Gender biased marketing of childrens toys

annodomini I know, I know...my youngest daughter is 23 and the pressure was starting when she was young. As I said, she loved Barbie Dolls but when she was around the age of 10, they had to become a guilty secret, hidden when friends were round (apart from one friend who was also a closet Barbie fan) It's that feeling that children, not just girls, are pressurised to grow up so quickly that saddens me.

Sel - sadly, you can't turn back the clock. However, her school is very strict about school uniform. Red, not pink.

nelliem, I think they did get my nephew a baby doll. It just surprised me that anyone (my mum and his parents) was surprised that he wanted to be doing the same things as his mum and his big sister. As they say – duh!

Actually Anno just re-reading your post and the fact that your GD is a stylish ten year old is sort of the point I'm making. Being stylish wouldn't have occured to me at 10 and I don't think to either of my daughters. Get 'em back into white ankle socks

annodomini then there is hope 'pink princess' sums her up perfectly and I do tease her about it...it just seems, somehow, a retrograde step. It's not just the pink thing though, it's the way girls are encouraged to think the way they look is what's important in life. It is, to an extent but not for five year olds. Clothes manufacturers aren't to blame, they're only reflecting the change in society.

I do know they differ - I was a tomboy and never played with dolls etc..my eldest daughter (mother of PP) was similar, youngest daughter was Barbie mad which I thought was quite amusing and they're both perfectly sensible young women now.

absent crikey, didn't know they existed. Beggars belief.

Sel, my GD was a 'pink princess' at 5 but is now a stylish 10-year-old who despises pink. Heavily influenced by her older half-sister, she likes black leggings with shorts and various tunics, t-shirts and sweaters. She has used the fabric paints I gave her to adorn plain white t-shirts. With luck and a bit of patience, your GD will develop her own style and it probably won't be pink.

Absent That is really deadful.

Bags Poor soul! He should have had a Dolly.

I have posted before about my Dad sister in law back in the 1950s she had four sons. The youngest 3ish had asked for a Dolls pram and Aunty K said and "he is going to get one". An impressive attitude for the times.

Sel What about those pink tee shirts with the slogan "future footballer's wife" for the under fives?

Ariadne I have a younger version of your son. I do think there is a big difference in toys now and the targeted message. Like others have said, my children differed and didn't always conform to gender sterotypes which was fine. What I find more disconcerting is the pressure on young girls to look good. I know it's been said before but it really seems worse than ever. My five year old granddaughter refuses to wear anything but pink and certainly won't wear anything other than dresses and skirts. I told her I'm buying her a pair of denim dungerees!

DS2, now a hefty 42 year old ex rugby player, was entranced, when he was three, with DD's dolls' house, and was forever sneaking into her room and nicking things, like the bath, or the cups and saucers. We used to find them under his pillow. Maybe I should mention this on his FB page? Meanwhile, DDiL (his wife) has an impressive toolbox and set of power tools, which she uses with skill and confidence.

Well I think they're wasting their time Nelliemoser. I'll bet, if the little girls were choosing, they would go for the girly pink ones!

Mollie even Lego seems to be coming in Girly packs and Boys packs pink nand blues respectively. Some Lego adverts over Christmas were decidedly "look what Dad and and the boys can build in Lego."

Another complaint from the groups was a picture taken in Boots store, of baby harnesses in blue or pink in blue or pink boxes with words "Little train driver on the boys" and "Little Cup Cake" on the girls harnesses.

Kali Those word stickers on also got on the campaign site I think seen in M&S this time.

I kept my boys' Brio wooden train set, which has loads of bridges, points, stations and an engine shed. My granddaughter aged 3 loves it.

I dont think it really matters what toys children play with when they are little, my husband used to want to play with his sisters doll's house, I would not try to encurage children either way, I would just allow the child to choose..

My 10-year-old GD asked for blue hi-tops for Christmas; her brother wanted red ones. Five years ago she'd have had pink ones and maybe a matching tiara. Things change.

My little nephew went around with a toy car in his hand all the time when he was two, but when his baby sister was born he wanted a baby doll. His mum had a baby and his big sister had a baby. Obviously it was the thing to have. He howled when he didn't get one.

Define "gender specific toy". Both boys and girls play with all kinds if given the chance. Some will favour certain things more than others but give them all the same opportunities to choose. So people should not scoff (some do) if they see a boy playing with dolls or dressing up in girlie things, or enjoying ballet dancing. Science toys should not be placed in sections labelled "Boys Toys", and so forth. In better shops, they aren't.

I think that fundamentally mollie and I are agreed. But I don't think it's over the top to object to, for instance, blue socks being called boys' socks and there being no blue socks in the girls' sock section. Why does there need to be a division? Answer: there doesn't. It's daft.

The devil is in the detail, Mollie65 The toy/gender thing is a small skirmish in the fight toward equality, and most children become balanced human beings despite the tough/fluffy bias, but it is worth encouraging people to be aware of that bias.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

expected to be flamed - but I really do think this is out of all proportion. As a matter of fact I was 'into computers' in the seventies and spent my working life in the computer system analysis field in which women were very well represented. I thought that what the women's movement fought for back in the day was for equality in jobs and government treatment not to agonise over whether our toys were 'girls' stuff or coloured pink. Just don't buy the gender specific toys and stick to the 'either boys or girls' toys like lego and playmobil stuff.

Indeed - we often speculate about cavemen with wheeled toys when we are wondering where this preference comes from! - it makes not a whit of sense! Or does a predisposition amongst males to have an interest in mechanical things have some survival value? - is it a modern manifestation of some survival mechanism?

But there is no doubt that my grandsons gravitate towards anything mechanical in a way that my DDs did not - neither my GD. No pressure anywhere from family - and this preference certainly shows itself long before they are aware of marketing.

Curioser and curioser!

I think what I am saying is that the marketing bias may follow rather than lead.

Yes! Both of my grandsons loved dolls' pushchairs. Although I think there was a bit of "mummy copying" going on there. And their dad was/is very hands on.

I conclude that there is a "liking things with wheels" on the y chromosome.
How much sense does that make...

I had 3 girls - one was obsessed with pink and sparkly and loved music; one was interested in scalextric and horses and loved singing; one loved horses, swimming and sport of all kinds. They had a choice of toys - no-one pushed them in any particular direction. Their choices were defined by their personalities and skills.

Four of my GC are boys and it is very striking to me how they make a beeline for anything with wheels from a very tiny age - none of my girls did at the baby stage. My only GD is surrounded by boys and their toys and has no interest in them at all - she wants to draw, nurture her hamster, cook. They all have the same stuff around them and the same opportunities offered - but their choices fall along stereotypical gender lines. I know that their parents have not set this agenda.

So what do we conclude form this? - very little really! Except to say that I can see why marketing has fallen into this pattern.

Let's hope that the up and coming generation turns it around. My GD (then 9) was one of a group of kids from Hampshire who were chosen to go to Oxford to a kind of seminar about ICT and then were shown round one of the colleges. She was very favourably impressed. In about 7 or 8 years...