Section? (Saw this in Smyths today - was pleasantly suprised.)

A Construction Toy section?

An Imaginative Play section?

Why the heck does play need to be defnied by gender?

[GhostShip]

I'm doing nature verses nurture relating to gender at the moment and find this interesting. :)

It's because it's the best way to sell. And it's been that way for so long, it's stuck. I think it is slightly crossing over.

[FromEsme]

Get a grip OP. You have obviously not read any of the research carried out with young babies/toddlers. The babies themselves have strong identities as to whether they are male/female. Twas ever thus and ever will be.

What utter shite. Point me to that study and I'll point you to a million that point to nurture not nature.

People treat boys and girls differently. Give a person a baby boy in a pink babygro and they'll say "oh she's so pretty and wee" where they'd say "oh he's so big and strong" if he was in a blue one.

What the hell is a "strong female identity" anyway? I sure as hell don't feel "female", I just feel like me.

Since when is MN such a den of people who are so dismissive of any feminist belief? Shite.