Indeed, it seems as if people have no grasp on the fact that these signs, and the existence of aisles filled with pink toys that are ONLY FOR GIRLS has nothing to do with innate gender identification, and everything to do with MARKETING. A look at Target’s Facebook page gives an overview of exactly how passionate people feel about the topic. It also plans to remove gender references, including pink, blue, yellow, and green shelf display paper, in the toy aisles.
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And, like in most any major change, there was some backlash, too.
No one is taking the bras out of the women’s section and the jock straps out of the men’s. The move comes after an Ohio woman tweeted an image showing a sign differentiating between “building sets” and “girls’ building sets”.
But that hasn’t stopped the anti-PC consumer uprising.
Evangelist Franklin Graham is calling for his followers to boycott the superstore.
“I have news for [Target] and for everyone else”, he wrote.
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“.
Target recently made the announcement that they are going to try and reduce the instances of gender-directive signage in their stores, in places like the toy aisles and kids’ bedding, where such classifications aren’t really needed. “The caption on the segment: “‘Sign’ of the Times”. The older your children get, the harder it is to edge away from heavily gendered clothing. Because what this really does is challenge us to be better parents.
He said he sides with Target, but his comments were “more about the laughs”.
But Target is not attacking gender itself, only the outdated idea that girls and boys should play with certain shapes and colors of molded plastic and not others.
“In order to be gender-neutral, they won’t be separating things like toys and bedding into boys’ and girls’ sections”. Then he joked that Target was “off target” before committing the cardinal sin of laughing at his own bad pun.
Target’s drop-down menu for their online toy section. And if a higher power ordained that your baby boy should play with toy monster trucks, those are still available and you can still obtain one in exchange for legal tender, as is your God-given right in a capitalist society.
Target isn’t eliminating all gender-based signage in stores – only those areas where the gendering of items makes no difference – but that hasn’t stopped the right-wing from lashing out at the retailer.
Target felt compelled to remove gender labels from toys due to customers’ requests and complaining tweets. While I’m still in charge of my 2-year-old’s sartorial choices, I’d like the option to clothe her in a way that doesn’t scream “girl”. Critics blame the backlash on second-wave feminism, the nostalgia of gift-giving grandparents and shrewd marketers, who realized they could convince parents of boys and girls to buy two versions of the same product.
As more and more people are choosing not to restrict their identities to gender, the way we shop could be in for a change.
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Target is no longer labeling its toys by gender. Customers can categorize Barbies and Hot Wheels perfectly well without a store assigning gender to them.
