Perhaps You've Heard About This...
Ok here is the article (there are also a few more, but they all basically say the same thing), but I'll briefly explain it to you:
A mom tweeted out (you can see the picture in the article) about Target making toys gender-based and how this wasn't good (e.g. Building Sets, Girl's Building Sets) and it sparked some attention. When this happened, Target became aware of it. Now the company is deciding to make products from its home, toy, and entertainment department gender-neutral. They are saying they want to move forward with their customers and that suggestions based on gender are not necessary when it comes to things like those departments.
Ok, so here is what I think on the subject. Look, it's good and all, and I understand people aren't too keen on there being a gender separation, but you know what, I don't really think it's necessary. Perhaps, maybe for the entertainment section, but honestly, I go to Target quite frequently and I have never seen a separation in the entertainment department (i.e. books, movies, CD's).
You're probably thinking now, what is she crazy? How is this bad? This is revolutionary! Yeah, sure it is. I see that, but I find it a bit strange that one woman can just change a whole company. Do you know why toys/home/clothes have separate sections for boys and girls? Because maybe that's what more girls and boys would want. Things in the girl section are what girls want and things in the boy section are what boys want. Sure, this is not necessarily true. As a kid who grew up not even playing with many toys in general, but had board games, creative toys, and school workbooks as my entertainment, I understand that toys are gender-neutral. As a teen, who now prefers shopping for her T-shirts in the guys/boys section of the store, I understand that clothes don't need any gender on them either.
I don't necessarily think we don't need labels on things either. We need labels to differentiate. As for the example that the mom tweeted, building sets and girls building sets. I think it was probably a bit of a misunderstanding. Girl's building sets may have referred to perhaps a dollhouse, and building sets, may have referred to other things like a birdhouse or a log cabin, which don't necessarily have to be for girls or boys. For something more obvious of a differentiation we can use Legos for example. There are girl Legos and boy Legos and maybe people think "Well, hey that's not right. Who cares what little kids play with?" Which brings me to my next point, why do you care what your kids are playing with. Whether they get it from the boys' section or the girls' section, it really doesn't matter. Labels should not bother people. The developer of the product obviously has a target audience whether it be boys, girls, or both.
There are toys we associate with each gender and that's okay. It does not have to make headlines nor does it have to change a whole company. A label doesn't define a person for who they are, so why are we saying labels are bad? Because they have a gender? Well, if that were true, we'd have to change the whole layout of stores. Soon enough, people will be saying that you can't label things by age, race, sexuality, and much more.
Labels are just there to organize and what I think people need to understand is that kids don't even pay attention to those labels. I mean they're too short and excited to even read it, am I right?
Another thing is, as I said, they're there to organize. Imagine an aisle filled with a bunch of different toys. I mean I think the reason the label is there is so that we can access things much easier.
And those are just my thoughts on this. Please share your thoughts down below. Thanks!
