ELC "searching toys by gender"

[MaximumVolume]

Hey all, do we know about this, or is it new?
I'm annoyed, as I really like ELC toys, why the need to categorise by gender?

They've always been pretty shocking as regards gender stereotyping, to be honest. (Anyone remember the kerfuffle about "pink globes" a few years back? Because of course little girls won't be interested in the world unless you colour it pink. Damn that nasty watery stuff that covers 7/10 of its surface for being blue and thus putting generations of women off geography...)

When my DS was toddler age he used to call ELC "the pink shop" because that's the first thing you noticed when you walked into ours - the huge wall of pink glittery stuff.

There are good campaigns against this sort of nonsense - for instance the "let toys be toys" campaign. But I fear ELC may just say they're responding to consumer pressure.

Oops - forgot the link:

Let toys be toys

you could always use both in the gender search box... a storm in a tea cup really.

Elc has always been old fashioned about this even if they dont stock the barbie type toys my 23yrold got a jenga type game as a present 1 year and of course it was pink

I once complained in our local ELC store about the pink and bluing of toys. The store manager said "customers like it, it sells" I was pretty cross at the time but she was probably right. It does sell.

The only way to change it is if customers all complain and start voting with their feet.

Which I did, buying a lovely red child's kitchen in John Lewis.

I suppose he was right if it sells it sells but blue/pink games or globes is a bit ridiculous

OK, everybody, I've got this.

Post 1 for "Have't you got anything more important to worry about?, 2 for "Pink's just a colour" 3 for "It just makes things easier to find" 4 for "My dd loved pink and is now a Tank Commander and 5 for "It's people like you who put people off feminism"

Does that cover it?

Oh, and 6 for any combination of "Not worth getting so worked up/outraged/furious/ knickers in a twist/ pearl clutching/hysterical" in response to a mild question.

To be honest, if people want pink/blue globes that's fine by me. I have a rather nice one in shades of green. Not correct, but it pleases me.

It's the labelling of pink as girls, blue as boys. Hairdressing stuff will be found under gender "female" & colour-coded pink. So boys who are interested will feel in the wrong for that. This stuff matters!

I do love the idea that the whole catalogue may be listed under both search terms so that idiots from the school of thought of "boys toys & girls toys" buy toy power tools for little girls and cleaning sets for little boys feeling okay about it because it's from the correctly gendered section! I don't think that's what's happening, though!

It shouldnt have girls/boys heading you are right

Thanks M0stly, I did tweet using #lettoysbetoys

ELC replied on FB with

"Hi MaximumVolume, we welcome all customer feedback and take concerns such as this very seriously. At the Early Learning Centre we believe in helping children to be all they can be, to be happy and confident individuals. We offer anyone who wants to buy toys so much to choose from that no one should feel disappointed when they walk into our stores. We will pass your feedback to the website team. Thanks, Becky"

I replied with:

"Thanks for the reply, Becky. You do have a wide variety of toys, it's true, but I really feel that small children are so sensitive to external pressures and choosing toys from the "wrong" section can be really hard.

By offering the chance to search by gender you are (whether deliberately or not) reinforcing the divide in people's minds.

It would be great to see your values as stated above reflected in a change to your retail site."

but I really feel that small children are so sensitive to external pressures and choosing toys from the "wrong" section can be really hard.

do small children order a lot of toys from web sites?

I meant the "wrong section" to be wider than just a bit of a website. But I'm fairly sure you know that.