Gender-neutrality @ Harrod's

[Binny]

I never really liked the idea of toys being deemed "gender specific" anyway. I had ponies, barbies and toy trucks when I was little.

[AmethystDefender]

If they get rid of gender sections in toy stores, maybe next they can work on getting rid of the massive amount of pink. I mean, there's nothing wrong with pink. It's my favorite color, actually. But pretty much every girl toy is either completely pink, or has some pink on it somewhere. When I was a kid, I didn't like pink, I liked blue so it made me go for boys toys more than girls. And it's sad to see how much more pink there is now than there was in the 80s. Just look at the MLP line. Almost every single pony either is pink, or has pink somewhere on them, be it their hair, cutie mark or eyes. It's crazy. And yet, the pink ones are usually the last ones to sell. Everytime I go to the pony aisle, even when the others are wiped out, I can always find lots of Pinkie Pie, Twinkleshine, Cupcake, Lulu Luck, Cherry Pie, etc. Then there's all the pink Celestias that never seem to sell. I wish they'd get a hint. Not every girl loves pink, and even if they do, they don't want everything to be pink.

I second this. I'm not opposed to pink, but it's not my favorite color (that would be purple, but that's not the point), and the fact that girl toys are so completely saturated with pink is just...ugh.  Any color can be too overbearing if it's used too much.

I haven't recently gone down the toy isles or into toy stores, mainly because I don't have any discretionary income to spend on such things (including ponies) right now, but I agree that if the 'girl' isle has too much pink, it can be headache-inducing.

As a kid, I was into both "girl" toys, and some "boy" type toys.  I had ponies of course (and other horse-related toys...that's the majority of what my toys were...I was definitely equine crazy. XP), plushies (of which I still have most of them...I may have too many plushies ; ) but I also had a few cars and things.  I had a model-backhoe, (I have no idea why, but...) plastic dinosaurs, a whole lot of plastic animal models (which I used to make zoos with my blocks for). I also used to build and shoot model rockets with my dad. 

I had dolls, but wasn't really very interested in them.  I eventually gave my barbies to my mom, and now SHE collects them.

But yeah...I was kinda all across the board as far as toys went.  I still have a lot of them...currently most of them are at my parents' place (except my ponies...they stay with ME. XP ) because I don't have room for them right now.

[Ice Crystal]

Excellent. I'm always pleased to see companies and stores that are geared towards kids take a more gender-neutral approach.

[LadyMoondancer]

The "color coding" of toys is just embarrassing.  I mean, it's gotten to the point where you see a kid's camera in blue and a kid's camera in pink next to it, because heaven forbid boys and girls buy the SAME CAMERA.  (Gasp!)

Kids absolutely pick up what they are "supposed" to like from society, their parents don't have to sit down and say, "Now remember, sweetie, pink is for girls."  I was watching a Friends rerun a while ago and one of the guys was a divorced dad who was upset because his son (who lived with his mother) had a Barbie as his favorite toy.  The whoooole episode was about him trying to get the Barbie away from the kid, and I was like, "Really??" 

I mean, on some level I guess it was mocking people who are so caught up in gender roles, but at the same time I felt it was reinforcing it too, like the tone of the show was "Well, of COURSE a dad wouldn't want his son playing with a DOLL."

On a semi-related note, isn't it weird that baby dolls are still marketed solely towards girls, even though these days we (society) generally expect men to take an interest / help out with their infant children?   "Yes, little boys, grow up to play with your babies.  But don't have a baby doll.  That's a girl's toy!"  Weird.

[Yurusumaji]

I think the main bonus here is the chance to expose kids to more toys that are different. Variety is always good.

I played with Barbies and Disney toys at home, but when I went to see my uncle he played Matchbox cars with me and he had some totally rad Matchbox sets. I never owned any myself, but I didn't need to. If he hadn't had them, I never would have been exposed to them because I was usually where all the pink was.

I think exposure to different kinds of play is the best darn thing you can offer a child. Let their young minds be met with many different things.

On a semi-related note, isn't it weird that baby dolls are still marketed solely towards girls, even though these days we (society) generally expect men to take an interest / help out with their infant children?   "Yes, little boys, grow up to play with your babies.  But don't have a baby doll.  That's a girl's toy!"  Weird.

