Target Ditches Gender Labels in Toy Aisles

The enforced segregation of girls’ and boys’ fashion doesn’t just pigeonhole our kids; it deprives Target and other stores of the cash parents like me would happily splash on gender-fluid – or neutral – garb.

The announcement has met both high praise and extreme outrage in the past week.

He said he sides with Target, but his comments were “more about the laughs”. The researchers found that strongly gender-associated toys were less likely to be supportive of optimal development than neutral or moderately gendered toys. Perhaps none have been so vocal in their criticism as Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, who blasted Target on his Facebook page on Tuesday. Graham is calling for consumers to boycott. Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female (Matthew 19:4)”.

I agree, if any deli menu item were going to run for president, you’d think, “Italian hoagie I’d vote for”.

However, Target stated that it will not be removing gender-based signs in Apparel, where “it makes sense” because there are “fit and sizing differences” between the sexes.

I’m not interested in telling parents how to dress their children.

There is no freedom in gender neutrality and the social engineering methods that go along with it. There is only a promoted idea that children belong to the community and not their parents and therefore corporations like Target should step in to tell parents that they need to expose their children to the opposite gender’s toys.

So, why this change, and why now?

The news went down well in some quarters, and terribly in others. Target is way off-target on this one! Plenty of toys, from bikes to building blocks to stuffed animals to art sets, are generally gender-neutral. “And they’re doing it not only at this store here in Tampa but all Target stores across the country”. “The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl”. If they do, they’re ignoring what they can see for themselves-not to mention a mountain of evidence that proves biology plays a huge role in boys’ and girls’ preferences. “God created two different genders”.

That’s a odd remark. That reversed again in the 1990s, when gender-based marketing started creeping up to today’s ridiculous levels.

As Maria Montessori famously stated, play is the work of the child.

“One of the top ways that people search dot-com when they’re searching for toys for a child is to sort by gender”, Snyder said. Why shouldn’t boys feel free to play at caregiving and nurturing?

So children’s play should reflect modern cultural norms, rather than be boxed into 1950s-era stereotypes driven by marketers’ desire to segment the child audience for maximum profit.

Graham said he has no problems with gays and lesbians shopping at Target or anyplace else and that they should be treated fairly, but that stores should not be organized simply to appease them. Cultural shifts happen in stages, not overnight – hence the pushback.

It’s ironic that Christians talk about being “counter-cultural” so often but seem to have an obsession with aligning with socially-constructed expressions of gender. It will also be getting rid of the words “girls” and “boys” on toys and clothing whenever possible.