At our local Woolworths supermarket there are two bins full of toys which hadn't been selling well, but which weren't discounted. One of those bins is labelled "GIRLS TOYS" and the other is labelled "BOYS TOYS". It just confirms what I've suspected - that gender segregated marketing is another sly technique for selling tat that wouldn't otherwise be of much interest, by creating a need in the consumer to confirm their gender identity by selecting the piece of junk that shows which side of the biological fence they are on. It's another example for my list:
New wave and old-fashioned sex segregation in everyday Australian life, and around the world
This chemistry set from my local supermarket is marked Gender: Boys.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tesco.com/direct/action-science-chemistry-set/211-6172.prd
I'm not quite sure why; presumably they believe girls should stick to playing with dolls rather than playing with chemicals.
Tomas
I'm impressed that your local supermarket stocks a chemistry set (several years ago we had a devil of a time finding one anywhere in our city), but it's sad that such intellectual adventures are thought to be beyond girls. I don't see any good reason why they need a category for "gender" in their product specifications for any toys.
ReplyDeleteBoys tend to like some things. Girls tend to like other things. (In general, not necessarily individually!) Let the kids choose for themselves!
ReplyDeleteYup, Tomas, you should look into Sarah Hoyt's blog, "According to Hoyt." Had she had access to a good chemistry set when she was a little girl in Portugal, I damn betcha she would have produced some good explosions, and/or poisons.
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