Would anyone like to join in an effort to convince retailers to stop categorizing toys by gender?

[OneHandWavingFree]

Following on from this thread and similar ones, a few of us are interested in discussing ways to send a message to retailers that it is not acceptable to designate 'boys' and 'girls' toy aisles which reinforce the message that science and adventure are "boys stuff", while girls should be primarily occupied with looking 'sexy' or practicing for domestic drudgery.

The first steps might be to draft a letter and identify a few retailers to target for an email campaign. Other ideas of how to get the message across are very welcome too, though.

Would anyone like to join in?

Brilliant. Roll on 26 nov and getting started

Just want to say I'm 100% behind this - great work!

One thing I'd considered doing was a blog comparing pictures of apparent boys and girls versions of toys. Sometimes it could be stark, like the ELC guitar (red for boys, pink for girls), other times entirely baffling - Girls Car or Boys Car.

Survey launched www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1621696-Help-us-find-out-which-toy-stores-are-best-and-worst-about-pink-blue-segregation

Hope that is ok!

So, if toy retailers in Sweden weren't allowed to sell using the boy/girl thing - does that mean that laws about sex equality (British or European) could also apply here? ...

Just a thought.

Murder I was wondering about 2 pics (they could be cartoons or photos) that show 'retail' and 'reality'

e.g. the retail half would be an aisle of pink. Reality would be a boy making a pretend cup of tea.

retail - an aisle of blue. Reality - 2 girls playing with light sabres. (Love a good light sabre fight meself)

That kind of thing. The concept being that retailers push these messages at us, but left to themselves, boys and girls will adopt a number of roles which aren't just defined by gender, but reflects their current development.

Interesting! It would seem Hamleys need congratulating already for getting rid of boys' and girls' sections in favour of themes, about a year ago. Well done Hamleys! :)
Story here (Sorry for torygraph link!)

And, it may have been in response to a complaint from a mumsnetter! See this blog post by Dr Laura Nelson, who's got a "Mumsnet blogger network" badge on her blog. (Is she here on this thread already, I wonder?).

That got me thinking, Himalaya for your point 3 of the plan "identify key targets" do you mean targets as in retailers and manufacturers, or as in influential types we'd like to get involved? (e.g. famous types, journos and bloggers who are likely to support the campaign).

If you meant only the first, can we add "identify PR targets" to the plan? (Actually, is there a nicer way to put that? I'm not sure if I'd be happy to be called a "PR target"!)

Then, what should we do in the meantime if we come across people we think should be on the list? Is someone going to collect names offline, or should we post to this thread? Would it be sensible to post the list openly on this thread or not? (I'm not sure either way!) I'm asking as I have a mental list of people already from some articles I've just read, but my memory is pants!

A campaign twitter account would be good too, particularly to get people involved who tweet a lot - like Caitlin Moran for example.

Anyone object if I post it to chat too?

(I might cut the words down a little too. Sorry, can't help it! I write for the web as part of my job )

Sorry, "it" being the survey!!

No, feel free - and happy for you to cut down the words!

I'm in, utterly hate the bullshit that is aisle upon aisle of gender segregation!

Great great great idea.

Have you seen the 'shelve it' campaign that is trying to get porn and lads mags moved away from children's view? I mention only because they do twitter quite well. They ask people to photo newsstands, rate on their scores and upload. This looks like a similar campaign model.

Aufaniae -

I had meant Targets as the companies - I.e. of the big ones who are the 3 worst and target them in particular.

But you are right we need another category - Multipliers, or some such - potential allies and communicators.

OK, it's posted in chat too.

I'm not sure I did manage to cut down the actual wordcount in the end! But I had a play with the words and laid it out in a way that's a bit more webby. (I just can't help it, sorry!)

