Boys will be Boys and Girls will be Girls

[longbridge]

I nearly fell of my chair when I heard this rubbish on TV the other night.

They want to change the way Aussie toy shops display their stock, they want to do away with aisles for boys toys and aisles for girls toys and mix them all up, this means if you want to buy a child a train set you will most likely find it next to the Barbie Dolls, is this political correctness gone mad or what.  they also want to turn our kids into cross dressers but I wont go there 

[austinbob]

As long as the barby dolls are the right scale for the model railway stuff then that's ok!

[Komata]

 Sadly a sign of the times we live in, where 'equality is all' - except to those who impose it, with George Orwells's comments about 'All animals are equal....' coming immediately to mind, closely followed by 'We will have order....'.

[ChrisWV10]

As long as kids are having fun what does it matter what they play with? It's adult imposed views that boys should play with trains, cars, soldiers, meccano and girls should play with dolls, prams and tea sets.

We live in a world where women are no longer expected to stay at home, keep house and look after the kids. Girls can aspire to be programmers, engineers or join the services which used to be the preserve of men? If they want to play with construction sets or trains, let them. Likewise there should be no stigma attached to boys playing with dolls and tea sets and being interested in caring professions, catering or fashion which are deemed to be feminine careers.

C.

[joe cassidy]

I must admit I used to covet my sister's Britain's garden sets, even though they were 1/32 scale, and too big for my train set.

Best regards,


Joe

[Lawrence]

So finally the colonies have joined the 21st century, hurrah!! 

I don't think esteemed members like Caz and Veronica (and others) will have any issues with this, more likely they will be disappointed at your opinion that the idea is rubbish.

[Agrippa]

My brother Nancy agrees.....

[silly moo]

If my parents had taken any notice of gender stereotyping I probably wouldn't have been interested in model railways. I had a wide variety of toys: dolls, soft toys, Lego, Corgi cars, Britains farm animals and model railways.

I see no reason why girls shouldn't have train sets and play with cars, we travel in them and drive them after all! We are even allowed to fly planes!

Here's an interesting article from The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/gender-stereotyping-why-should-boys-have-the-best-train-sets-9893216.html

I think the toys should all be all mixed up in the shop but parents do have an influence in their choice of their children's toys. Unenlightened parents will enforce gender stereotyping.

I think it would be a good idea to encourage both boys and girls to take up railway modelling if the hobby is to continue to survive.

I don't like the idea of bright pink Barbie model train sets though 

[ScottyStitch]

I nearly fell of my chair when I heard this rubbish on TV the other night.

They want to change the way Aussie toy shops display their stock, they want to do away with aisles for boys toys and aisles for girls toys and mix them all up, this means if you want to buy a child a train set you will most likely find it next to the Barbie Dolls, is this political correctness gone mad or what.  they also want to turn our kids into cross dressers but I wont go there 

I'm afraid I don't see anything wrong with this at all. The old fashioned view may be the reason that there aren't many female engineers knocking about, when the ones I have encountered have a very good aptitude towards it.

[MalcolmInN]

I see no reason why girls shouldn't have train sets and play with cars, we travel in them and drive them after all!

I couldnt agree more, well said, my wife had a train set when she was young and our daughter has one now as well (sadly in the wrong you-know-what for further mention in this forum ! )

We are even allowed to fly planes!

All together now, everyone, - "But are you allowed to park them ? " b-boom.

On a serious note : I thought it would be a good wheeze to buy each of them an N train set for Xmas (which of course I would be able to play with !)
BUT where are they all, TBA, Pre-order, discontinued etc! have they missed a marketing op. for this Xmas ?

[silly moo]

Here's another indignant little girl ....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11254779/Girl7-forces-Tesco-to-take-down-fun-gift-for-boys-sign.html

Good for her I say.

[silly moo]

One thing that does dismay me apart from the segregated boys and girls areas in the toy shops is the general quality of toys these days (I must be getting old) but everything seems to be very cheap and plasticky.

[MikeDunn]

Might be because (almost) everything is made of very cheap plastic ... 

[MalcolmInN]

Here's an interesting article from The Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/gender-stereotyping-why-should-boys-have-the-best-train-sets-9893216.html

From that link :
"But when she asked her mother, Kim Carnell, to put the "For girls" filter on "
I wonder why she asked that ?

It was a choice offered not forced ?

I may have missed something, just speed-read it

If anyone is worried about me making that parking joke, watch out else I will bore you all with tales of how I stayed home to do the home and family thing whilst my wife continued working , , ,

[Pengi]

I've just looked on the Toys R Us website. You can filter by age range and then there is the option to filter by boys, girls and unisex. What is interesting is that looking at the 12-14 year old age range is that there are 4679 toys for boys, 4382 for girls and only 50 unisex.