John Lewis and it’s ‘gender relaxed’ ad

Thanks @shallIswim, I'm listening to it now.

There are not separate sections for "girls stuff". Similar items are grouped together- same as in any shop.

Whether you (general you) want to apply your own label is your (general your) problem.

I'm on episode 3 of that podcast. It's fascinating, eye opening and very disturbing. Highly recommend it.

I think the Emperor's new clothes are finally being exposed, but sadly JL are so far behind the curve that they've distributed this advert at exactly the wrong time - just when people are starting to see the real issues.

Coincidently we went to a shopping centre with a big JL yesterday. I had to kill some time in it while my husband bought my birthday present in another shop. Lots of lovely things, but I left after 15 minutes and read my book on a seat outside. I do like JL a lot, but this advert has definitely soured the experience for me. I'm determined to vote with my feet, rather than just pay lip service to my disapproval of their tone deaf marketing.

There is still a wall of pink and blue, and the labels have gone in my DS lifetime (he's 9).

Toy shops in the UK haven't had "boys" and "girls" sections for decades

Do you mean there aren't separate aisles/sections/shelves for 'girls' stuff' or just that it's not actually labelled that way?

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09yjp0d
Episode 1 and 2 of this podcast explain why big companies like JL are vying for Stonewall's approval. Stonewall give a special marque if they tick the right boxes. A bit like Investor in People etc. Eye opening podcast

I saw JLP responded to a FB query about the wanton destruction in the ad saying they do cover children acting like selfish vortexes of chaos. Which would explain why their quotes are so high. I'm GC and would try to let children dress however they want but I did side-eye the boy allowed to be a little shit while the sister is quiet and "nice". IMO it's as bad as a "helpless man" failing at parenting trope.

[quote APerson44]@MargaritaPie Yes I just checked and John Lewis are a Stonewall partner. It's so ironic that huge capitalist organisations are pushing identity politics for a socialist (perhaps even communist) agenda, which would see everyone eqully poor on a living wage and destroy the systems that allow people to purchase assets in their stores.

Sex matters are writing to many organisations, some are pulling out and others aren't. Trans persons already have rights in the UK in the form of the GRC. They may get a diagnosis of Gender dysphoria and legally change sex after 2 years living socially as the other gender! This is all gender self ID, a money maker for Stonewall and highly political.

You wouldn't allow any other condition to self identify and give them legal rights ie I'm Autistic today give me disability allowance, so why gender? It's all going too far and different 'marginalised groups' are stepping on each others toes to the expensive of our children.

Children shouldn't be involved on any of this, It's s indoctrination.[/quote]
Well, they're embracing the cheap and easy bit of that policy, correctly surmising that Stonewall won't be let loose on the world economic order any time soon

There used to be a lot of talk about courting the Pink Pound - that feels a bit old fashioned now that we'd assume any business would welcome gay customers, and now that it's more common for gay couples to have kids and attendant expenses. But I wonder if current execs and publicists are of the age where that was the next big thing, and now projecting that to the LGBT or trans pound?

[quote ArabellaScott]Research on gendered toys/retail from 'let toys be toys' (2016)

'Our mystery shoppers looked at stores across the UK to see how toys were presented. They found only two stores using ‘Boys Toys’ and ‘Girls Toys’ signs. We’ve gone from 50% of the shops we visited in 2012 having these signs to virtually none.'

www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk/research/2016-research/[/quote]
The may not say Boys/Girls but the implication is still clear. Your average Smyths has it's regular aisles and it's two pink aisles. I remember when my son was around 3 and a half he used to go to those aisles to see the girl toys. I argued that they weren't girl toys. He said 'yes they are, all the boxes have pictures of girls on them!' And he was right.

I was so stumped by his observation that I peevishly asked him why he wanted to look at them so. He said girls are cool and he liked toys of them. So to his perspective they were toys of girls as opposed to toys for girls.

