Jenna Bush over at Legion of Leia posted the following photo on Facebook
And rightly pointed out that there were no female superheroes in the selection. And she is right. Black Widow and Captain Marvel are nowhere to be found. Looks like another case of gender steretyping in toys.
A quick Google search brought me to the Grocery Gems blog from England that had this photo:
It appears that the braintrusts and Kinder and Disney have decided to release boys and girls versions of this toy. The girls are supposed to want the Fairies toys, the boys the Avengers. Which is sad, because there are boy characters in the fairies series. Even if only girls are fans, they actually might want to play with the boy characters. There might even be boy fans. But like with the Avengers, the assumprion is that these are single gender toys.
This is further evidence of the rampant gender stereotyping that takes place in our toy ailses. From colour choices to situations, toy manufacturers are dividing our boys and girls worlds into two relms that never cross.
Which is sad. We know gender is not binary, but instead a spectrum. Why do we insist that our toys be binary? And don’t tell me it boils down to economics. There are plenty of young women out there who love comics and have money to spend on merch. Give them the opportunity. Same goes for boys who love princesses and fairies.
It’s 2015, it’s time for us to walk away from the Victorian gender roles.
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I have two kids, a boy and a girl, and neither one follows the stereotypical likes and dislikes that these manufacturers seem to think exist, probably due in large part to the fact I have tried REALLY hard to avoid pushing them in any particular direction. We were in a grocery store and I had promised my kids a treat since they had behaved well. They asked for Kinder eggs and when we got to the shelf, all they had left were the 'girl' eggs. I was really taken aback. Interestingly though neither of my kids even batted an eyelash because I have worked hard to not stigmatize any particular color. I don't think either even realized anything was different from the usual Kinder eggs we buy and I certainly didn't point it out. They both happily played with the jewelry inside once the chocolate had been consumed. When will toy makers start realizing it is HEALTHY to like a wide range of characters/colors/stories/clothes? Why, in this age of an ever-expanding world, are they so keen to try and limit our kids?