I picked up on this when reading the article since I have a younger cousin whose favorite toy was a baby doll. He was three and no one in the family thought it was weird or had to be stopped. All he got was laughs and smiles, which made him feel like it was okay to love the baby doll and he was the happiest little boy alive in that moment of love and acceptance.

[ristvak]

Gender neutral? Why the heck have they done that!?

Maybe to help out guys who don't want to walk down "the pink aisle of doom"?

[tulagirl]

Well on this, I feel is really not going to work to go to all this trouble. We can help kids with these issues in classrooms and at home. We don't need to completely re arrange a toy store so its even more confusing to shop in than it already is.  Sorry, my opinion is that I know for a fact no child of mine is going to be damaged going into a store like  it is.  My mother bought Gi Joe, boy board games, dart shooting guns and hot wheels toys for me when I was a kid.  I had plenty of boy toys with my girl toys.  I was never confused or felt gender issues pushed on me and I really believe it was because of how I was raised.  I am still all girl too.  I still love all things pink even with that exposure.

 When I was at the store though, I didn't want to have to search through a sea of everything to find the toys I was interested in. That would have caused me a lot of frustration as a child.  Sometimes I think this world just takes everything too far.  As if parents can't help kids on their own without help from the toy store. 

Even my husband had a baby doll growing up that he loved.  I really do feel strongly about this.  This problem exists with children because parents do it to their kids.  The problem does not exist because we have an all Barbie Isle and an All Hot Wheel Isle.

It all starts when mom is having a girl and she gets everything pink.  Kids in schools also put pressures on kids.  I would also say that TV and Movies are a huge problem as well.  As far as color goes...its a selling factor really.  It would take decades to get that to change where they would still make lots of money.  It isn't the store set up. JMHO

[starlightcomet]

We don't need to completely re arrange a toy store so its even more confusing to shop in than it already is.

So long as everything will still be themed I think it can work in other stores. They could for example have one whole section dedicated to My Little Pony with one of those brand display banners above it. ToysRUs already do this, at least in the UK, it's just that all the stereotypically "for girls" brands are put side-by-side. But instead it'll be fair game for ponies to be next to the branded Transformers shelves.

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I've never been to Harrods, as its only in London it seems. What they've done sounds pretty interesting, in that they've gone more for a Disney fantasy land feel (e.g. Enchanted Forest with lighting effects, flowers, birdsong etc.). The effort definitely makes them unique, as they say they want to be more than a toy shop, more of an experience for kids to enjoy than just shop in. So for other stores it might not work that are more strictly business, but the general principle could work as above with being themed by brand but not gender.

[InkyMilk]

I completely agree with everything you said tulagirl, as I truly believe no matter how a toy store may display their childrens' toys, it won't make a lick of difference if the ideas about gender equality aren't being taught at home first.

Case in point, I used to work at Michaels, which is a craft store. There, things are grouped by what they are-painting supplies, wood crafts, beadwork, scrapbooking, etc. Nothing is really displayed in such a way that is gender exclusive, even though many of the crafts can be geared toward children.  One day while I was working the check out line, a young boy (maybe around 4?) was allowed to pick out a candy. He picked a candy necklace. At first his mother told him no and specifically told him it was for girls. When he kept asking she gave in, but not before reminding him that necklaces were for girls and not boys.

I'm pretty sure nowhere do they separate candy between the boys and the girls. Candy is candy and it's all just shoved on a wall. Obviously the display doesn't matter for some individuals with their own ideas about what is or isn't appropriate for girls and boys to play with, so I don't see how creating one confusing mess of toys in the name of 'gender equality' would make much of a difference either.

[tulagirl]

One day while I was working the check out line, a young boy (maybe around 4?) was allowed to pick out a candy. He picked a candy necklace. At first his mother told him no and specifically told him it was for girls. When he kept asking she gave in, but not before reminding him that necklaces were for girls and not boys.

Yes and who was the problem in this? The parent.  Mom just made a big deal out of nothing and not the store. Sad really.  Its just candy.  I remember getting those temporary tatoos as a kid from the candy isle in convenience stores. I wanted robots and monsters so I knew just what packs to pick. No one had to help me out and all the candy was on one isle.

[starlightcomet]

As we've experienced though, not all parents are like that (mine weren't either). So do all stores need to be like that?  So long as they're still grouped by brand/show/series etc. Or by the type of toy e.g. dolls, plushies. I doubt any store would just chuck everything in 1 big pile (and neither is Harrods). Though I did used to like the plushie mountain some Disney Stores had.  But you can still find Cinderella next to Cars in Disney Stores since they just have a general plushie section on shelves.

