Gender stereotyping is getting worse isn't it?

[Eminybob]

You'd think it would happen less as we become more progressive as a society but that really isn't the case is it? Lego is now split into boys and girls versions, kinder eggs, clothes are now more pink vs blue than ever.

Saw this pic on Facebook today, and my first thought was, well that's why there weren't so many parents transing their kids in the 70's.

What can we do to avoid this?

I am a 70's child and i didnt have gendered toys, just toys

It was trousers usually and dresses for parties

In hindsight i think that although my dad can be a fucking dinosaur when it comes to 'females' he and my mother were ahead of their time when it came to the upbringing of their children and housework

I think that probably why i am honestly confused by some of the threads on here with regard to gendered roles

Yes gender confirmity is alive and kicking. On another thread a male poster just described part of a team with the girls were careful and pretty . Why is attractiveness so much of a concern as a judgment against women?

As another child of the 70s, it was complicated. Good points: we all slobbed around in jeans/cords and t-shirts in a range of colours - there was no pinkification/khakification of clothing. Lego was just lego - no lego friends. My mum (a solid 2nd wave feminist) had no truck with gender stereotyping.

But I remember bumper books of boys stories/girls stories (I had both). Adventure stories were often aimed at boys. Fixed sex roles in schools - my primary school, girls had to play netball and rounders, do needlework, boys got to play football and cricket (which I loved ) and do woodwork. And careers teachers at school and university (into the 80s by then) pushing one towards "girly" careers. Levels of everyday sexual harrassment in the workplace and the ubiquity of girly calendars and pinups which just wouldn't be tolerated nowadays.

It's tempting to look at those lego adverts and think "ah, paradise lost", but lego were something of a statistical outlier in the grand scheme of things.

You reminded me Bowling about comics. Anyone remember reading Twinkle or Bunty while the boys read Battle or Warrior?
My brother got bought books called "Adventure stories for boys" or similar, which of course I read.
At my high school (although this was 80s now) girls had to do ballroom dancing as part of PE, while boys didn't.
Not sure who we were supposed to dance with...I guess it made us elligible .

I liked reading the misty comics

Sexism was alive and well in the 70's and then as you get older society's pressures take hold

But when i was young i thought i could do anything and my parents didnt tell me anything different

*dey

We had to do country dancing...with the boys

Mortifying

Oh good lord, Bunty - the Four Marys. And endless ballet stories. Mind you, at least a lot of the stories featured girls doing stuff (I seem to remember one about an Olympic swimmer).

I think there are some very deep rose-tinted spectacles being worn about how wonderfully non-gendered children's lives were in the 70s.

I agree that Lego came in white, red, blue and yellow. You got boxes of Lego rather than themed sets. There was Lego and Spirograph and Etch-a-sketch but beyond that I'd have said toys were rigidly split.

I should have sent DD into school with twenty pink, sparkly Frozen themed party bags, shouldn't I?

Why not? There's plenty of male characters in there, so I there'd have been plenty representation for the boys!

The problem with Lego now is that it focused on building specific structures (Star wars, Harry potter, whatever) and once built, the children want them to be displayed like a trophy, rather than creative building as many of us did as a child. The 'themes are mostly boy focussed.

When we were kids, you built stuff, them you knocked it down and built more stuff. I have about 12 blue ikea boxes of lego in my son's bedroom now that I have no idea what to do with, now that he has outgrown it. Probably worth about 1k at least.

Once he built it, he was bored with it, despite our endeavours. His friends were the same.
I think Lego is just shit these days. It targets boys but it's pretty disappointing for everyone

While i know the 70's weren't completely ungendered, i think there was a burgeoning awareness of gender stereotyping.

I remember hearing my mum, a woman who grew up in a "men go to work, women stay at home and look after them" world, discussing with her friends when my brother was born that the new thinking was that you should buy boys dolls and girls cars, allow boys to cry etc. Some of it was

I think that the way the gender stereotyping happens in childhood now has morphed and changed. I think it changes in response to our growing awareness, maybe?

It's still the same war, but the battles have changed. Very few people directly come out and say "Firefighters are men, and nurses are women", but when you scratch the surface, there are vestigial elements of that belief.

I'm pondering aloud (if you can do that on a screen!) here. I think we go two steps forward and one back.

lass

I don't think there are any rose tinted glasses on this thread

Unless you mean in general on these types of threads

Personally i have only been referring to my childhood which as i have said does seem a bit unusual. Not externally, but in the home

Anacdata

But thats all i ever have

Anacdata

And i think ive spelt that wrong

I think women as much as men have a lot to answer for. They are usually the main purchasers of all things in the family, clothes, toys, activities. So it's clearly the women who are mostly buying into the pink and blue stuff with their cash.

