"Let Toys Be Toys - For Girls, and Boys" is a campaign started by a group of Mumsnetters, to convince retailers to categorise their toys by theme or function, rather than gender.
We're inviting everyone to 'like' us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@LetToysBeToys) and join us right here for discussion and collaborative decision-making about the next steps of our campaign.
Himalaya has been hard at work compiling the information gathered by our fantastic LTBT Mystery Shoppers, and we will be agreeing right here how the surveys will be ranked, which retailers we will be targetting with our message, and how we will go about it.
If you think that girls and boys should feel free to play with whatever toys that interest them most, and that they shouldn't walk into a toy store and feel pressurised to conform into archaic gender roles and stifling stereotypes, please join in the discussion!
Thank you. My son is currently clomping around in a pair of tacky pink poundland high heels They're his dancing shoes, apparently. The bugger can walk in heels better than I can
Just noticed on the toys r us website, in the boys' toys section there are options for action figures and vehicles, hobbies and r/c, but these don't feature in the girls options.
Don't girls have hobbies then? Nor like vehicles? FFS
Can I ask if anyone sees any related news stories or has good photos, to put them on the fb page or tweet them to @LetToysBeToys. Noticed twitter and fb been quiet over wknd, I know we all have families and RL so would help if as many people got involved as poss.
Who thinks we're ready to get a blog started? I think some of the stories I've seen shared on here and other threads, the ones that really tug at the heart strings, would really build up the case for our campaign - putting them on a blog might be a way to go...?
Trisha, i cd prob do some social media stuff on the weekends. Would it be poss to log in as ltbt or are we limiting how many have access? No probs if so but wanted to check.
And blog wd be great. We could do interview with harrods toy dept since their relaunch as gender neutral? It's been 4 or 5 months now so be good to hear how it has gone for them. Just one idea
I'll pm you the twitter pw ashes, I don't know about limits on access but no-one seems to be around to say otherwise so my best guess is there's no harm in passing it on. I popped on this morning but have some work I really need to get done this eve. This is why I suggested a rota, but I've forgotten who said they'd do what when. Maybe best if we just check in here and volunteer for the night in question.
Harrods isn't gender neutral. They have taken down the signs which say boy and girl but everything is still blue and pink INCLUDING the clothing staff wear.
John Lewis window display here as boy and girl sides. Boys side has all science and musical instruments.
I don't think it is though. It's a cheap advertising gimmick rather than actually degendering. They did it to stop people complaining without having to spend the money to do it problem.
Ok. I was under the impression that they did spend a lot of money on the redesign of the Toy Kingdom though? I will have another look at what they did.
Also I just want to check here ... but isn't this is what we're asking retailers to do in the first instance? Just to take down the signs as a fairly straightforward start to get things rolling.
