Tesco!!!

[feelathome]

Hi, first time on this thread, but I saw this in Tesco today (well my 8 year old daughter spotted it) and was so cross I wanted to share it.

I couldn't find the pictures on the internet, but if you look at these links, you will see 2 identical toys.
One is a blue and yellow sand pit, and the box shows a girl and boy playing with it.
The other is a pink version, and the photo on the box shows only a girl on it.

why cant a boy play with the pink one??!?!?

Blue and yellow

pink

They actually photoshopped the boy out!!! Errr I don't know what to say! Dear me.

Email them, tell them to look up gender stereotyping in the dictionary!

Omg you can actually see the blurriness in the grass where the boy should be

Well spotted, mini feelathome!

They're even called 'generic' and 'girl'.

The accessories pictured are the same, but different colours. Yet the 'generic' description =

"Both sides can function as water or sand areas, or both. Numerous accessories, including spades, sand moulds and water funnel. "

The 'girl' description =

"Build exciting sand shapes like fishes, turtles and sea horses or just splash and play about in the water-with this outdoor activity set the choice is yours!"

So. much. stereotyping.

Very strange

www.tesco.com/direct/tesco-girl-packaway-sand-and-water-playtable/210-2004.prd?skuId=210-2004&pageLevel=

The boy has been photoshopped out and it's for a girl.

But this one

www.tesco.com/direct/toys/sand-water-tables/cat3374541.cat?catId=4294959663

I can see a boy and a girl in that one. It's also pink but not for any gender.
Maybe it slipped through :)

This is the same supermarket which was supportive of gender-segregated tills in Malaysia.

Not heard about that, tell me more,geeklove

Ok was originally on BBC magazine online but here is a link to the story here
It seems to be more about its compliance with Sharia Law is more important than dealing with harrasment.

Sorry kirby, to whom is that directed?

I've just reported that post by Kirby.

Can't believe they actually went to the trouble of photoshopping the boy out! That's ridiculous

You only have to look closely at the grass to see how it's changed and is blurry.

I wonder how the discussion went at Tesco HQ?

(Goes to look at more pictures for photoshopped pictures)

Ugh I loath this so much, the bouncy castles are as bad, pink one has little girl with mum, blue has boy with dad why can things not be unisex??!!

I have emailed to complain. I'll let you know if I get an answer.

And yet people give me the look when i mention i don't want to dress my as yet unborn pfb in exclusively pink or blue!

I grew up perfectly fine in jeans and whichever top i chose, i will not princessify a child too young to choose

The boy in enimmead's second link is in danger of catching the gay. Someone should warn his parents he's playing with a pink flowery thing.

It's obviously ok for girls to play with blue things as they are so unchangeable...they will always remain girls with girl traits and so it's fine to have them play with "boys things"....lesbians are obviously harmless whereas a boy catching the gay will be DOOMED!

I think Tesco need pulling up.

Finally got a reply from Tesco.
Im not sure if it actually says they will change it, or just that they have discussed it!
Here is the main body of the reply:

I was very concerned to learn that you were offended by the images we have on our website. Allow me to reassure you it is our never our intention to offend or upset any of our customers with the images that we use to promote our products.

Looking into this for you, I can see that the Pink Playtable has been advertised on our website as a girl?s toy; where as the Yellow Playtable is showing a generic toy for both boys and girls. It certainly isn?t our intention to make any customer feel like there is any gender stereotyping with our products as this isn?t acceptable.

I can fully appreciate why this has upset you so please accept my sincere apologies for any offence this may have caused. Please be assured that I have fully logged your comments regarding this matter, and I have also discussed this with our Business Support Team. We always appreciate receiving customer feedback and will look into amending this image for future seasons.

Well done for writing feelathome

It sounds like at least a computer didn't write back to you.

I think it means - no we are not going to change anything right now... but yes have logged your comments - with these kinds of things if they get enough complaints and comments over time then it does start to filter in.

I see on their website they don't have a top line category of 'Boy's Toys' and 'Girl's Toys' but that each toy is categorised as 'girls' boys' or 'unisex'....Although its kind of random this workbench is for boys whereas this one is unisex, apparently.

You could write back and suggest that if they don't want to gender stereotype then they should really consider deleting the gender category on their toys as part of their web architecture, since its impossible to categorise without stereotyping.

Wouldn't it be good if you typed in boys toys as a search term on their website and it came back with a message that said 'all our toys are suitable for girls and boys'

In a horrible sort of way "Generic" vs "Girls" is even worse than "Boys" vs "Girls". It is very annoying.

although I am rather tempted to get one of the other tables on that page for the DC