Boys will be Boys and Girls will be Girls

[Calnefoxile]

It's not just with toys, I'm a Cub Scout Leader and I have girls in my Cub Pack. In fact we've had girls in Scouting for about 10 years now, not that I'm completely comfortable with it, but can understand the rationale behind it, although quite how a boy would go on if he wanted to join the Guide movement, I don't know.

I do think that there should be somewhere where boys can be boys and girls can be girls, now I'm not saying that as a sexist comment, but there are occasions when I get comments from my male Cubs of "Do the girls have to come with us", now I don't think it's a sexist type comment being made, because at 8-10 years old I don't think they even realise that girls are different, certainly the girls in my pack give as good as they get, but I do think that the boys would like at least one evening where they can just be, well, boys!!!

Although, the a lot of Leaders in Scouting are female, go figure that one!!

Regards

Neal.

[longbridge]

Sorry if you misunderstood my original post, I have nothing against girls playing trains in fact I think its great when they do, neither do I have anything against boys playing with GI Joe or Ken dolls 

I am more than happy for women doing men's work or men doing women's work,  not so keen on the unisex toilets though,  the other day we had a debate with women and men about the idea of changing the the way the toy aisles are set out, all thought it was unnecessary to change from separate boys and girls aisles, if you want to buy a girl toy for a boy or visa versa it was easier to find in the respective aisles, some said when you buy your clothes you go to the men's or women's departments so why treat kids differently 

In my original post I only mentioned the toy aisles not who should play with what

[Oldun]

If you think about it, it is nothing more than a 'sales ploy'.

Normally if you wanted something for little 'David' you would look in the boys toys aisle and
if you wanted something for little 'Mary' you'd look in the girls toys aisle.
By mixing them up, the toy store is forcing you to look at every section and shelf hoping you
will buy more 

Roger

[MalcolmInN]

Oh ! You removed the bit about

frankly I am surprised that my fellow Brits have become so touchy over this subject  if you read my original post all I was commenting on was I thought it was strange that people mix the toy aisles up,

Which I thought was most interesting and made me think !
perhaps we are just old fogies with too much time on our hands and like a good discussion / disputation / argument ? ! heheee

So yes, you have a good point and in that vein let me comment (comment on , not argue with ) upon your precise topic :-

if you want to buy a girl toy for a boy or visa versa it was easier to find in the respective aisles,

If you are a lone parent  (or sole parent for the day ) and you take your boy and your girl into ye olde toy shopee and let them run , , ,
which do you keep an eye on and follow,
the boy down the 'boys toys' section [to make sure he doesnt get up to mischief] or the girl down the girlish section [to make sure she doesnt get lost] ?

Or better, a new wave shop with mixed toy section where you can keep an eye on them both and maybe find a toy for you as well lol!

Some stereotypes in [] above just for fun

Good topic, thanks for raising it, I'll now shut up and continue wondering where all the N train sets went , from behind this parapet

[longbridge]

  I loved your last comment Malcolm, so long as we know where to find our N gauge stuff who gives a hoot 

[javlinfaw7]

why not as our local large toy multi national does ,dolls in the dolls ailses ,electronics in the electronics ailses ,games in the games ailses babies section , toddler section ect,that way no gender specific ailses
and you can find what you want. only has Brio raiilways though

[JonHarbour]

You'll probably find that stores will continue to segregate toys in this manner. They break down stock into categories and put away stock (whether in warehouse racking or on the shelves in the stores) of similar categories together. It aids productivity - instead of a staff member wandering around (where the hell does this go?), they will know roughly where in the store to take particular items.

[Mustermark]

dolls in the dolls ailses ,electronics in the electronics ailses ,games in the games ailses babies section , toddler section ect,that way no gender specific ailses
and you can find what you want. only has Brio raiilways though

Exactly! No reason to classify on the basis of sex. Why make a kid feel like they are 'wrong' for wanting a toy from the other section? The toys can stay exactly where they are, just don't label them by sex. Action toys, dolls, board games, whatever.

My daughter, now a rather wonderful and impressive 25 year old, was brought up with dolls and cars and fire engines and a little shop... her favourite was putting Dolly in the highchair and playing hair dressers. It didn't matter what you bought in her shop of tiny 'trial size' goodies, the total always seemed to come to "seventy twenty pence".

But she had the options to express herself without any feeling of any stigma attached to playing with trains or dinosaurs if she wanted to.  She turned out to be very feminine and loves shoes and having a pedicure, but that's her... No one made her feel like that's how she should be. She surprised us though... She works in child education and isn't a hair dresser!

[Rabs]

Couldn't agree more Mustermark.  Perfectly fine to arrange toys by theme or type. If, on average, girls go one way and boys go another then that's fine but it's not OK to classify them by sex or gender and imply a 'wrong' choice. The sooner society makes it's way out of the dark ages the better in my opinion.

It's not about 'political correctness' it's about creating the sort of society that we want our children to live in, one little change at a time. Do you want your children to be free to make their own choices about who they want to be?  Or do you want important aspects of their personality to be decided by society's inability to get past anachronistic Victorian attitudes?

Not that I'd put toys on the top of my list of things to change.  Pay equality between men and women and the false assumption in our legal system that mothers should be the primary parent are much more important, I believe.

[Agrippa]

We are even allowed to fly planes!

You'll be wanting the vote next!

[Lawrence]

It didn't matter what you bought in her shop of tiny 'trial size' goodies, the total always seemed to come to "seventy twenty pence".

I love that Mark, brings back memories of my own wee one growing up 

[BudgieJane]

You'll probably find that stores will continue to segregate toys in this manner. They break down stock into categories and put away stock (whether in warehouse racking or on the shelves in the stores) of similar categories together. It aids productivity - instead of a staff member wandering around (where the hell does this go?), they will know roughly where in the store to take particular items.

Surely there's nothing wrong with this; just don't label them boys' or girls' toys.

[PLD]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with alowing children (or adults!) of both sexes to play with whatever toys they choose and develop their own tastes without stereotyping or criticising.

What is wrong is dictating to retailers how they should arrange their stock.

Yet another example of do-gooders with a perfectly reasonable intent, going about it in the wrong way and persuing the wrong target, leaving themselves open to media redicule...

[Agrippa]

I think this topic is going towards " Who  gives a monkey's ? "

[Bealman]

Regarding the OP, I saw all that when it appeared in the Aus media some time ago, and they've moved on to other things as happens all the time.

Let's face it, it's a non-issue. There are a lot more things to concern oneself about.