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'Let Toys Be Toys' Organising Thread - Part 2

458 replies

OneHandWavingFree · 02/12/2012 12:43

"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!

OP posts:
TheJoyfulChristmasJumper · 06/12/2012 15:13

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aufaniae · 06/12/2012 15:03

Grimma do you mind if I ask which Debenhams it was? (We can use it in publicity if we know)

TheJoyfulChristmasJumper · 06/12/2012 14:55

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ConsiderCasey · 06/12/2012 14:50

Thanks Grimma. Good luck Joyful at Asda! Don't look too closely though - you might get full of rage and start flinging things right there in the aisle!!

GrimmaTheNome · 06/12/2012 14:45

OK, here's a pair from Debenhams.
This appears if you go in via Boys Toys and look for Science toys. It does not appear if you go in via Girls Toys ... a girl could have this (how that qualifies as a 'science toy' I'm not sure) , its not under boys.

The reason I picked the first example is because that seems like the sort of science toy which if I had to assign to a gender I'd have said was more a girl than a boy thing - but as its actually real science Debenhams have put it in the boys only.

TheJoyfulChristmasJumper · 06/12/2012 14:44

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Thisisaeuphemism · 06/12/2012 14:36

Oh wow, good luck!

ConsiderCasey · 06/12/2012 14:31

Shopping online good - cos the survey covered that too Smile bung it all in!

GrimmaTheNome · 06/12/2012 14:21

Your 'pitch' sounds like an excellent alternative to what they proposed.

I do most of my shopping online - do you just want instore examples for this? If net too then Parsing's 'literacy words' are up there but I could suggest a couple of others.

ConsiderCasey · 06/12/2012 14:17

EEEEkkkk! Help us! Remember the Independent? They have gotten in touch again wanting to run a piece on our campaign (this sunday!!!). They want to do "Top Ten Worst Stores" kind of thing, but we feel unready to offer that, because 1) we don't have a wide enough sample yet and 2) worried about libel, so....

We're going to pitch (oooh get me!!) a "Can you guess? Boy toy or Girl toy" type theme - with pictures of the most bizarre/blatant stereotyping that we've encountered in our mystery shopping.

So, if you have any pictures can you upload them to the FB page if not already done so, with the retailer AND the location. The location is important because we don't want to imply ALL such stores in the UK/Ireland are like this, but just specific examples, IYSWIM.

Ta, greatl Xmas Grin

CheeseStrawWars · 06/12/2012 14:11

Vicki Butler-Henderson? She's a racing-driver, TV presenter and mum of baby girl.

LadyKinbote · 06/12/2012 14:02

Q. They're only children! Why does everything have to be so PC?
A. We agree they're only children and want them to have fun and play with whatever toys they want. It's the shops who are bringing gender-politics into something as innocuous as toys.

Thisisaeuphemism · 06/12/2012 13:51

Male fashion designers? Henry Holland??

For a future tweet/facebook question, we could ask for photos of you as a kid with a toy defying gender stereotypes. (I have a fetching photo of me on my Blue Chopper.) Everyone loves a bit of toy reminiscence.

Thisisaeuphemism · 06/12/2012 13:47

It is her. Isn't she fab! - and has gone virtually unrecognised in this country.
www.chrissiewellington.org/

AndIfATenTonTruck · 06/12/2012 13:45

Lucy Worsley (re that tweet about Horrible Histories books in boys category)

AndIfATenTonTruck · 06/12/2012 13:44

is chrissy Wellington the 8x Ironman world champion? If not, then I suggest the Ironman world champion. Xmas Grin who wason Chris Evans show early this week and wants to do sth about women in sport.

GrimmaTheNome · 06/12/2012 13:43

I read somewhere that Dara O'Briains Science Club had good female input so maybe he'd be another to contact?

GrimmaTheNome · 06/12/2012 13:41

Parsing -the reviews and comments on those 'literacy aids' are brilliant though!

TheJoyfulChristmasJumper · 06/12/2012 13:32

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ConsiderCasey · 06/12/2012 13:28

This is great, thanks! I'm typing furiously and swearing at the screen at the imaginary naysayer! I think this campaign is getting to me..... Xmas Confused

Keep'm coming!

TheJoyfulChristmasJumper · 06/12/2012 13:26

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Thisisaeuphemism · 06/12/2012 13:24

That petite filous ad is crap

Can we addchrissy Wellington to the celeb to contact list? She's fab.
Is there a list?!!
Also all the male hairdressers on tv.

I can help draft media releases. For local radio/papers, Ideally, in addition to the survey,there would be a specific human interest story - ie. cute kid annoyed at being excluded kind of thing and pic.

ParsingFancy · 06/12/2012 13:15

Q: "What's wrong with pink?"

A: "Nothing! If you like pink, you go ahead and wear pink! We're objecting to shops pushing children towards certain choices of toy, and sometimes they use pink/blue colour-coding to do that."

ParsingFancy · 06/12/2012 13:10

Q: "You're trying to make children play with toys they don't like."

A: "No, we're trying to stop shops discouraging children from playing with toys they do like."

TheJoyfulChristmasJumper · 06/12/2012 13:09

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