Thanks for this. But I am confused by the "research" - if it can be called that - this article is based on, which is described as follows: A search on Google for “gifts for girls” and “Amazon” last week suggested 74 gifts from the online store. Items in the top 20 included a toy washing machine, a pink play kitchen, a wooden set of pots and pans and a toy ironing set.
So did they do this search on Google or on the Amazon website? Searching Google & Amazon are two very different things. (Also, why is the Times in that sentence putting quotation marks around Amazon? Amazon is the official name of the company; it's not a nickname.)
When I did my own search just now on Google for "gifts for girls" I got totally different results than the Times. In fact, the first non-advertiser-sponsored result (after three sponsored ones) that came up was a recent article from Esquire listing 27 items, most of them non-sexist. Yes, there was a makeup kit, a cosmetics case, a purse & a mini waffle iron. But most of the gifts were "empowering" ones that encourage girls to become inventors, architects, artists, animators, electronics whizzes, photographers, plant-growers, home repairers (what used to be called "handymen"), bike riders & basketball players. It's worth a look.
www.esquire.com/lifestyle/g1692/best-girls-gifts/
Still on the same search-results page on Google, an Amazon-sponsored result headlined "Girl Gifts" appeared immediately above the Esquire article. When I clicked on it, I was taken to this:
www.amazon.com/s/?hvptwo&hvnetw=g&keywords=girl+gifts&hvadid=313636410678&index=aps&hvpone&ref=pd_sl_5oein4onps_e&hvpos=1t2&hvdev=c&hvexid&hvqmt=e&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&hvtargid=kwd-197225305&hvrand=10448180539677968722
The first page of the "gifts for girls" category on Amazon showed 26 items, starting with a "hover soccer game". Many items shown are gender-neutral products needlessly manufactured in pink, such as a hot pink set of walkie-talkies & a pink HD video camera. And some of them are items conventionally considered "girly" such as a pink diary, various jewelry items, a pink shoulder bag with bunny ears, whimsically-decorated knee socks & a "Kids Washable Makeup Set With A Glitter Cosmetic Bag". But most of the items on the first page (again on Amazon not Google) were things like terrariums (three on the first page), cameras of various sorts, gaming accessories & kits for doing arts & crafts. The only home or kitchen appliance shown is an ice machine for making shaved iced & "snoballs". And one of the girlier jewelry items is an expandable (all-age) bangle bracelet that says "You are Braver Stronger Smarter Than You Think", which Amazon labels a "#1 Best Seller".
Page two on the same Amazon link shows more terrariums, arts & crafts, jewelry, & kits for making lip balm, glitter nail art, & chalk pens for hair colouring. But the fourth item is a book "Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World".
When I went to Amazon directly from my browser (not through Google) & typed in "gifts for girls" in its search bar, the results were even less sexist. The first two items on page one were ad-sponsored, one a mini-drone set for boys & girls, the other a NextX Doctor Kit, ("35 Pieces Pretend Play Toys Kids Electronic Stethoscope Dentist Medical Kit Gifts Boy & Girl Educational Learing Roleplay, Blue"). Other sponsored items on the page include two more drone kits, & a wooden truck car-carrier for young children. The non-sponsored items included mostly arts & crafts kits, a jumbo work surface & storage case for jigsaw puzzles, & a "VTech Kidizoom Smartwatch DX" in purple, along with several items from the Amazon "Gifts for Girls" page accessed via Google such as the glittery makeup case, the pink bunny-ears purse & pink walkie-talkies & cameras. But no jewelry.
I did these searches from where I am the moment, the USA, so I'm wondering if it's possible that searching Google & Amazon from the UK might produce entirely different results. Not to diss the Times, especially when it's doing such good work on on the threats to women's rights posed by transgenderism, but as a former journalist who once worked at an internationally-esteemed publication, I think the real lesson here is don't believe everything reported in the press.