Toys R Us (photos attached)

[toastcollective]

Hope I'm posting in the right place, I don't actually have any children myself but I've been shopping for my new niece today. Had a wander round Toys R Us and couldn't quite believe what I saw (I've attached pics)

Would be really interested to hear your thoughts. I'm sure its been ages since shops stopped splitting things by gender? I remember seeing on the news ages ago that Boots, Toys R Us etc were stopping all of this 'boys toys' and 'girls toys' nonsense. I appreciate the signs are neutral now like toy brands or categories 'science' 'arts and crafts' but it is so ridiculously obvious that the toys are gendered it makes me think why on earth they even bothered getting rid of the signs!

If a child spent just 5 mins in this shop even without being bought a toy they would leave will a million stereotypical ideas about gender :(

If you believe that only one gender likes pink or blue.

A child will only have get ideas about gender from that if there is someone there saying "oooh look it's all pink down here it's for GIIIIIRLS" etc. Otherwise it's just similar style boxes for similar items.

they can't help the packaging colour! its how its bought in!

nah....can't get worked up about this one

But it's not toysRus fault if the manufactures chose to package their stuff in pink and blue.

I'm very much of the opinion to, quote some one else in a discussion I had resently, you don't operate toys with your genitalia, however this isn't a gender neutral world.

And hang on, I presume your upset because the arts and crafts are pink and the science is blue. Well since when have abstract ideas such as colours had a gender. Girls can like blue and boys can like pink.

You yourself are being outraged at toysRus for gendering their toys, based on colour perceptions.

No they’re labelled ‘science’ and ‘arts and crafts’ not boys and girls.

It's not really newsworthy to say "shops continue same shit, different year" is it?

Only the new! different! wild! stuff gets a headline. Society is just as biased as it was before, headlines aren't changing it!

Yawn I sooooo can't get worked up about this stuff!! My daughters dress had "girls dress" written on the label funnily enough I was actually thinking how offended some people would be at a girls item being labelled as a girls item. It's going to far now!

It doesn't say "girls toys" "boys toys" though?

I'm more impressed with how empty Toys R Us are three weeks before Christmas!!!!!

YABU. Back when I was a kid in the early 90s I distinctly remember the thrill of the Barbie aisle in Toys R Us which was filled with rows and rows of pink boxes. But I also had an interest in other stuff too (dinosaurs etc).

What do you expect them to do? Purposely colour coordinate the boxes at the expense of messing up the sections (eg building blocks, stuffed animals etc)

It's a shop. They need to make money. It would be a massive ballache for them to sort the products in a different way.
This makes things easier to find for shoppers and maximises sales to have like with like.

Your outrage is a bit OTT.

It's always the parents who tell their boy to stay out of the 'girl' aisle and vice versa.

actually, that first photo is mainly GREEN packaging......

I didn't realize how pink and blue packaging had got. Definitely something to bring up with manufacturers and not just retailers.

I'm more disturbed that is nearly Christmas and a toy shop looks empty. No wonder 30% of their stores are closing down :(

YANBU at all. Children in the U.K. are brought up (wrongly) to believe pink is for girls, reinforced by clothing and bedrooms. So, if I wanted to buy a craft set for a boy, it would be packaged as a 'girl's' present. What a shame. The clear colour divisions are so clear in your pictures, it's shocking.

I can get worked up about this: it's a symptom of a much bigger problem.

I think that you are just looking for something to get worked up about here. Gender stereotypes are for stupid people. If you raise your children properly then they won't be affected by pink packaging.

Yeah I thought that's what this thread was about Roses. I think Toys R Us will soon be no more.
I agree, it looks empty!

The science bit doesn't look like gender-specific packaging to me to be honest.

You are projecting your ideas about gender on inanimate objects.

I find toys r us expensive compared to other stores (smyths, argos) probably why it's empty tbh.

This argument pisses me off. Its always only aimed at the colour pink. Blue and green and yellow and orange and red etc can all be considered "gender neutral" but as soon as its a pink item people kick off. Maybe because anything considered feminine is also considered bad and wrong.

Yep sorry what Naught said - i think you are letting your own prejudice on colour effect your view.

I look at those pictures and see a mix of blue and green on the 'science' section - and the blue is just heaps and heaps of the metal detector taking up a lot of shelf space. The green is the eduscience branding colours.

In the craft section i see a mix of pinks, blues, yellows, greens and purples.

Yes I agree the dolls section is quite pink - but then that's all the brands i think you would find the same in any other stockist of Baby annabel, baby bjorn etc. I will concede however that while we are seeing much broader packaging colour choices (because there are those who are influenced by them) in most toy areas dolls are still decidedly PINK PINK PINK

I also think your photographs which are of small sections of what I am sure are longer (and probably more colourful -except dolls )shelf displays are quite misleading.

It would be pretty boring world if all toy packaging was beige so as not to offend anyone's sensibilities .

Girls are different than boys , and they like different games, toys crafts etc
As a parent to boys and girls , I know this
They are different from birth

Babies don’t care what colour their toys are packaged in

At least once a month

cool