One of my favorite times of the year is Christmas (or winter holiday season, if I'm going to be my politically correct, bleeding-heart liberal self). In part, this is because I love Christmas movies, songs, and the fact that people are generally slightly less mean during this season, but let's be real: I love gift guides. I love that in magazines or blogs they're sorted according to the kind of person you're shopping for (trendy gal pal? Outdoorsy dad? It's all covered!), and I guess my German instincts can appreciate sorting people like that.
But they're also deeply sexist, especially for kids, in a kind of way that makes me just queasy. Looking through the Black Fridays ads with my mama a few weeks ago, I made an observation that is by no means new in the feminist world, but which bears repeating and noticing at the very least.
Toys for boys involve fun things, movement, doing stuff, attacking, ACTION.
Toys for girls involve pink stuff, dressing up, taking care of things, PASSIVITY.
Sometimes, it's just that obvious. Check this ad from Toys R Us.
As you can see, it's blue, which means it's obviously for children born with penises. And in case you couldn't guess by all the pointing and shooting and building things, the title on the page assures you that these toys are
ACTION-PACKED! Because these young leaders of men deserve nothing less than action, right?
I'll be honest: these toys look fun. Potentially damaging to the interior of a house, but fun to play with and explore and interact with.
The girls' toys? Not so much.
There's not really any description of the toys. There's just a lot of dolls, pink, Barbies, and sitting. Nothing flying or remote controlled (except perhaps the pink Cadillac for Barbie and her friends). It's all passive. It could perhaps be argued that it inspires more creativity because the child playing with these toys would have to invent the action themselves (which for me, as a child, meant making my Barbies awkwardly have sex with each other, while my stuffed animals watched and gossiped. Growing up in a small town, this is pretty true to life for what adolescence held for most of us). They're not just less fun, in my definition of fun, but they also set girls up to see themselves as the passive ones, the thing that is acted upon instead of the ones taking action themselves, the ones serving others. And that makes me sad.
That being said...there are signs of progress for our society (or what progress can be gleaned from the pages of the Toys R Us catalog!). Check this out:
See those kitchens on the right? BOYS AND GIRLS baking brownies and feeding their imaginary brats. Of course, the page is still outlined in pink, so you know this is really intended for those boy tots you already think are homos, but hey, it's better than nothing.
So. I beg of you to take some awareness into the holiday season as you shop for the kids in your life. Consider getting gender-neutral gifts, or something that flips the dichotomy on its head: buy that sweet little girl a fake fun, or get that boy the dress up set you know he'd love.
What're you getting the kids in your life? As a kid, did you get gender-specific gifts from family members and Santa?
Much love,
The Sheriff
