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 :(

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

Bang on, KalaLaka.

Plenty of girls and boys would avoid the pink plastic aisle. The science section looks fine to me.

Also, maybe slightly off topic but it annoys me that pink is even regarded as a colour. Surely it is just shades of red in the same way various shades of blue are just blue?

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.

It is society that has chosen to identify the colour pink with stereotypically girly type things. As a colour on its own it is of course entirely neutral.

I know I said it earlier, but if you ask a small child which are the boys toys and which the girls, 99 times out of 100 they will say the pink for girls and the blue for boys. This is why it is a problem! If we got rid of the cultural implications there would be no problem and you would find boys choosing pink microscopes without any issues.

I work at Argos and I think toy sales are Def down this year . It seems to be all tablets and technology now along with a lot of board games . Compared to previous years we've sold a lot less toys during the period of time I've been in store. Maybe that's why toys r us is quiet ? Just my opinion though perhaps other people are seeing different ...

Yep YANBU

ANd I can’t believe some people don’t see the problem.

NoToast: why if they packaged microscopes in pink rather than blue would the sales plummet?

Because people wouldn't on average buy it for a boy and there wouldn't be enough people buying glittery pink boxes of microscopes to make up the difference. Its just a fact of sales.

There is no issue here, OP, stop trying to create one.

Wow Julie, really stepped on your own point there!

Yes, exactly. If microscopes were packaged in pink boxes they probably wouldn't sell as many. Why? Because boys and girls have already internalised the idea that science is for boys, not girls. Boys don't want pink packaging because it's for girls, and femininity is considered weak and a negative trait.

I don't really get it. Julie you're saying that people don't buy pink things for boys? And microscopes are for boys and they are colour coded blue to show that?

I find the whole area surrounding what should and shouldn't be gendered difficult to feel strongly about.

When it's to do with children, there are clearly toys 'aimed' at girls or boys. Clothing is 'aimed' in a similar way. I find it mildly annoying, but in practice pick and choose what my children like and want and think no more of it. When my boys were little they liked dolls and buggies and also cars and swords..

In the adult world, the majority of things are split by gender, ie clothes, department stores, public toilets, some wards in hospitals etc. Most of the time everybody is happy with this. Occasionally there is an attempt at 'gender neutral' areas/toilets etc. and in practice most people bumble along either using them or not.

YABU. Who gives a shit, really?!

There's no microscopes blue or otherwise in the pictures?

Unless you are all referring to the telescopes ( also not packaged in blue)?

Totally agree I have a boy and girl and this stuff really irritates me and it’s not just the colour it’s the photos too on the packaging. Even science stuff if it has a girl on packaging it’s inevitably marketed as a sparkly science project packaging instead of all being same. Daughter fave colour blue and likes adventure stories and she has boys in class telling her that she shouldn’t as it’s for not for girls. They also seem amazed she likes the avengers movies. It starts early and it’s at home school and life.

I'm sorry I don't see what the problem is

With respect Quarter you are confusing sex and gender here. Facilities such as toilets, hospital wards and prisons are divided based on biological sex (and long may they continue to be so).

Gender is a social construct which says 'boys are like this/girls are like that'. There is no underlying biological basis for these divisions. I am uncomfortable with gender divisions that give 'girls' the pink,sweet, pretty, passive, undervalued, unpaid stuff' in life and those that give boys the blue active, more valued, better paid stuff. I think those stereotypes limit boys and girls and we should all be equal in opportunity and value.

Who were you buying for ?
You say you don’t have children.

Boys don't want pink packaging because it's for girls

Because that is branding and if society was to re-brand pink as a boys colour then producers would pick a different colour to target girls. And in a few years Mn would be complaining that shops have all white isles for girls and all gray isles for boys.

If parents want to change society then we need to change parents perceptions of how they raise their children, not condem shops for making a living.

YANBU at all. The science one bothers me the most, why can’t there be a girl on the packaging? And why does the knitting set have to be a handbag? Why not a scarf? Or even a different kind of bag?

Oh god. Not again. YABU - kids don’t give a shiny shit about this stuff they like what they like. The only people constantly whinging about this are adults - NO ONE CARES. People make a fuss over nothing - this isn’t progressive or interesting this whole gendered toys thing it’s pathetic now. Seriously.

But why do producers feel the need to target things at boys or girls? Why can't they just be an object that has no gender attached to them?

Change parents perceptions of how they raise their children My child has a strong set of gender stereotypes about boys and girls and those aren't coming from home, it's from society around us.

Tomorrow I’m going to go and take some photos of the pink and red dresses and blue and green trousers in Sainsbury’s and post it online so that people can get mortally offended.

Tomorrow I’m going to go and take some photos of the pink and red dresses and blue and green trousers in Sainsbury’s and post it online so that people can get mortally offended

Don't drag green & red in to this. they ain't done nothin

I wish that it was compulsory to have a boy and a girl in all TV adverts for all types of toy.

Why is it always only girls in dolls adverts and boys in something mechanical? I also wish that doll packaging wasn't all pinkvin various shades, which will put off any boys wanting the toy. Other colours exist too.

I'm worried that my 20 month old DD is already being influenced by these adverts as she prefers to watch the ones with girls in them. It must be a confusing time for a toddler trying to work out what a girl is and how to grow up as one.

Go for it Commuterface, I promise to be mortally offended at all the sweet ickle, wickle, pink glitter bunnies and unicorns on the boys coats and all the big exciting dinosaurs and space rockets in blue on the girls dresses.