John Lewis can do better

[PumpkinSpicy]

So following up on the appeal for lurkers to get involved, here I am, finally posting on this section.

Been lurking for years but never felt I had anything to add.

This made me angry and John Lewis's reply made me even angrier ; I quote:

"Hi thanks for getting in touch. We offer a broad range of toys that are suitable for all children so that our customers can pick what toys they believe their children will enjoy most. ^Kareem

That's disgraceful. It's 2018 ffs!

Uggh, that's shit.

Good lord in heaven. It's not even subtle. Crass and blatant.

Boys get action and girls get.... taking photos of themselves 🙄. Urgh

That’s made me really cross!

God, that's infuriating - both the toys on display and their reply.

The heavy emphasis on girl's and boy's toys is a cynical attempt to force parents to buy the same toy twice if they have children of both sexes

This emphatic pink/blue split enforces gender roles and these roles in turn drive more and more children who don't feel blue or pink enough to believe they are the "wrong" sex.

It's no small thing. And congratulations on your delurk. Keep on posting.

Oh ffs. Really? Still? A large retailer like John Lewus should be telling Vtech where to stuff their stereo-typed branding. This has all got much worse since my Dd was a baby and that was only 15 years ago.

It is vomitous. Vetch should be ashamed and John Lewis should push back and refuse to stock such gendered nonsense.

Given the hype about JL taking away the girls/boys tags to their children’s clothing a year or two ago, it seems the memo didn’t make it to the toy department.

Having looked on the Vtech website all the Kidizoom tech (watches, cameras, video cams etc) are split into blue/pink and action/passive, boy/girl. It seems they're totally ok with unnecessary gendering, and with providing no other choices apart from pink or blue.

I’ve noticed that girls toys are mostly sedentary activities. I was talking to DS the other day, he’s 10, and he was saying that the girls in his class never run around and play at playtime. Instead they just stand around and talk about their stuff, handbags was the example he gave. He asked whether it was like that when I was at school. I had a think and I can honestly say that no, it was nothing like that. The girls would run around and play with the boys or play games between themselves. Not any more apparently. That’s so sad.

Given the hype about JL taking away the girls/boys tags to their children’s clothing a year or two ago, it seems the memo didn’t make it to the toy department.

Yes! That Vtech display is truly grim.

What a pile of horse shit. I hate mumsnet today. It’s making me despise everyone even more than I already do.

The products are different too. I think I find that more infuriating than if it was just different messaging on the same product.

My DD would totally want the action one, because that’s the one that would most ‘meet her needs’, right up til she saw the box. 😡

I think it's Vtech you should really complain to. JL aren't going to refuse to stock a really big seller like this.

Just buy the colour you want. Children won't pay much attention to the packaging anyway.

When we were kids my sister played with action man, robots, mecanno... and I was girly but hated pink and dolls. My parents just bought the relevant wanted toy - painted it if absolutely necessary (pink bike turned purple).

I bought both my God son and daughter the blue one of these cameras (well a red version of it which was all 'action'). I also bought DS a stupid selfie stick - all the boys in his class were mad for them a while ago.

Write to the manufacturer not the store (they store won't really do anything).

I only get pissed off when versions of things that are pink have less functionality or are more expensive.

Maybe its my age but when I was at school I was told by my physics teacher that he didn't like girls in his class (and they should be doing cookery). Now that is proper old school sexism but he was a git. Maybe that why a bit of pink fluff doesn't bother me so much and I ignore packaging.

They are different products with different functionality, each one clearly aimed at the sex of child that Vtech think should be interested in that functionality. That kind of lazy sexism is damaging to girls and boys, even if parents buy their sons pink selfie sticks, and their girls blue action cams.

I am also old enough to have experienced direct explicit sexism from teachers, in fact a physics teacher saying/behaving very much like your example. I still find lazy stereotyped products like this to be infuriating.

This gender stereotyping is deeply engrained. I complained to my children’s primary school because boys are allowed to wear footwear that look like / feel like trainers, whereas girls aren’t. My girl who used to play football at play time now doesn’t because if she complies with uniform policy she finds it too uncomfortable. With small actions like these from an early age we prompt boys into action and girls into being passive. In the summer girls can only wear skirts not shorts according to the uniform policy, same issue again. Sorry, not exactly on the subject, rant over.

Maybe its my age but when I was at school I was told by my physics teacher that he didn't like girls in his class (and they should be doing cookery). Now that is proper old school sexism but he was a git. Maybe that why a bit of pink fluff doesn't bother me so much and I ignore packaging.

Age...not so much as you might hope. A mere 13 years ago my DD was told by her yr1 teacher that 'girls can't be builders'. DD, who'd been saying she wanted to be a 'builder' (ie someone who builds things, like space rockets or bridges) since she was 3 fortunately knew this was rubbish... she's now just starting second year MEng. Anyway - yes, obviously we did much ignoring of the packaging, she chose toys and clothes from whichever aisle she wanted. But not all adults do ignore the packaging. Many girls get given far more shitty dumbed down, pretty rather than 'active' or science/construction type stuff.

Sounds like Let Toys be Toys should get onto this vtech idiocy.

These days? Bloody hell - my nieces didn't meet such crap growing up. All have gone into jobs that wouldn't have been 'suitable' for girls when I was a child (fire service - station chief, plumbing, electrician, company owner). Dear God when I was at school girls were advised; teaching, catering, hairdressing, local factory.

Yuck. I can just about handle stuff unnecessarily sprayed in pink glitter to appeal to girls, because although I hate it, I can accept that there is a demand for pink. But this I hate. It is presented as choice, but it is not! A real choice would be both cameras in a range of colours.

Jesus. It’s so blatant.

It green. I always chose green when I had the chance. But this was the era of orange green and brown!

I have a dd that dislikes pink and will usually choose a blue version.

Every fucking time at the til she will be asked if she knows she’s picked the blue one, does she know it’s the boys version and the girls ones are in that aisle over there. Does she want to go and change it?

Even if she is just browsing she’ll often be redirected to the “girls” aisle. Not just in toy shops- happened when she was choosing a watch in swatch, in a home decor shop...

Fortunately we have taught dd to be stubborn and go with her preference. But the pressure to by the correct gender coded product is huge.

I think it's Vtech you should really complain to. JL aren't going to refuse to stock a really big seller like this.

I agree with Beamur. Vtech must be selling to loads of outlets, not just John Lewis.
Go straight to the source, surely?