A tip for writing for the web, just in case you're interested! It's good practice to use descriptive phrases as links, so:

An Escher picture made of lego

... for example, rather than:

An Escher picture made of lego here

This is for two reasons: firstly people very often scan web pages rather than reading them, and it's easier to quickly see the meaning of descriptive links rather than "here" links. Also, for SEO purposes, Google will pay much more attention to a descriptive link. (It does look at words next to the link, but the actual words of the link are more important).

Right I'll stop before I digress too far into the world of web. Hope it's useful :)

We have our first comment against the idea - just posted on the chat thread.

(I suspect we'll get a few of these).

Anyone care to help me have a go at explaining why it matters?

Okay, if anyone wants to get an early 'like' in to the Facebook page, please search for "Let Toys Be Toys - For Girls and Boys". I was going to link but was afraid people who clicked would end up logged in as me . That's stupid, right? Reassure me please so I can link on the launch thread without fear!

Will post a thread officially launching our Campaign tomorrow (at a time when there's more traffic and it has a better chance of staying in 'Active'), with links to the Facebook page and survey threads.

It would be great to have some posts up on the Facebook page before we put it out there, though! So far it's only got its profile pics (which can be changed once there are more pics up - as someone said upthread it could be a good vehicle for interactive interest) and the hard-won blurb :)

Just realised that the survey threads direct people here to join the campaign. I had been thinking that now that we have a name, a FB page, and a plan (the survey), we would introduce all three together on a new thread.

Do you think there's any point in launching a new thread with "Let Toys Be Toys" in the title? Or should I just ask MNHQ to change the name of this thread (and maybe let me add a link to the FB page into the OP) so the name of the campaign gets out there, and let this remain the campaign discussion thread, as the survey threads say?

I'm leaning toward the latter option, as 3 active threads already seems like enough.

Hmmm. Thoughts?

Totally blowing my "write less for the web" plan out of the window there

Have as yet not perfected the art of the concise rant!

OneHandWavingFree I promise you linking to a Facebook page will not mean people are logged as you :)

Here's the link to the facebook page

Love the picture of the little girl and her digger against the background of the barbie stuff btw :)

phew thanks aufaniae. I thought your reply on the other thread was spot on. But then, I like words!

The most wonderful little girl in the world is my dd :) The pic is just a place holder until someone volunteers another pic like it (maybe of an older child, or of both genders, or whatever) to use as the profile pic.

(the phew was for the reassurance re: facebook log-in)

I think a new thread isn't too much. Probably.

I'm leaning towards thinking it's a good idea anyway, as if it's a launch, then it's easier if people see a fresh thread, rather than this one with nearly 500 messages to trawl through!

Don't forget the two survey threads will disappear in a few weeks / once we have the data.

Also, this is the campaign thread, so we're all in agreement here.

But once we launch the idea, people will want to debate the toss (this is mumsnet after all!) This thread is working brilliantly IMO. It'd be a shame to have this thread full of people arguing about whether it's a good idea or not!

We could use the other thread to announce stuff (kind of like the public face of the campign on MN) and for getting involved with debates with critics about whether marketing affects children. And save this thread for planning.

And anyway, if we're promoting this, the more threads the better, surely?!

What do you think?

Btw, can I ask which talk section it'll be launched it in? Reckon we need one with good traffic (but not AIBU of course, that would be just asking for trouble!) Is chat the best for traffic? Or somewhere else?

Your reasoning for a new thread makes sense. I was thinking Chat, but I'd forgotten about the threads disappearing thing. Open to suggestion!

I don't mean to be presumptuous re: being the one to launch the campaign on a new thread, I realise that this thing has taken on a life of its own (yippee!) and lots of people have put effort into it, so if you or someone else wants to be OP, that's okay too.

Just let me know so I don't miss it and then look stupid trying to re-launch a campaign that already lives on an existing thread

Think I just found our campaign spokeperson

This girl is great!

Oh, good point! I'd forgotten about the disappearing thing too. (Doh!)

Which other areas get good traffic?

Chat gets a huge amount of traffic, however In The News might also be worthwhile? Or Campaigns?

Feminism will only attract certain posters, many others have it hidden.