Imagine if all stores did start grouping candy flowers, hearts and such together "for girls" in one area and moved the rest elsewhere.   

4 Year Old Girl Questions Toy Marketing Strategies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3mTTIoB_oc

Note how she doesn't say "blue" for boys. I think most "boys toys" sections in stores are actually pretty varied in colour and not predominately blue.

[Moss]

I hated the color pink when I was little. Absolutely hated it! I had no problem looking in the "boy" toy aisles as a kid, but I loathed venturing into the "girl" aisles because of the copious amounts of pink. I prefered the Barbies and the MLPs, but I always hated how seperate the sections were, especially since the stuff I wanted was covered in pink.

And there are times when companies tell you what's for girls and what's for boys. McDonald's is the best example. Whenever they had two toys, one was for boys, and one was for girls. I remeber my mother being asked at the counter or drive up window if the meals were for boys or girls, and that dictated which toy you got. I sometimes asked for the boy's toy, but it was pretty obviously seperated by gender.

[Zombelina]

Honestly? I've got kids and I can tell you something for a fact, kids don't care about being gender neutral. My eldest daughter also doesn't care if she wants to buy a rocket or a football, the same way my youngest daughter doesn't think about how her dolls, ponies and pink sparkly things are 'female'. They actually don't care. It's adults that have the issues about it

It's not that kids care about gender equality/neutrality etc, but they do generally get ushered into the set roles of each gender very early, and these roles severely limit what we feel is ok to do in life, what we play with and who we are. If something like this will help bring down those concrete walls in between the gender roles, I'm all for it.

What little.fox said  And I did indeed notice as a child which things were "for girls" and "for boys" and it wasn't because of how my parents raised me. They raised me to see both genders as equal and they let me have all kinds of toys--I had MLP, Star Wars action figures, Lego, plushies, toy swords, dolls, whatever.

But when I was in a toy store with strongly coded girl and boy aisles I felt I was being a bad person for liking the stuff in the boy aisle even though my parents said it was totally okay. Because the pink/blue divide is bigger than a family--it's society-wide and some kids, like me (who is admittedly overly sensitive), do indeed pick up on the gendered expectations (whether expressed outright or more subtly/subconsciously) coming from school, friends, teachers, store employees, catalogues, TV ads, etc etc etc... and in-store marketing.

So yeah, I'm all for non-gendered ways of organizing toys. If we continue to make gender a dividing issue on such an everyday level as a toy store, how will our society ever learn to ease off the gender-coding in all the other areas of life?

[ApertureScience]

Go, Harrods!  I think that's awesome!  I've read plenty of stories from guys who grew up playing with "girl toys" and like the color pink, and I always thought they were cool for standing up to the gender norms.  Same for the women who played with G.I. Joes and stuff.

To be honest, I'm kind of wondering if the "you're a girl, so you like pink" thing became so engraved in my mind at one point that I thought it was true.  I went through a spell where I liked everything pink, and I even had my bedroom walls painted pink.  Then, after I got into middle school or so, I hated pink and wanted to avoid it as much as possible.  When I look back, sometimes I ask myself, "Did I really like pink or was that the gender stereotype talking?"

I don't mind the color too much now.  But going down the girl toy aisles does kind of bug me...

[biologistkid]

And there are times when companies tell you what's for girls and what's for boys. McDonald's is the best example. Whenever they had two toys, one was for boys, and one was for girls. I remeber my mother being asked at the counter or drive up window if the meals were for boys or girls, and that dictated which toy you got. I sometimes asked for the boy's toy, but it was pretty obviously seperated by gender.

McDonald's toys are a great example of this. Or, you could watch the commercials on TV. Most "cooking sets" (like ice cream makers, Easy Bake, etc) the commercials will strictly have girls in them -- craft kits are like this, too (I don't think I've ever seen a boy in an ad for stick-on gem kits, despite my younger male cousins' fascination with them). Regardless of whether parents are involved in dictating "this is a boy/girl toy", there are still societal messages being sent to our kids.

I like the idea of grouping toys by theme (ie, "fantasy" and "animals", etc). The toys would still be organized in a way that would make them easy to find, without labeling them "girl" or "boy" toys.