California becomes first state with gender neutral toy law

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Gender-neutral toy sections to be required in California stores

Poor kids. Now the parents will be pressuring them into being gender neutral instead.

They should have just made it so toys aren't able to be branded towards specific genders. I've always found that incredibly stupid. It's just an excuse to have different versions of the same toy with one (I noticed usually the "girls" version) being more expensive.

From February last year:

Places have been doing this for years, there is no longer the boys and girls section, instead it is just the toy section. I see Barbies and dolls and Polly Pockets and other things and the Lego section and action figures, the baby toys and toddler toys and puzzles and board games.

I haven't seen anything being labeled as boy or girl in a very long time, not since the 2000s anyway. Even McDonalds doesn't do it, instead they label their toys by their names now. "Barbie or Marvel."

I have only noticed toys being organized by types of toys (dolls in one section, board games in another, toy cars in another)

Happy to hear most stores no longer have separate sections (something they've chosen, that has nothing to do with forcing it by law). The separate sections were forcing stereotypes that didn't really need to exist. There is a theory that the gendered sections are a big reason why boys dominate in computers. Per the theory, stores had to pick which department computer games, etc. went into, and choose the boys, effectively steering girls away. Kids (or parents) often worry about fitting in or getting teased, and can be influenced against a toy by seeing it labeled for the other gender. The whole things was so completely artificial, with no rhyme or reason besides a store's opinion.

I think the onus should be on media advertisements rather than the toy shops themselves. In my opinion the problem is when advertisers only show girls playing with dolls (also with pink sparkly colours and words like "love", or "mommy" or "sweet"). That reinforces that girls play with dolls, girls are represented by pink, girls like sparkly things, girls use gentle words, and girls become parents.

In contrast advertisers show boys with toy cars (etc). The colours are blue, black, and red. They use words like "bigger, faster, stronger" or emphasis competition and action. Kids learn that boys = blue or dark colours. Their interests are based on competition. Boys don't grow up to be parents (I never understood that logic, because babies all have a bio mother and a bio father).

Translate this into a toy shop display. The pink stuff is automatically perceived as the girls' section, and the trucks, action figures or blue/red/black things are generally perceived as boys' toys. We were conditioned to believe this by advertisers.

We all know that's rubbish. Pink doesn't mean girl. Blue doesn't mean boy. Boys grow up to be fathers. Some girls don't grow up to be mothers. Everyone cooks and eats but the "Easy Bake Oven" toys are only marketed toward girls. In the real world it shouldn't matter if all the pink stuff is displayed together for aesthetic appeal or visual merchandising, because we should all know that colour or toy type has nothing to do with sex / gender. It's the marketing campaigns which try to brainwash children otherwise.

All toys are gender neutral already in my opinion. I don't think of girls when I see dolls and I don't think of boys when I see trucks. I don't associate pink with girls or blue with boys. My brain doesn't need a specific section trying to find a middleground, because I don't let the ad execs dictate how I think about toys. I really wish the advertising would change, although the stores can display products however they'd like (in my opinion).

Dumb.

there will always be someone dumber than the next law

Gotta start that social engineering early.

Why not just have a Toy section with all the toys and not divide it by gender at all?

Adding the third gender neutral section seems a little useless and maybe even a bit confusing, not sure exactly what that is supposed to help.