I think Mothercare's toy display reinforces outdated gender stereotypes

[plumrose]

I went in to mothercare recently to buy a present for my friend's first grandchild. I noticed the toys were displayed as 'girls' and 'boys' toys with large signage on the wall above. I could not believe this could be acceptable. I have sent a facebook message to mothercare and the response I got makes it clear they will not pay attention to my one message. Please get out there and either contact this retailer or boycott them until they stop this retrograde and frankly offensive way of displaying their toys.

[Mylovelyboy]

the mums that I know that are stay at home mums that dh or dp are at work all day do the washing/ironing etc whats wrong with that. Also I know some mums that work full time and have lazy sod dp and dh that do those things as well 'more fool them' in that case. Buts lets me honest ladies, most of us (i have to im single) do the woman stuff at home. Is is such a big deal really.

[Mylovelyboy]

Plumrose I think you should have appointed a lawyer for this very offence that Mothercare committed. 'they would not pay attention to one message'. Says it all really.

[Mylovelyboy]

Thanks Kim I think I will shut up now

[Mylovelyboy]

Ladies thank you for the debate. Its good to get all opinions whether agreeable or not.

[ErrolTheDragon]

'Men and women can be engineers, directors of companies, scientists, doctors (men can be nurses). '

yes indeed (I'm a scientist). But - with I think the exception of doctors - there is a huge gender imbalance in the numbers of male nurses and women in the other careers.

'It never did me any harm' is not a good argument - the 'I'm all right, Jill' dismissal of whether it did/does other children harm.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Buts lets me honest ladies, most of us do the woman stuff at home. Is is such a big deal really.

Yes, it is a big deal that the dull menial tasks are still mostly seen as 'woman stuff'.

[Mylovelyboy]

Errol - I think on this subject we are going to have to agree to disagree. I have tried to explain how I personally feel on the subject. (been a bit bashed) oh well I can take it .

[ErrolTheDragon]

Yes, I'm sure you can!

[cathyandclaire]

My DDs are teens now and way past pink they did play with a toy kitchen as toddlers but sadly it hasn't made them any more helpful in the home but I went into our local Mothercare recently, it's one of the new style flagship-type ones and the toys were arranged by age and type not gender...maybe it's only the old, waiting to be redone stores that still have the boy/girl thing?

[LetToysbeToys]

Hi, burning ears

@plumrose If you're in again, or if anyone sees signs like this, please get a photo and tweet it to us @lettoysbetoys or share it on our Facebook page. We have managed to persuade a lot of retailers to take down the boys/girls signs this year, so were actually quite surprised to hear this is happening in Mothercare.

Also fill in our [[http://www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk/mystery-shoppers-needed/
toy survey]], we really want to find out which stores are still doing this.

Some excellent points being made on here with regard to why this matters. For anyone who thinks children aren't affected by gender stereotypes in toys, try looking at one of our blog posts. “That’s for girls and that’s for boys” shows how some children feel about toys and gender, (and includes a few quotes from MN members from last years thread where we started up).

[Crowler]

Hi LetToysbeToys, just got an email from Aspace with the same kind of gender breakdowns. FYI.

[LetToysbeToys]

Thanks, could you forward it to us? [email protected]

[Crowler]

Doing it now.

[Crowler]

Aspace is probably the worst I've ever seen, to be honest, it says:

For town girl, country girl, every girl -
with our range of doll houses, every girl can own their own home.




....

And don't forget something for the boys too! Start shopping now.

[fromparistoberlin]

I spend a very wporring amount of time being "angry" around doing housework, Its a mess. I would actually be less angry if I were a sahm as I would not resent it so much

[AChristmassyJerseySpud]

Thank you to the poster who commented about my girls, i think they are pretty damn awesome too.

At the moment DD1 does Beavers, im an Assistant Beaver Leader (so definitely for girls!). DD2 is at home watching Disney cars and running around pretending to be a car.

Don't get me wrong, i don't have two 'tomboys'. DD1 loves skirts, dresses and being girlie, but shes not afraid of 'boys toys' or 'boys games'

DD2 loves peppa pig as well as Fireman Sam. DH just aren't overly particular about buying girlie around them.

Its the parents who are telling their kids they can't play with certain toys not the kids.


Like the men who say 'Oh no my DS can't play with that. It might make him gay'

Thats about the point i feel stabby

[jellybeans]

It really annoys me too. Many a time my DS (age 4) has seen a toy but then seen only girls playing on the adverts and then says, 'no it's for girls'. Ridiculous. All toys should be for both boy and girls except princess dress up maybe etc. Thankfully the ELC catalogue this year was excellent with boys/girls pretty much playing with everything. Much much better.

[jellybeans]

The toys r us leaflet/catalogue was grim. It said something like 'toys for princesses' ugh!!! I have DSs and DDs and my DDs were never encouraged to be princessy, shudder at the thought!

[DullDebbie]

I think I would be very concerned if my DS started playing with girls dolls, tbh.

[noblegiraffe]

Yes, Debbie. He might catch the gay or something.

Or grow up to be a less useless father than some you read about on here.

[ErrolTheDragon]

I think I would be very concerned if my DS started playing with girls dolls, tbh.

Why? How old is he?
Would you be concerned if you had a DD and she started playing with 'boys' toys?

[DullDebbie]

Yes, Noble. He might also have to endure years of bullying from his play pals because of it.

[noblegiraffe]

My DS apparently liked playing with the baby dolls at pre-school, which was encouraged because he had a sister on the way.

No bullying resulted.