Why are toys still so gendered?

It makes me smile when I see how things change. I wasn't allowed the toys I wanted, mainly meccano. I also had to wear "cute" dresses etc. My two younger sisters were brought up the same way. When my youngest sister had a daughter she had no intention of bringing her up as a "girlie" girl and dungarees, trousers and unisex toys were the order of the day until one fateful day just before my niece's second birthday when we saw her at a family gathering and she proceeded to tell her aunties that her mummy wouldn't let her have a dolly or a pram and pink ......everything and anything. Obviously for her second birthday she was inundated with dolls and all there accoutrements, clothes, cots, prams and everything else pink. Spoilt by her aunties! It took a decade for the pink mania to abate but she definitely had a mind of her own at a young age. She is now in her twenties and I wonder how she will bring up her own child/ren if she has them.

While girls wearing trousers makes sense - comfortable, easy to run, climb and cycle in - why would anyone, boy or girl, prefer to wear a skirt when wanting to go out and play? I always wanted to wear trousers or shorts whenever possible, and I still wear trousers every day.

To go off topic a bit, I've always thought that women were fooled when long skirts went out. If the alternative had been trousers, I think we would have been much better off. Short skirts got us landed with stockings and then tights, both of which go into ladders and have to be replaced often, and are much colder than socks under trousers in the winter. I know this will not be the opinion of many of you who like to wear skirts, but it's mine and I'm sticking to it!

My GGS loves his play kitchen and tea set.. He cooks up many delights for us all, from cupcakes, to pizza, plus copious cups of tea. Nothing wrong with that apart from the fact that it’s seen as unusual.

So girly not good in your eyes. Pleased to say there are still many who like girly, and should not be shamed for being so.

Exactly. Choosing something pink is now seen as unacceptable by some. Forcing your ideas on others by saying that choosing pink is wrong is equally unacceptable.

Saggi’s GD has made a decision about what she prefers to do. Will she inflict her determination not to be ‘girly’ on her own children, (boys or girls) wincing when they want to make their own choices?

IMO it isn’t the choice they make that’s wrong, it’s the lack of opportunity to make that choice and the criticism of the choices they do make.

I just buy the toys, and don’t even look for girls/boys toys specifically, rather the kids interests.

CrochetBliss

I just buy the toys, and don’t even look for girls/boys toys specifically, rather the kids interests.

So do I and so do most people. They have done for ages. But now children’s interests are perceived to be wrong if they don’t conform to the policing rules of the gender neutral brigade.
Which in its way is just as as restricting as saying boys and girls have specific toys.