California law would fine department stores $1,000 for separating toys by gender

submitted by Spicylikegumbo from foxbusiness.com

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[–]Spicylikegumbo[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The bill isn't just about toys. It's about getting rid of boy and girl clothing sections too, which will evolve into getting rid of men and women section of stores. I don't know about you but I find it pretty convenient to have a ladies section. Also I don't believe in government control. This bill was drafted because one man's daughter said she didn't know why she couldn't play with the toy in the boys section. All he had to do was tell her that was bs and a toy doesn't decide her gender. Instead it wasn't enough for him to parent. He had to draft a bill to enforce his beliefs on the population.

[–]our_team_is_winning 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I stopped looking at toys when they all became made in China, but I still have a thing for toy cars. To be honest, I've never been in a toy section that said "boys" or "girls." What store does that? Maybe I was just looking for the sign that said "cars" and didn't notice some big sign hanging overhead?

And I don't think toy manufacturers are trying to force stereotypes. I think they respond to what sells. If pink items aimed at girls sell, they'll make more of them. Then it will be "well parents shouldn't be buying pink things for girls" -- well, maybe their daughters are asking for them? "Well, that's because they've been conditioned to....." All I know is I grew up in a far more sexist time in America, and I never wanted baby dolls or pink anything. I wanted toy cars and superhero action figures and my parents' only reaction was whether or not they could afford to buy them at the time.

[–]panorama 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

As a child in the 1970s and 1980s, Elizabeth Sweet played with a Lone Ranger action figure she’d pair up with Barbie for outings in a toy Jeep, Fisher Price Little People with their perfectly round heads and peglike bodies, and Star Wars figures.

But as her own daughter Isabella, now 12, was growing up, Sweet detected a significant shift in toys: There was a distinctive blue and pink divide in girl toys and boy toys.

“I don’t recall when I was young thinking, ‘That’s not for me because I’m a girl,’ but today the messaging is very clear,” said Sweet, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the UC Davis Department of Sociology. “I think it was something I had noticed for quite some time, but the light bulb moment was when I realized this gender division in toys was something I could study.”

https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/pink-and-blue-toy-divide

Edit: setting kids up for this genderist stuff before the agenda could fully hit schools? (pondering icon implied)

[–]our_team_is_winning 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Wow! Great find!!!

So it's not me having a faulty memory. Back when toys were still Made in USA (in the USA I mean; in UK they would have been made there, etc.), I honestly do not recall any divisions or any emphasis on pink. Although I did have Olivia Stretch Octopus and she was pink. For me it was about how kids treated their toys. The girls would make up stories and put on little plays while the boys would just chuck clumps of dirt at theirs and try to blow them up.

But I HAVE noticed an excess of pink and "princess" stuff the past 10 years at least. Maybe all that pink princess gear was there in the 70s too and I just wasn't interested? Also a lot of mermaid stuff has appeared -- anyone else noticed that? I thought it was just tied to that Little Mermaid cartoon film, but with the UK trans org being "Mermaids," it makes me wonder about the symbolism.

Great link & it led to these: Atlantic: Toys are more gendered now than 50 years ago https://archive.is/1pFr1 Drat, I can't get the NYT "Guys and Dolls No More?" to archive for me. Both are paywalled or limited to 2 free a month etc. If anyone can archive it, please share.