To feel uncomfortable about gender representation in kids toys?

[stereeotype]

I was looking for a birthday gift and have to say the shopping made me feel...slightly uncomfortable on how badly the toy options played into gender stereotypes. I haven't looked for a kids present for years as I don't have children, but I think I'd be frustrated if I did!

I would go as far as to say I found it disturbing. There was relatively little of use in the 'pink' section and nothing but practical/technical learning material amongst the boys.

Now I appreciate you don't have to buy girls toys for girls and boys for boys - but a girl is likely going to assume she subconsciously wants the girls toys as there are pictures of girls all over the boxes so likely to veer towards those.

Also, why can't the girl section appear girly but the actual toy still be of use, not just a dolls head for hairdressing or a kitchen for cooking?

Can't believe it's 2021 and we are still dealing with this.

Boys will play with lego, but I bet they won’t touch lego friends.

Not true at all IME. DS loves lego friends and he's quite typically boyish in his tastes. It's just another sub range to him, but with lots of cool pieces he wouldn't get elsewhere.

Thinking about it, is pushing girls into “boys activities” the best route? Or should we make “girls” activities more acceptable to boys?

I wish I could pinpoint where and when the divide starts. My boys were always perfectly happy to play house with their female cousins and neighbours. But at school - nope. And stay clear of products marketed towards girls when shopping.

About Lego - i'm glad they got a wider product range and became more adult inclusive but wish they didn't involve in branded themes like Star Wars. Or its just me prefering the City sets

Lego Friends is becoming hugely popular with the adult male Lego fans - often due to the bright colours and fun pieces. It's not all pink and purple. The large camper van is mostly blue/green - essentially Scooby Doo colours. I have combined my Lego Mystery Machine with the Friends Camper several times. Freddie and Shaggy like hanging out with the Friends gals.
At one of the Lego shows I displayed at some of the most excited squeals I got from boys aged around 6 was due to my Lego Disney Princess builds. I got a lot of "Look look she has Belle" from boys.

Having similar products together. That's why you find the jars of pasta sause in the same aisle as the bags of pasta in the supermarket.
It's about consumer convenience.

Well it makes sense to put cleaning supplies all together and car parts all together. But the rest of the supermarket is normally not organised by which gender is stereotypically more likely to use the item - you don't have car parts and power tools mixed with whiskey and steak.
I personally would find it much easier to have toys grouped by type like crafts, STEM, pretend play, figurines etc - not trying to guess that dinosaurs are next to cars but farm animals next to dolls..

Katharina the toy shops I go in (Smyths, Entertainer, Toymaster)are usually organised the way you describe. Stem is with Stem, crafts with crafts, animals (whether dinos, farm or jungle) are all together. Curious to where you shop tbh.

The supermarkets I most often visit are set up as I describe - toy hoovers with dolls, and dinosaurs between cars and superheros..

Supermarkets tend to have limited display space for toys compared to actual toy shops.
Anyway I have literally just been to The Entertainer. There was actually not that much in pink or blue packaging. Toys for the babies, toddlers and pre schools (which is when the role play toys are more popular) were mostly in white, yellow, red and green. Crafts were in all sorts of colours but a lot of yellow and orange. A lot of the cars were in black boxes.
Oh and the dinosaurs were next to a tub of farm animals and ponies.

@Newrunner29

What i find annoying is when they make 'girl versions' of boy toys so like pink garage or pink construction set, just unessassery and what does that message send out!

I once saw a set of BABY jangling plastic keys in primary colours (cool ) and next to it the same toy but in shades of soft pink!!! so little girls can learn their colours: here is lilac, here is salmon, rose, bubblegum and blush!

