gender-neutral Swedish toy catalog

solipsistnation · **Posted:** Fri Nov 30, 2012 7:18 pm

As a father who totally supports his son's enthusiasm for My Little Pony (and who would be teaching daughters to use knives and tools if I had any), I dig this quite a lot.

Quote:

Scandinavian toy retailer Top-Toy, a licensee of the Toys “R” Us brand, has made a bold move in its Swedish catalog this year, working to do away with the guns-for-boys, dolls-for-girls gender system that is a mainstay of the industry. Instead, its catalog is trying to be gender-neutral, reflecting Sweden’s national focus on equality in the workplace and in society.

http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2012/11/29/highlights-from-the-gender-neutral-swedish-toys-r-us-catalogue/

If you're curious, here's the whole catalog:

http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4c3e4a62

interrobang?! · **Posted:** Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:16 pm

Yeah, there was an article about this the other day in the Guardian saying it was about the company being previously complained about regards advertising gender-specific toys. But now they are saying all the genders can brandish toy guns! Woo!

Aubade · **Posted:** Sat Dec 01, 2012 11:25 am

I just looked through the whole catalog. I like it! Of course there are still some blue/pink pages, but with no kids on them. And they have pics of girls playing with cars, and quite a few with boys ironing, cooking & playing with babies. I think they did a pretty good job.

solipsistnation · **Posted:** Sat Dec 01, 2012 12:17 pm

Yeah-- I thought the pink and blue vacuum cleaners (for girls and boys) were sort of weird, but hey-- blue vacuum cleaners! For boys! I actually own a blue vacuum cleaner, which looks like a sort of sci-fi backpack.

Girls with spy toys and toy guns! Boys changing diapers!

chiveggie · **Joined:** Sun Nov 07, 2010 7:17 pm **Posts:** 664

there needs to be more of this in the world. I'm so tired of the pink and blue aisles at places like target, and my kid isn't even born yet.

annak · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:06 pm

As good a place as any to put this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... more204462

Apparently Hasbro is going to redo their Easy Bake Oven color scheme and commercials. The slideshow at the bottom of toys' pinkification is required viewing.

annak · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:10 pm

Oh and just in case all the pink and purple in one aisle and the rest of the colors in another didn't tip you off, the gender police are here to make it explicitly clear (this is at the Navy Exchange):

Ariann · **Joined:** Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:10 pm **Posts:** 1953

We went to Toys 'r' Us last night. Three rows of pink signs with dolls, a million rows of blue signs with action figures, cars, etc. No "girl/boy" signs, but pink and blue is clear enough.

rhelune · **Posted:** Wed Dec 19, 2012 2:53 pm

'For example, a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw’s Infants’ Department said, “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” '

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2012 ... ined-pink/

Ariann · **Joined:** Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:10 pm **Posts:** 1953

Just highlights how non-essential and meaningless these attributions are. I wonder if, in the margins between the switch on blue/pink there was any increased flexibility of gender norms about color, dress, etc.

beforewisdom · **Joined:** Thu Dec 09, 2010 5:28 pm **Posts:** 848

solipsistnation wrote:

As a father who totally supports his son's enthusiasm for My Little Pony (and who would be teaching daughters to use

Daughters or knives? :)

kimba · **Joined:** Wed Jan 05, 2011 7:44 pm **Posts:** 1922

Aubade wrote:

I just looked through the whole catalog. I like it! Of course there are still some blue/pink pages, but with no kids on them. And they have pics of girls playing with cars, and quite a few with boys ironing, cooking & playing with babies. I think they did a pretty good job.

I liked it too. I actually like that the boy's vacuum is blue. Well, not pink. It would have been cool if it were green or red too.

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gender-neutral Swedish toy catalog

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