This morning in the Sunday newspaper there arrived 'The Great Big Christmas Book', or the Toys R Us 2014 Christmas catalog. For whatever reasons the really cool science-y or action toys are still all associated with boys, and the girls are stuck with pink crap and tiaras because Princess. Even the Lego spread associates the girls with fucking Disney and their version of Cinderella. Really? The boys are building a Star Wars Lego Death Star and the girls are waiting in the Lego castle for Lego Prince Charming. The boys are shown with telescopes and dinosaurs and privacy violating camera drones, while the girls are playing house or crafting and that's just about it. It detracts nothing from a boy's masculinity or a girl's femininity to have a girl peering into a microscope. Why not show that then? Instead of sticking the girl in a faux kitchen or beauty shop, which is just a tired cliche at this point and has no meaning or relevance.
It felt good to rant about all of that and I look forward to buying my future granddaughters super cool stuff with total disregard for what seems gender specific. They are kids, who cares? Plenty of guys end up in the kitchen and plenty of women end up in the lab.
UPDATE: Despite being called out on their sexist catalog last year and promising to reexamine how they market toys, nothing has changed in the Toys R Us corporate echo chamber.
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