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?

Sadly, boy holding doll will attract vitriol -it actually seems to enrage some people and they will caricature the campaign as being about boys playing with dolls. Maybe boy pushing buggy/pram while girl pushes truck? Or that might be too tricky for a logo....

Yes...a nice clean image like the ones on toilet doors type thing?
or the 'school' roadsign (don't know if that's copyrighted or whatever)

For the cards/stickers we could have whatever the logo turns out to be, then have a variety of different verses or sentences on each (but it's going to cost more to vary them maybe?)

Off the top of my head

"Don't box us off"

"Assumptions are dangerous" and a girl shooting a doll with a blue gun. Another could also say "Assumptions are dangerous" and have a boy cradling a car like a baby.

"Don't assume your little girl needs a doll....she might be a scientist in the making"

"Don't assume all boys love cars...some make great teachers"

"Boys can be dancers too"

"Some girls love insects"

Stuff like that....thinking out loud now.

I think that attracting SOME outrage is a necessary and healthy thing. Attitudes won't change by whispering about stuff. Sometimes it's in order to shout or to offend.

"Don't box us off" with a girl trapped in a hideously pink, frilly Barbie type box. And a boy stuck in one covered in camouflage type decoration, wearing a soldiers helmet?

[quashes plans of grabbing the DDs and shoving them in homemade Barbie Boxes}

Logo ideas are great. I like the idea of buggy boy girl truck rendered simply.

Surely boy with buggy not too offensive? If not, a teapot? A rabbit?

MrsM - some of those are maybe false dichotomies. Science girl may like the odd doll or two - the problem is if she isn't bought the proper science stuff. Teacher boy may like cars, but want...er well, depends what type of teacher!

I'm not too convinced about the stickers concept TBH...I think they'd just get removed by the shelf-stackers who'd think they were a bloody nuisance.

Perhaps less so if we stuck totally to positive statements. So, on the serious K'nex etc 'My daughter loves this, wants to build bridges'! or on the toy kitchen 'My son wants to be a chef like on TV'

I'm thinking of a little girl captioned with "I love dolls ... and guns"

A little boy saying "I love Ben 10 ... and toy kitchens"

(or maybe something a little less controversial than guns but you get the point)

I know what you mean about them getting removed quickly Grimma perhaps we need an old fashioned protest outside shops then? Or what about a nice viral video which we can create and then release on FB and Twitter.

Yes I think it needs to be positive. I wouldn't be crazy about the idea of telling people not to buy dolls for girls or cars for boys. And I much prefer the idea of business card type things rather than stickers. I don't particularly want to be a vandal, just a persistent nuisance!

Would a boy pushing a buggy have a different impact than a boy holding a doll?

Girl and boy silhouetted, back to back, boy pushing pram, girl pushing large toy truck?

Or flying an aeroplane in her hand?

What about silhouetted images, maybe more defined than traffic / restroom signs, though. Boy and girl (harder to identify in silhouette - girl with pigtails, boy with very short haircut - I know those are assumptions too! :) ), holding hands or arms around shoulders (something to show that they're in this together).

Next to the boy, a doll's house that maybe he's leaning on with his other hand? And in the girl's other hand, she's holding a rocket / airplane type thing as if it's flying?

I think boys with prams are less offensive than boys with dolls. They've got wheels!
NB. I know neither are offensive.

Best avoid guns. Some find them offensive.

oooh tougholdbird we are on the same wavelength with the silhouettes and the airplane :)

(not with the boy holding a doll though!)

I agree, please no guns.

I think boy pushing buggy is less inflammatory than boy with doll (it's a wheels thing :)). But maybe inflammatory is good - I dunno.

We're getting some great reaction on twitter already. We need to be more organised, there are loads of interactions.Twitter shifts anyone?

How about a boy and a girl sitting side by side cross-legged on the floor (not silhouette) on white background.

Both looking up at a whole mix of toys arranged above and around them in the line of a rainbow?

LTBT strapline runs underneath or follows rainbow shape.

What about imitating the iconic images that are used on loo doors....but not in black. Have the male figure all pink and the female one all blue.

Then something snappy underneath relating to the colour thing.

An idea for the logo -what about spelling out the logo in alphabet building blocks such as these.

You could a boy and girl playing together with atypical toys as the blocks rise up behind them, .... or they could be putting the blocks together themselves.

Alphabet blocks great - and uses a mix of bright primary colours.

The blocks are also suggestive of building a new future for children through play....

Got to be careful it doesn't begin to look like an ad for a nursery or something though.

The boy blocks could spell nurse and the girl astronaut. Maybe.