@Legoisthebest Smyths is separated boys/girls toys but your username is right

grey Smyths don't actually use physical display signs though do they?
Thank you though about the name

@Legoisthebest

But how does collecting Action Figures, Hot Wheels, Pokémon cards and building an imaginary world out of Lego Ninjago make boys want to do physics or computer science degrees? Most boys I know are pretty much all about Marvel/DC/Star Wars, football, skateboarding, manga and Minecraft. I can't see those type of toys and interests leading to 'stem' jobs/degrees more than Sylvanian Families, Barbie, craft sets and building an imaginary world out of Lego Disney Princess* would. * typical 'boys' toys ** typical 'girls' toys

Tends to be about spacial perception when kids play with balls and cars their spacial awareness improves, whilst girls tend to sit and play with dolls.

That's why there are more women disliking, for example, building IKEA furniture understanding a 2D diagram of a 3D build (says the crazy engineering lady who had joke plans to open a business building IKEA furniture with a professor)

Did the toy plastic keys in pink have "for girls" on the packaging though? I remember buying my daughter a toy plastic phone from ELC about 12 years ago. There was the choice between pink and green. I chose pink because I prefer pink (she didn't care - she was 1) not because she is a girl. Had there only been green I may have still bought it. I don't know. I probably would have. She also had a different toy phone which was blue and white, one which was red and blue and one of those retro Fisher Price pull along ones. She likes phones. She would happily have one (preferably Apple iPhones) in every colour of the rainbow if she could.

I love building IKEA furniture

@Legoisthebest Of course it doesn't have to say "for girls" on it. But let's not pretend that colour coding doesn't exist It doesn't matter what the toy is, pretty much any 3+ kid will be able to tell you which one is "for girls" based on what colour it is.

And when you were in the toy shop, did you happen to notice the children pictured playing with the toys on the boxes? I think you'll be hard pressed to find a boy pictured playing with a doll and a girl playing with a car.

@Nomoreusernames1244 Absolutely, an equal if not more important task is tackling toxic masculinity.

Almost most toy packaging doesn't have pictures of actual children on. Advertising yes (which I do agree needs some changing) but most toys just have the company logo and name of the toy on the box and a picture of the toy.

Some pictures from Smyths website. Boys doing the hoovering, washing up and ironing.

My DH is a very keen cook and always working on something in the kitchen and as DS is desperate to be just like DH, we bought him a play kitchen from Smyths.
He absolutely loved it for ages until he started nursery and there was a group of little girls who wouldn't let him in the play kitchen as it was only 'for girls'.
None of the teachers stepped in to stop this and DS stopped playing with his kitchen as he said it was too girly. DH had a big talk with him (as big as you can with a 3/4 year old) about how cooking and housework weren't 'girly' and even if they somehow were, there is nothing wrong with girly. Girls are just as good as boys.

@Legoisthebest

Some pictures from Smyths website. Boys doing the hoovering, washing up and ironing.

I also looked at the Smyths website yesterday (and commented about it here). And I actually counted up the children shown playing with the toys in the "fashion and dolls" section. The boys you have shown are pretty much the only ones there playing with traditional "girl's" toys - the majority of the 29 boys I saw were showing Marvel and Avengers costumes and accessories. I saw just 3 pictures of a boy and a girl playing together, and 200 pictures of girls.

I don't think anyone is saying that there aren't "girl's" toys marketed to boys (though I'm sure you noticed that none of the toys the boys were playing with were pink or purple or pastel shades), but to pretend there isn't a massive bias doesn't do anyone any favours.

Yes it's of course good if toy shops and ads start showing more diversity, largely thanks to Let toys be toys and similar campaigns, but we are not there yet.
Smyths website - Jurassic World, 10 boys shown playing with dinosaurs, 1 girl.
Remote control cars - boys. Only 1 girl playing with a pink car called "Sparkle Girlz Radio Control Car with Doll."

Science is actually not bad, both shown with science kits, telescopes and such, and they advertise normal versions for both, not 'regular' and 'pink'.

I do agree there is definitely some changes to be made - from the toy manufacturers, the advertisers, the retailers and most importantly society. However the OP made this post apparently based on the toy selection in a supermarket. These are generally a small amount of toys and products that are available out there and only give a tiny snapshot of the toy industry.