If you have children, nieces and nephews, or if you are a child reading this (aren’t you clever, yes you are), you have probably at some stage gone into a department store to purchase a toy.
Luckily for everyone and to avoid the chaos of a world without strict gender lines, toys in these stores have traditionally been separated into handy colour schemes and groups that indicate if they are for ‘boys’ or for ‘girls’.
Now, in a new development, giant retailer Target has announced that they are going to phase out gender-based signage in some departments in their US stores.
Signs in the children’s bedding area will stop suggesting selections specifically for boys or girls, and the categorisation of the toy aisles by gender (including by using gendered colour schemes) will cease.
This news has many consumers absolutely fuming. The Target Facebook page has been flooded with comments from shoppers expressing their disgust at the decision, and announcing that they will no longer be shopping at Target.
There are differing reasons people seem to be expressing anger. Some parents claim that their busy schedule doesn’t afford them the eons of time they need to pick through items trying to figure out the complex puzzle of which toy is for boys and which is for girls. They simply don’t have time to be waylaid by the scary maze of girls toys if they want something for a boy!
This reaction is completely understandable. Can you even begin to imagine the confused horror of walking into an unmarked aisle looking for trucks and being blinded by varied shades of pink being reflected back into your eyeballs? It seems very dangerous.
How is someone meant to purchase a gift for their niece if they are not directed immediately to the doll-aisle for girls who love girls’ things and the colour pink that is for girls only that only girls like and boys shouldn’t?
How can shoppers be expected to spare the few seconds it takes to look down aisles for what they want?
How are parents meant to dissuade their male child from wanting to buy a doll if he thinks that he is allowed to want one because there is no gendered sign?
What if playing with a doll makes him (shock horror) seem feminine, or makes him (gasp) gay, a thing that science has definitely proven is undisputed factual science supported by lots of science evidence?
Target is truly creating anarchy with this decision to remove a few signs.
The main reason people seem to have a problem with the decision can be summed up thusly: “…boys should be allowed to be boys and girls should be allowed to be girls, and boys and girls are naturally different and will choose different toys anyway.”
So … okay?
Even if you believe this, as far as I can tell the decision to remove signs classifying things as ‘boys’ or ‘girls’ does not in any way impact the ability for a boy to choose a truck or a girl to choose a doll if that is what they ‘naturally’ want.
Will you and your children be wandering aimlessly through the aisles, lost for days and resorting to eating Play-Doh because there are no signs pointing you to what boys and girls should desire?
If children do, in fact, need those signs to inform their choice about what to select, it would be quite a blow to your argument that children will just naturally choose gendered toys.
Another running criticism from the furious shoppers is that Target is kowtowing to the PC Police – that gendering toys doesn’t matter (but of course un-gendering them somehow does); that it is a sign that society is attempting to stop boys from being boys and girls from being girls, and something to do transgender children and Caitlyn Jenner.
I think, anyway. I’m not sure, I stopped reading. The ferocity of the reaction is shocking.
Literally all that is happening is that Target is no longer imposing the concept of gender onto the shelf arrangements for some toys for children.
Girls and boys who want to play with trucks or dolls won’t have to go into aisles explicitly saying that they should not be there, choosing that toy. There won’t be a sign telling them that they are weird, or in some way defying what everyone thinks they should be like.
Maybe policies like this will eventually lead to kids playing with whatever toy that will make them happy, instead of worrying about being teased by kids or scolded by their parents for not adhering to the ridiculous gender roles we put on children, or for not buying into the fact that gender should have any influence on the kind of toy they play with.
As a committed member of the PC Police and someone who does want to blur the lines between gender and what we ascribe to people, I am actually sad to say that this is obviously not some kind of trap. Yet, people are reacting like they are in the game Operation and someone has taken their brain. It’s fine everyone; calm your farm.
Boys can still choose a truck if that is what they want. Girls can still get a doll. Nobody is saying there is anything wrong with that; the Target Police won’t appear and drag your children to Target Jail.
However, if you are a parent who is placing the concept of gender differences upon your children from the time of birth for whatever reason, and the thought of sign-less aisles is terrifying to you, just know that the only difference is that you will just have to look around for five seconds more.
Maybe use that extra time as a chance to take a long hard look at yourself while you are there.
