To think Waitrose shouldn't be categorising their children's cake like this?

[IWantADinosaurCake]

Just looking at cakes for upcoming birthdays on the Waitrose website, and I was disappointed to see that they had classified their children's cakes into Girls Cakes and Boys Cakes.

Girls Cakes consists of cupcakes, barbie and ladybirds, and Boys Cakes includes fire engines, pirate ships and dinosaurs.

I know you don't have to follow the categories, but I find it so sad that Waitrose have designed the categories in this way - what's wrong with just 'Children's Cakes'?

www.waitrose.com/shop/Browse/Groceries/Bread_and_Cakes/Personalised_Cakes_Made_to_Order/Kids_Birthday_Cakes

Well, genderizing can sometimes be helpful, just to save time looking. If I was buying a cake for my DS, having to trawl unnecessarily through princess and Barbie cakes first would irritate me.

But in this case there aren't that many cakes so it's less relevant.

The handbag made make-up cake in the girls section of children's cakes is worth its own eye-roll.

Yanbu I hate stuff like this.

Dd turns four next month, she wants a dinosaur cake...

Let cakes be cakes

My God - FFS. The sooner we are gender neutral from birth, wear the same clothes, speak exactly the same, and have the same tastes..........the better. At least people will then shut up about it.

Oh fgs. There's bigger things to be oh 'so sad' about. Just buy the cake, the party will still happen and everyone will survive. I'm pretty sure waitrose would have done the research first before presenting this way so many people don't find this big an issue.

Most boys like dinosaur, car, dragon cakes and most girls like pink whatever cakes.

If your boy wants a pink cake that's fine just go to the girl cake section and vice versa.

Why the melodramatics?

Cakes don't have an inherent gender. I would expect cakes to be classified according to what they are eg animal cakes, sports cakes, cartoon characters etc.

It's not the biggest issue in the world, but it is one example of how rigid gender stereotypes have become over the last few decades.

And...small issues are allowed to concern us as well as large ones - I'm sure most people can think about more than one thing at a time.

well you chose the right place to post about it....

It's sad but not unusual, dividing items between boys and girls seems to be the norm and I go in there too often to be particularly annoyed. having said that I don't think M&S do this? We got lo's birthday cake from there this year and I don't remember there being separate gender categories.

Yanbu. Why can't cakes just be cakes?

I want the dinosoar cake and I'm 32!

I don't think I'm being melodramatic, am I? I know there are bigger things to worry about than cake but I see this as part of a bigger problem - the genderizing of everything these days. As someone said up thread, why can't cakes be cakes?

Well I'd have a dilemma as my 3 year old DD likes pink, purple, fairys but is also very keen on dinosaurs, foxes and squirrels. She dressed up as ballerina with a fox cape on the other day. I think it's a pointless categorisation of cakes but I do resent the implication that one choice is superior to the other, I.e if you have a daughter and they reject all this 'girly' stuff, their choice can be attributed to your gender neutral guidance. My DD dips into both, I think she should be who she wants to be at 3, it is not about my ego.

Fwiw my 7.5 year old DS would also not choose a cake with a heart sweet on it if there was a choice. He wouldn't have cared when he was younger, again this has absolutely nothing to do with indoctrination on our part. My brother who is nearly 40 would equally not have chosen the heart cake as a 7 year old boy in the early 80's. I do agree though that I wasn't bombarded with this stuff as a girl growing up in the 80's. I hated Barbie, Cindy and liked teddies more but I also played with My little Pony, Strawberry Strawcake toys, sylvanian families. Prams, cots, a blue bike but with a basket. My brother's bike didn't have a basket. Were these toys gender neutral? Surely, they were imitations so you could be like 'mummy' and 'girls' need baskets to put their 'shopping' in! Granted they weren't pink/purple but the toys were very much still playing on gender stereotypes.

I don't think dinosaurs are superior to cupcakes (not a sentence I ever saw me writing!!) - my DD would be equally happy with pirates or barbie but it's just the implication that it has to be one or another.

The 70s certainly weren't gender neutral but there was less pink/fairies/butterflies for girls and cheeky monkey/dinosaurs for boys.

I love the Let Toys be Toys campaign and I'm glad to see they've recently started to tackle the clothing industry

I ordered the fire engine cake for DD's 4th birthday party earlier this year as she was having a fireman Sam party, at her request obviously! When I picked it up the lady opened the box and said to DD "oh, is this for your brother? Isn't he lucky!" She then saw DD's name iced on it and DD told her in no uncertain terms that she doesn't have a brother and it was her cake! The lady looked quite taken aback and said that it was actually a boys cake I gave her a short reply about not realising only boys were allowed the boys cakes and girls the girls and how silly a princess castle cake would be at a fireman Sam party!

I don't think posting on mumsnet that you're disappointed about something counts as melodramatic tbh.

If you'd chained yourself to the till in Waitrose or broken down in tears in the cake section, then yes.

It's funny how it annoys people that gendering toys/cakes/colours/clothes annoys other people. I can't imagine being annoyed about someone else's annoyance. That's a whole new level of annoyance.

If I was buying a cake for my DS, having to trawl unnecessarily through princess and Barbie cakes first would irritate me.
It'd irritate me too if I'd been buying one for my DD!

The sooner we are gender neutral from birth, wear the same clothes, speak exactly the same, and have the same tastes..........the better.
don't be daft. The point is precisely that kids all do have their own tastes and that this ridiculous genderization of products can tend to make boys think they 'should' like football or girls think they 'should' like pink handbags etc. Of course parents with any sense ignore these idiotic labels, but if your kid is shopping with you they may get the insidious message that some things are more appropriate for them than others.

I agree but I think if you wrote to them about it, and several others they would re think it.

The point is precisely that kids all do have their own tastes and that this ridiculous genderization of products can tend to make boys think they 'should' like football or girls think they 'should' like pink handbags etc.

yes I agree.

It looks like the Let Toys Be Toys campaign spotted this thread and contacted Waitrose this afternoon via Twitter.

Waitrose have confirmed the categorisation of cakes by gender should have been changed a while ago and have confirmed they will now fix their website to remove it.

Good spot IWantADinosaurCake!

Although it isn't something that would bother me massively (possibly because I have girls who are very traditionally girly) but, on principle, YANBU.

I don't think it's an issue that will bother your average Waitrose shopper though!

Awesome result TheFlash

Stupid! As stupid as the "Colouring book for boys" I saw for sale in a shop today. Pictures of various things, multi-coloured crayons, blue cover with pirates on. Couldn't find a "Colouring book for girls" for comparison.