?There are many areas where people are distinguished by their gender; the retail sector is no exception, even for young children. Whether in ready-to-wear fashion or toys, children are differentiated by what they are wearing or what they play with. Accordingly, gendered marketing is based on the separation of girls “universes” from those of boys.
In a toy store, imagination and so-called girl identification toys (kitchen, veterinary kit, school teacher…) are separate from those for boys (cars, firemen, spies…). Even construction toys, which were more or less unisex up to now, are becoming more and more specialised. In 2012, Lego introduced the Lego Friends range, based on the story of five young girls. These swapped the atypical appearance of Lego people for that of mini-dolls “with thousands of combinations of hairstyles and clothes to collect”.
In the UK, the Let Toys Be Toys association, which lobbies for the abandon of gendered marketing, has just reached an agreement with the toy giant, Toys’R’Us. “We have worked with the Let Toys Be Toys team to ensure that we propose the best plan for our clients”, announced Roger McLaughian, Management Director of Toys’R’Us. This will include the progressive suppression of separate boy/girl sections, and also modifications to publicity campaigns and catalogue "clichés". We will see more boys and girls playing with small cars, rather than a little girl “vacuuming”.
Following this decision, other British stores such as Tesco, Boots and Sainsbury’s have joined the movement. In France, gendered marketing remains very strong in the retail sector, particularly for children’s products. It is common to find pink clothes exclusively for baby girls and pirate swords in toys for boys.
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