I also think women are increasingly segregating themselves and insisting we are too vulnerable for shared facilities and spaces.

Men have a lot to answer for but actually I think this is as much the fault of women as men.

Get rid of gender labels completely I think.

Companies like Lego have jumped aboard the gender stereotypes because it allows them to sell more shit. No passing toys down to younger siblings of the opposite sex.
I'm a child of the 80s and my mum was keen to avoid the stereotypes that plagued her youth. Unfortunately this became quite anti- girl and I was taught to avoid anything typically girly (ballet, pink, long hair, frills, etc). I now dislike this attitude but I still struggle not to see feminine as inferior, due to how ingrained it is.

Yes it is.

It is still a constant fight.

I'm a child of the 80's too and I think it was a bit 50/50.
I had all barbies, Care Bears and my little pony, my brother had Lego, action man and games consoles.
However we did used to play together a lot with each other's toys, and I had stuff passed down to me from him like a bmx, skateboard etc.
I don't remember wearing that much pink though. And in fact I remember my brother having quite a few pink clothes.

I have bought my DS a variety of toys, including a play kitchen, toy Hoover, dolls house etc and try to be as gender neutral as possible, but as he's got older he has just gravitated to the stereotypical "boys" stuff, cars, trains, dinosaurs. Which is absolutely fine, if that's what he likes that's what he likes, but I can't help wondering if nursery has had anything to do with it.

stereotypical "boys" stuff, cars, trains, dinosaurs

These are exactly the things I always loved playing with, I was obsessed with them all. I'm the oldest child as well so it wasn't just playing with a sibling's toys. It irks me children are pushed towards certain toys and "gender" often seems so enforced - it'd not surprise me if that happens a lot at nursery even when parents haven't done it as I've read of this occurring a fair bit.

I think with toys, things have got a little worse, in that many companies have realised they can actually sell stuff to girls, when previously they just ignored them.
But in many ways they have got better. Computer games aren't just targetted at boys these days. Girls can join cubs and scouts, etc.

DS1 (7) and I had an interesting chat about Lego a while ago.

He had been to our local Lego store and was cross that girls have a range just to themselves. I pointed out how small that section was compared to the rest of our Lego store. His view was that girls could play with any of the Lego sets in the store but he would be laughed at for having "girls" Lego.

He said boys like having friends just as much as girls so why should that range be just for girls.

He really likes the "Elves" range which is aimed at girls (liking it was confessional) but said he considered the "features" were never good enough. Features are how he refers to any mechanical/moving/action elements of the build. Apparently girls Lego never has good features.

I'm rambling, there was a lot more he talked about, lack of girl superheroes etc. I found it all fascinating!

I'm a child of the 60s and 70s. Roles were very definitely gendered.

But toys, I don't think were so much. Probably because a lot of time spent was outside. There was less going on indoors.

So balls, bikes, scooters, marbles, etc. British bulldog and outdoor games. Your friends were the people who lived close by. So a mixture of ages and of both sexes.

Clothes were practical and had to last. And yes, I sometimes wore skirts and dresses, but nothing frilly. Except maybe one party dress for 'best'.

And there was still sexism, no doubt. It just wasn't as obviously enforced by superficial things.

That's very interesting regarding your son Yoshimi - he touched on a lot of important issues! As he said, the implication of the "girls' range" is that friendships and in a sense close, caring relationships (so emotion) are seen as the preserve of girls by those marketing them. It's also telling boys often see something associated with girls as embarrassing - that he'd be laughed at for playing with something supposedly for girls. I think this is a huge shame as it feeds into such negative views of girls and women, as lesser and weak, with traits society ascribes to us mocked in boys.

What he said on the features is also disheartening; again, enforcing the idea mechanics, action and being constructive in this way is for boys. Messages like this at such a young age is part of what helps enforce in many girls the damaging and wholly inaccurate idea STEM isn't for them and boys are naturally better at it - putting them off pursuing such subject as these interests are nurtured in boys and so often not offered to girls in terms of toys. It's great your son is noticing issues like this and hopefully will go on to challenge them!

The problem with Lego now is that it focused on building specific structures

this is why the lego gets build (and I'm tempted to glue together) - but the duplo (mainly plain bricks) is out all the time building built into houses/boats/whatever they feel like that day.

I grew up in the 80s - I had the full mix of toys, spent a lot of my childhood running around in the woods or BMXing with other kids. But I had to play netball, I had to wear a skirt to school. I go to the toy shop these days and it really is that it's all so polarised - so pink and blue that it's crazy.