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Gender No Longer Exists
Today I made the mistake of turning to ABC for their morning network news. After being blinded by the pastels of their dollhouse-like set, I watched several bobble-headed women and one extremely handsome fellow discuss Target stores doing away with gender signs. The giddy news “person” reported that there will be no more girls’ toys or boys’ toys — just toys. No more girls’ or boys’ clothes — just clothes. They will remove pink wall paper from the Barbie aisle and remove blue from G.I. Joe’s section. Target wants to do away with any gender signage to create “balance.”
Why? ABC explained that a pierced, hair dyed, tattooed Mother was shocked, SHOCKED!!!, when she saw the evil gender signage. Abi Bechtel is a self referred feminist who doesn’t want her kids playing with toys meant for their own gender. It’s sexist!
Don’t do this, @Target pic.twitter.com/cfh3cp5Nqa
— Abi Bechtel (@abianne) June 1, 2015
Target considers this “social media backlash” against gender signage as justification to, well, ignore gender all together.
By the way, the ABC “news” team had absolutely zero mention of anyone who may disagree with this craziness. Fair and balanced, amirite?
As a father to two sons, one a definite alpha male, and the other, well… he likes hugs, I cringed at this report. One thing I know is that kids gravitate toward what they like. Most kids like toys or clothes designed for their own gender.
What Target is doing is furthering the extremist narrative that gender in itself is exclusionary. It’s better to remove “boys” and “girls” labels as those could make the infinitesimal percentage of kids who feel different, also feel excluded.
The question is, where does this stop? When will the color blue be outlawed? When will Mattel Toys be mandated to have Barbie, Ken and Pat?
You can watch the full ABC report here.
Published in Culture
Especially if you are willing to model it.
Depends. As of May 1942, or July 1942? For the July version, you need scuba gear.
-trigger alert-
Do they prefer PINK Legos?
Too. Many. Innuendos… Must. Resist. CoC. Non-compliant. Comeback.
That’s what did it?
They’ll take any LEGOs, but they don’t think of LEGO Friends as “real” LEGOs.
Also, they want girl minifigures, and gravitate toward “real” LEGO sets that have them.
Ok, maybe we all need to rethink the zeitgeist.
My girls are YUUUGE Lego fans (I hate to think how much money sits on our shelves in the form of plastic blocks). Same as Drew’s, though. Lego Friends are okay for the younger daughter, but their favorites are from the books/movies. Oldest daughter just completed an Avenger’s set she ordered from London. Their previous favorites were Sauron’s Tower, Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and ships from Pirates of the Caribbean. Lego is awesome!
Toys and clothes present different issues.
The toys identify themselves. Trucks, action figures, sports equipment, tools, don’t have to be labeled as boy’s toys for boys to be attracted to them, and if not so labeled, a certain small number of girls will also be attracted. The converse is true for dolls and tea sets and the other things that girls love but very few boys have any interest in.
It’s really helpful for boys’ and girls’ clothes to be labeled as such. Even when basically the same, they are cut differently, they fasten differently, they are sized differently. The gayest of gay men are not usually going to shop in the women’s department.
When my daughter was about 2 or 3 we were going through Toys R Us and shopping for toys. I kept suggesting toys that I would enjoy playing with with her. After about 3 suggestions she yelled at me for suggesting Boy Toys ( Kid’s toys, not cheerleaders ), and told me she was a girl, and wanted girl toys. Kids are what they are. My 3 year old had her own mind, and didn’t need labels or the color Pink to know what she wanted, and what she wanted was girly. Unless idiot parents push them, Boys will usually pick manly toys and Girls will pick girly toys.
Lego is Crazy Successful with Lego Friends, a girl focused Lego Series.
Marty Feldman and Arrowsmith taught me to “Walk this way..”
Yeah, and SJWs HATE them.
Which tells you that SJWs actually hate girls. Or at least, girls who like girl stuff.
No discrimination in the toy department whatsoever!. Shelving is a tool of the Patriarchy. All toys should be displayed in a egalitarian heap in the middle of the floor.
Occupy Toys’R’Us!
not even.
I think the complaint has much more to do with the social media outrage (and it’s current dominance in culture) than the substance of Target’s action. I think it is perfectly consistent to praise the free market while simultaneously disliking this sort of thing. I certainly do.
Hey, I say that too! But so did Mollie.
Yes. Which is what we are doing here.
Right?
Absolutely. And in as shrill a fashion as you wish.
I’ve refused to shop at Target since the flag flap. After this, I recently put my foot down and told my wife no more of my hard earned dollars will go to Target or places like it. She agreed after she saw yet another TV show where they had teenaged boys kissing each other. Maybe we can’t stop the madness that the culture is descending into, but we damn well don’t have to support it with our money. My family is cutting a lot of financial ties. We got rid of movie channels already, and now we’re looking at cable itself. All I watch are some football and TCM, and I may even give that up soon, especially with the way ESPN is becoming more and more Olbermannized.
Bottom line: shun companies that do this stuff. Even if it inconveniences you.
Frankly, we are offended by your repeated use of the singular.
You ever make it to MacArthur’s Memorial?
And don’t call me Frankly.
Maybe I’m phenomenally dumb, but I would have read that sign as “(Generic) Building Sets” and “Girls’ Building Sets” – that is, somebody had gone out of their way to devise a product designed specifically to interest girls in construction. This could be considered condescending, I guess, but I wouldn’t have inferred that girls were banned from the “Building Sets.”
This will go further than you probably want to imagine. The logical corollary, which is the abolition of separate sports events for “men” and “women”, may take a little longer. Paging Billie Jean King…
We did go to the Nautica and Wisconsin museums, inspired by your pimping of that historic district. Thanks!
You may not be interested in reality, but reality is interested in you…
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
To be is to do. -Aristotle
To do is to be. -Descartes
Do be do be do. -Sinatra
I’m going to stay home and go to Amazon.com.
Can’t resist those skull caps and skinny jeans, huh?
Which is a new thing.