Ah November; that magical month where shops release their
Christmas gift guides and parents panic about what ridiculous
stocking fillers they should buy their spoilt, iPhone using
six-year-old sprogs.
Now, I love a good catalogue; flicking through the pages of
things I will inevitably impulse buy then instantly regret and hide
in the wardrobe for years is the highlight of my pre-Christmas
shopping (FYI NO-ONE needs an inflatable vibrating chair, not even
your single straight friends). I also spend time in the toy
section, regrettably parting with my hard earned cash for the
Christmas presents of friends' offspring who will have broken the
educational space observatory I bought them by Boxing Day.
Bastards.
Anyway, it strikes me as odd how regimented these catalogues
are; pages upon pages of dolls, kitchen sets and pushchairs
suddenly switch to wrestling figures, car tracks and science
experiment kits. It's definitely girls vs boys. And, for any parent
who is confused as to what suitably gendered toy they should buy
little Johnny, fear not; all toys are accompanied by pictures of
children of the 'correct' gender.
"Oh don't be silly!" I hear you cry. "What's wrong with
gendering toys?" Well nothing, but it's not really a sign of the
times is it? Let's take kitchen toys and cookery sets as an
example; clearly associated with girls and housewife ideals and
advertised as such. But the male to female ratio of TV chefs is
hardly following the 'rule'; it's Nigella Lawson and Lorraine
Pascale vs Jamie Oliver, Heston Blumenthal, James Martin, Gordon
Ramsay, Hugh Fearnley-Whatshisname, Rick Stein, the Hairy Bikers
and those two Italian blokes that drink wine and eat lots. It's
hardly a female dominated realm. We also saw an all-male final of
The Great British Bake Off this time around. See what I mean? It
just seems a little outdated to advertise toys, in the twenty-first
century, on the basis of gender rather than cultural trends.
I *joyfully* work with children and am always pleasantly
surprised and jealous of their wardrobe choices; last week, I
looked after a girl in a Spiderman suit with a tiara, a boy dressed
all in pink, a cowgirl called Stephanie who also had an eye patch
"cos I fink pirates are cool" and a football kit clad boy pushing a
pram. Awesome. Parents seem generally proud of their kids choices,
although the odd Dad begrudges his son's glittery purple nails;
"I'm just worried this and his pink t-shirt will turn him gay." Get
a grip. You can't gender a colour, it's ludicrous. Otherwise all
the world's flamingos would be female. His wife agrees with
me… and she's hot.
Some of you may think I'm mentally unstable and worry I'm about
to launch a post-gender society campaign, where all children are
born without gender and given unisex names like Leslie, Sandy, Joe
and Margaret. Chillax, I'm not down with that. My thoughts are
this; there are girly girls and boyish boys and boyish girls and
girly boys. That doesn't mean they'll grow up gay or straight or
whatever, it just means kids are discoverers. Let Tracey watch
wrestling and let Mark bake cupcakes; let them discover who they
are.
Gender roles are becoming less relevant and children are more
aware of themselves, different identities and the world. It's 2012;
culture is changing and the toy industry should too. Catalogues!
Open up your pages to the interests of children, not the gender of
children.
Follow Sarah on Twitter @sleevsie22