Very odd advert not endearing and the behaviour at that age would be very strange. That's a projection on to a child if ever I saw one, the people that put that together know nothing about children or families

I'll admit that I've not read the whole thread. I may even have posted already because this advert has left me absolutely speechless. It's wrong on so many levels including least of all the insurance cover they are offering.

But having had the ad thrown at me so many times on so many platforms, I just want to say how fabulous and talented the young actor is. He has really embraced what the directors obviously asked of him. He's fabulous.

You should have just chucked the Lego all over and expressed yourself. Perhaps you could have thrown some at some little girls, Life is for living you know.

Went in the Lego shop today and it was very definitely boys vs girls. Even got asked by the sales assistant which one we were looking for... I was a bit

Research on gendered toys/retail from 'let toys be toys' (2016)

'Our mystery shoppers looked at stores across the UK to see how toys were presented. They found only two stores using ‘Boys Toys’ and ‘Girls Toys’ signs. We’ve gone from 50% of the shops we visited in 2012 having these signs to virtually none.'

www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk/research/2016-research/

Yes, that's what I thought Kimikos - a travesty to see all of the crafts kits in the 'girls' section of the aisle.

I am worried about PHSE which is compulsory now and teaches gender diversity as fact. It's actually ideology and not based in biological fact. I respect everyone's differences though forcing it on our children is devious and undermines us as parents.

@MargaritaPie Yes I just checked and John Lewis are a Stonewall partner. It's so ironic that huge capitalist organisations are pushing identity politics for a socialist (perhaps even communist) agenda, which would see everyone eqully poor on a living wage and destroy the systems that allow people to purchase assets in their stores.

Sex matters are writing to many organisations, some are pulling out and others aren't. Trans persons already have rights in the UK in the form of the GRC. They may get a diagnosis of Gender dysphoria and legally change sex after 2 years living socially as the other gender! This is all gender self ID, a money maker for Stonewall and highly political.

You wouldn't allow any other condition to self identify and give them legal rights ie I'm Autistic today give me disability allowance, so why gender? It's all going too far and different 'marginalised groups' are stepping on each others toes to the expensive of our children.

Children shouldn't be involved on any of this, It's s indoctrination.

Why is the boy dressed like a drag Queen? This is Stonewall's fault isn't it?

When I asked the local Waitrose manager about their toy aisle being split rigidly between girls and boys and reinforcing all sorts of unhelpful stereotypes, they were not at all receptive. So difficult not to suspect this is a bit of bandwagon jumping by the JL marketing people?

The worlds gone absolutely mad as if you'd let your child destroy the places, no wonder we are in the state we are in a lot of children of this generation think they can do as they like, there is no deterrent, not scared of their parents or police or anything. X

PrincessNutella You've hit on the point.

The advert was absolutely political and sexualised, with a little boy pouting and painting trans colours on his face whilst well behaved women watch on and do nothing as he wrecks the house (the boy knows full well that this is unacceptable behaviour in the home at his age and is analogous to wider society.)

What wasn't clear is whether John Lewis supports the trans or terf agenda in putting this out. It was either in support of it because showing these images pushes and normalises the agenda to people watching the advertisement, or a comment that we need to stop standing by and watching our rights trampled to the ground (which incites division.) Either way every institution is getting political when they should be getting on with selling their product and doing their jobs frankely.

I raised a formal complaint as many have done, because this kind of advert should be after ther watershed, or ideally not put on television at all by a family orientated company. I found it incredibly worrying and innapropriate; destruction of property is against our societal values and that's the point:- totalitarian socialism is what identity politics aims to achieve.

It's just wrong all around really and as a parent I worry that adults are no longer protecting children, they just want to mould them to their agendas.

Not my child.

That advertisement is a perfect illustration of the problem. If people were allowed to get on with their lives and let transwomen just "be their authentic selves," we'd all be good. The problem is, transwomen being their authentic selves seems to involve an incredible amount of drama followed by wrecking the entire joint.

In regards to the metro article.....what has any of that advert got to do with homosexuality? Are we saying that's typical behaviour of a gay person? Wtaf. I'm so lost.