Whilst walking around LEGOLAND at the weekend, J piped up about “Girl’s LEGO”, as we wandered into the ‘Heartlake City’ zone. It’s true, the ‘LEGO Friends’ brand is clearly targeted at Girls, it’s all very pink and girlie. I tried to explain to him that LEGO, is just, well – LEGO. There’s no such thing as Girl’s LEGO it’s all the same thing. Both him and G have a few LEGO Friends sets, and it’s become part of our ever increasing LEGO pile.
It still irks me massively where we live in a world where toys are gendered. I’ve never really worried about what my two play with. G flitted from dollies, puzzles and NERF Guns. When was J was smaller, he was obsessed with pushing G’s old dollies around in a buggy. I wasn’t concerned at this at all, he’d toddle around town, usually followed with adoring ‘Ahh’s’. He was replicating what I did to him – pushing his baby around, checking it was okay, and trying to feed it. Sadly, you’d get comments from older generations –
“Boys shouldn’t be playing with dollies!!”
“Get him some boys toys!”
I was just content he was showing a caring, nurturing side, rather than tear-assing around with a plastic gun ‘shooting’ people.
Are toy companies FINALLY getting it?
I was really pleased when I saw that Smyths Toys launched their new advertising campaign with an animated little boy as the star, they didn’t stick to ‘gendered’ toys. He’s seen, flying around the universe, and then dropped into a dress as a ‘Queen of the Land’. It perfectly illustrates that toys aren’t about gender, they are just toys. The advert is full of normally ‘gendered’ toys, all living and playing in the mind of this little chap.
It won’t let me embed it – but you can watch the advert on YouTube here if you’ve not seen it.
I’d be cool if J wanted to play around in a Disney Princess dress commanding his loyal Furby subjects (although Furbys are flipping expensive – he can command one of them).
I’ve got a 13 year old daughter, who’s happiest on her skateboard and doing stunts on her bike. She’s still my little baby girl no matter what she plays with. We live in a world where kids are stuck behind screens. I’d much rather she was nagging me for a new bike or her 6th skateboard than demanding a new PS4. J is currently obsessed with Shopkins, and his Christmas List is largely filled with these pink plastic ‘things’. He doesn’t see the fact it’s all pink and very feminine – they are just little things he loves. I couldn’t be happier.
Toys are Toys – The End.
Love this. The fact that toys are gendered has never particularly bothered me, just because I wouldn’t pay any attention to what our children ‘should’ be playing with. I think kids can play with whatever the hell they want – whatever colour they are and whether they are ‘supposed’ to be for one gender or not. I’ve started to see more and more boys playing with a pushchair and dolly and I really love it. I think whatever our kids are drawn to is great.
Ava loves dolls and princesses at the moment, but she also loves playing football and with trucks. I hate the thought that a parent would stop their son playing with a dolly if he wanted to.
For some reason though, Ava has started saying things like “football is just for boys” and “only boys can do that” – I guess she’s getting it from people at school. So I try and explain that anyone can do anything, but of course, she’s the boss so I’m wrong.
I love the Smyths advert too – I don’t think I would have even noticed that he wears a princess dress if you hadn’t pointed it out, but it’s really nice to see xx