As a parent of 5, 3 and 1 year old girls I cannot stomach this. As a parent I never tell them when they're buying "boy" stuff; I just rely on the signs... and now that the 5 year old can read who the heck is going to enforce these arbitrary gender stereotypes on my behalf?
Do you guy against this have any idea how insane you sound? They are basically changing nothing but some simple signs.
Oh, and my little girls (5, 3, 1) love them some Transformers. They don't know that's a "boy" thing BECAUSE IT'S NOT A BOY THING.
Ok, and? Are your little girls begging you for Transformers? I have two girls and a boy- almost 5 (girl), 3 (boy), and almost 1 (girl). My little girls enjoys playing with trucks. My little boy enjoys playing with his sister's dolls. They also play together with the various toys using different ones to represent Godzilla.
The difference is, though my daughter has fun with my son's toys and vice-versa, when they are asking for toys that they are excited about, guess which ones they are? My boy has never asked for a doll while we are out. My girl has never asked for a truck.*
If I'm headed to the store for a gift for a little girl or a little boy (whether one of my own or one of their friends), it's helpful to have the interests grouped. It makes finding toys easier.
And, YES, this is about convenience for the customers. Target just inconvenienced their customers in order to appeal to people who are convinced that most boys don't like certain toys and most girls don't like certain other toys.
I'm not sure I get the outrage or how this really caters to a super small subset of the population.
Gender norms are hugely influenced by society. Yes, there are some bits and pieces that are biological, but a lot of it is related to learned behavior as well.
Toys and play are a way for children to interact with objects and explore all sorts of stuff and creative play is the best. It's not about what the toy is, it's what they do with the toy that counts.
So how does that make an object a "boy" object or a "girl" object?
*shrug* Emily hated baby dolls. She actually would freak out if presented with one for a long time. I'm not sure I blame her. Those things can be a little creepy.
OTOH, she adores toy trucks and tractors. It all makes a lot of sense. She was never around babies much and she lives on a farm, so baby dolls are a no go, but trucks and tractors? Those are awesome.
Personally, I could care less about gender specific toys. Just put all the toys and crap in one aisle and let the kids figure it out. The amusing part is watching them do that.
Were this an isolated event, it wouldn't garner the umbrage. It is representative of the current battle over the denial of human nature and of differences between the sexes.
"Gender norms" may be played out with very small differences in different societies, but there are hard-wired differences between the sexes and this is part of the effort to deny those differences. Please find a society where the men give birth and nurse. Go ahead, I'll wait. Find a society where women willingly take on the most physically demanding and dangerous jobs. Again, I'll wait. You have it almost exactly backwards- a small amount of it is learned behaviour, but the vast majority is hard-wired biologically.
And, on that note, there are some girls who have a much greater preference for boy toys/games/pursuits. We even have a name for them: tomboy. We quite recognize that some girls like boy things, but also recognize that they are rare. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a special term for it, they'd just be "girls".
There are also boys who prefer girlish toys/games/pursuits. My guess is that it is fewer than the converse seeing as we don't really have a name for that.
Neither of these situations prove that the vast majority of boys and girls don't have starkly different preferences.
Again, it's no big deal,
taken by itself, but of course this isn't done in a vacuum. This is Target broadcasting its chosen side in World War T.
*(Trains, of course, are a different matter. The Thomas people did a great job personifying them so that they actually appeal to both boys and girls.)
