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?

apparently girls do not like microscopes, telescopes, space rockets, internal combustion engines, ... but we do like bath bomb kits

My DD likes (and has!) all those things including the bath bomb kit. The retailers who only offer the pink stuff to girls instead of everything else plus the pink stuff are idiots.

That feminist frequency video is amazing. I don't know if anyone remember but she was the woman who received all kind of threats and abuse because she planned to do a video looking into the representation of women in video games.

Cheddar, it's so annoying isn't it re. the "gorgeous girls and active boys". It just sends subtle messages constantly that our DDs should be concerned about appearances when in reality being active will serve them so much more in life. On the face of it it sounds like a compliment but just heaps the pressure on.

www.pinkstinks.org.uk/cgblog/35/35/Don-t-forget-your-mop-with-your-ballgown.html
When I said there are more important things to worry about, this is the type of thing I meant. Stating "girls only" on the box is bang out of order. This is actually going into the child's home and is definitely the type of thing that will influence small minds. This toy should be boycotted.

ok the draft survey is ready - does anyone want to test it (dry run, not for real)?

I will!

I can too

Yes, please.

I'd love to have a look, Himalaya :)

Of course Onehandwavingfree! (....and all...)

Will PM you.

Write beta test somewhere in the comments to make sure your answers get excluded from the final results.

Write any little comments (typos, wording etc...) on the survey, or PM me. Put any bigger comments/suggested additional questions etc... here.

Yes please!

We have at least one shop near us that doesn't have any labels up at all. All the lego is together including bloody lego friends, all the playmobil is together, whether spies or fairy unicorns, etc etc.
Any chance of the campaign including a way to big up places that are getting it right?

ok. have PMed all the testers. Please get all comments back to me by tomorrow morning. Then I will do a final edit.

Arkady That would be good, carrot and stick. Hopefully it would encourage retailers to attempt to move from the derided group to the praised one.

Count me in. I've had enough of the pinkification of toys. When I was a child, back in the 70's, no one batted an eyelid about my parents buying Dsis and I toy cars, marble runs, Lego etc as they were the toys we liked. My son wanted a dustpan & brush set to go with his vac & other role play toys and I could only find a pink one.

My dd hasn't even been born yet (32 wks pg) and I'm really concerned about how much worse things are now compared to my childhood.

Laugh all you like, I'm not the only person who feels that dragging children into the issue of equal rights in this way is taking it too far. I actually asked at least 30 people at work today if they thought boys and girls toys should stay segregated or be moved together, without prompting them for a particular answer. I didn't even hint to them what my answer was and they all agreed with me, every single one of them. After I explained to them why I was asking, they were all gobsmacked. A few of them ecchoed your words, "ridiculous". Their words not mine. I didn't find one person who thought that segregating girls and boys toys was a bad idea. There were people that thought that the lego issue and everything girl being pink was an issue but I do too. It must be the area I live in I guess, we're all behind the times. It's nice to know that I'm not being a fuckwit on my own.

"dragging children into the issue of equal rights"

So when should we start making children aware of boys and girls being equal?

I will laugh Stumpy. And again you haven't answered my question up thread about why something (this thread) that is in no way going to harm a child and in your mind is unimportant.. why should you feel the need to actively argue against it? Why do you feel the need to keep things the way they are?

And please answer me this, I beg you..
40 years ago in America, black people and white people had separate but equal.. so you wanted a bath room you had a bathroom. Buy you had to go in to your special bathroom.. was that OK too? and if it isn't Ok why do you feel women are a lesser group than other minorities (not that women are a minority..just treated as one)? Also do you think it was inappropriate for parents in that climate to push for their children to go to interracial schools? to drag them in to the issue of equal rights?

I will very rarely call anyone a name or insult their ideas.. but you have offended me so badly. You. The idea that in your small mind you feel my daughter and my son should have to be boxed in to some fuckin ridiculous idea of what a boy or girl should be.. because you find it too difficult to find a play kitchen in the housewares aisle! Can you please bugger of the FWR section.. you seem to be incredibly lost here as well.

Oh yes I'm in. This thing about household and doll-type toys only being for girls is giving me the RAGE.

And if my mother buys one more stupid, passive, simpering princess thing for DD I will not be responsible for the consequences.

Are you at all crafty icutmyfoot? maybe chop the dolls hair in to a buzz cut and give it some/punk/goth/army fatigues...

Haven't read the thread, but wouldn't appealing to their profit margins work well? By implying that boys should only shop from one half of the store, and girls from the other, they are kind of dissuading them from looking at and potentially wanting things from the entire store.

I am sure that you would end up with aisles that have a mix if colors, but dd walks through the pink sections and refuses to even look at it. If some of the punk stuff was closer to the science/sport stuff she might look at it and even want some of it.

So, would toy shops listen to that argument?

I am assuming that everyone knows that pink used to be the color for boys, and it's Disney that instigated pink for girls? Watch 101 dalmatians and you'll see that the boys have red collars and the girls have blue ones. Therefore boys were dressed in pink and girls in pale blue. Apparently, this was what nature dictated. Since Disney switched it, it is now nature that girls like pink, nothing to do with society.

Cinderella wore blue you know.

I will join.

I have 1 DC. A boy. He likes loads of stuff Inc. baby dolls, Zoobles and other stuff he finds cute. He gets flack for liking girl's toys. IMHO, this is due to gender segregation.

All the boys in his nursery had no probs liking what he likes. Now they are in PS it has become an issue. This is in no small way die to the way toys are targeted towards gender.

Doesn't happen in my house though.
But now it is a secret.

Halloween said it well.

Why do you think it is a bad idea to sort toys by role rather than gender? What is the advantage?

Dione I worry about that for DS :(

Both DH and I get flack for the careers we want to follow. We also both felt unable to follow those interests as children. We also both felt unable to own toys that related to our interests due to being told that the toys weren't for our own sex. We were both also bullied (one of us hospitalised) for not fitting into our gender box.

Still think it's ridiculous to want to remove that stigma?

Murderofgoths (love the name BTW), this is as much an issue for boys as girls. The sooner we realize that it damages all children, not just females, the better.