Growing up in the 90s was a simpler time. If you went to McDonald’s you didn’t have to worry about choosing a toy for your Happy Meal. The employee would ask “boy or girl.” Answering with the former would get you a Hot Wheels car and the latter would get you a mini Barbie Doll. Now, the employee asks “Barbie or Hot Wheels?” Children are burdened with the task of choosing.
While this seems like a small and simple transition, McDonald’s is actually the biggest toy distributor in the world. When they make changes, it’s usually a result of a large number of complaints. This means other toy distributors are likely impacted by the same issue McDonald’s faces, but their messaging is less overt. Rather than asking children to ask for a “boy” toy or a “girl” toy, retailers divided stores into sections for boys and girls.
In California, this is about to change. Gov. Newsom signed a mandate requiring large toy stores (defined by 500 employees or more) to have a section for gender-neutral toys. This means places like Walmart and Target will need to have aisles that are not classified for boys or girls. Likely, this will have implications for toy stores and distributors nationally. Marketing, packaging, and retail layouts will need to change to accommodate modern social movements.
As California deems this change necessary, the toy industry will need to adapt. The simple transition seems to have significant implications, and it reaches into many sectors of life.
Why Is A Genderless Toy Section Necessary?
In California, advocates in the LGBTQ+ community want to prevent kids from being forced into traditional gender norms. Children often view the world through a simpler lens, and they may feel misgendered because they receive a pink or blue toy. This can be psychologically confusing and distressing, even though the color of the item has no impact on its functional use.
Gendering toys can also prevent children from using certain items. While there are some impacts from boys playing with dolls and girls playing with cars, they’re not the negative implications many people believe. Exposure to a large number of toys can help children develop a greater number of skills. Sticking to traditionally gendered toys could prevent boys from developing compassion and girls from learning technical skills. It’s unclear if toddler play habits have any link to eventual sexual orientation and gender identities. At best, the correlation is loose and needs much more study. However, it is clear that parents who interfere with children’s natural play preferences can instill shame and resentment in their children.
The California mandate also extends to other items marketed toward children. Products like toothbrushes, soaps, or sunscreens will be marketed as gender-neutral because there’s no difference in product usability. This is an issue that persists into adulthood when women pay a “pink tax” for products. The sensation describes the up-charge for feminized items that are equal or inferior to the same product marketed toward males. So, teaching children to view hygiene products as genderless can save them money later in life.
In many cases, gendering products is an attempt for companies to squeeze more money out of parents. When a parent has one child, there’s a decent chance that another is coming. Gendering products would encourage parents to buy more items. If the older child is a girl and the younger is a boy, they’d need to replace items simply for cosmetic reasons. Over time, these standards have become universally accepted. It means parents buy different items for each child during holidays, and companies can change prices based on color schemes.
Gendering toys has been a huge part of American culture. It’s influenced our language: the term action figure was introduced because boys wouldn’t play with dolls. In the short-term, companies can make more money. Now, we’re actually studying long-term impacts, and they’re not worth the cost.
Who Benefits From Gender-Neutral Toys?
The call for gender-free toys isn’t necessarily a call to strip all toys of gender. Our society is heavily influenced by gender, and children see this. So, Disney will continue to produce princess dolls and they’ll still appear to be feminine. The issues fall into two major concerns. Firstly, many toys are assigned a gender when there’s no need. For example, a game of checkers does not need to be placed in the “boys” section. Secondly, children should not be shamed for their selection of toys because this can be developmentally harmful. As a boy growing up, I was receiving advertisements for a “Queasy Bake Oven.” A regular Easy-Bake Oven was too feminine, so I needed to bake gummy worms into my cake.
All of this messaging can be confusing for children who just want to play. If a girl wants to play with a dollhouse, it’s fine. It’s an issue for a boy unless he builds that house out of Legos. Suddenly, this becomes a masculine activity.
Now, retailers are realizing this is an issue. In 2015, Target started to make some of the aisles in the toy section gender-neutral. They acknowledged that some of the signage was unnecessary and exclusionary. There’s no reason to make one gender feel unnecessarily unwelcome in parts of their store. Yes, this is an alleged response to customer complaints, but Target is also able to benefit. More children will become interested in Legos if they’re all welcome to look at the selection. Likely, Target will be able to benefit from selling more Legos because they’re really expensive.
Children will appreciate the freedom to play with toys based on their preferences. Retailers can benefit from selling toys to double the audience, but they need to appeal to parents as well. After all, the parents are ultimately the ones who make the purchases. Many parents recognize that gendering toys is unnecessary, but other parents aren’t ready to accept the changes. This generation has been heavily influenced by gendered products, and they will continue to buy items based on their personal preferences. California has opted to put mandates into effect, but other states like Texas will resist this movement. At least, they’ll give the businesses the power to display merchandise without government regulation.
Retailers should have no real reason to oppose the changes. This might be an example of profits overlapping with progress. All they need to do is allow more young, impressionable eyes on their toys.
Are Toy Stores Becoming Genderless?
In 2019, Mattel introduced a line of “Creatable World” dolls. The dolls themselves did not have a gender assigned to them. Children were able to dress the dolls as they pleased, and there were plenty of masculine and feminine clothes available. Mattel introduced this line in addition to Barbie Dolls, and now children had more options.
This is akin to the changes in the toy section. Boys and girls will continue to have their own sections, but the gender-neutral section will also exist. So, parents don’t need to worry about their sons accidentally stumbling across a Barbie. She’ll still be in a different aisle.
California’s law will exist because toys are unnecessarily gendered. We all know the world is still heavily divided by gender, and children will see this on a daily basis. So, children will still find wrestling action figures in the “boys” section. TV ratings will tell us that WWE has a male-dominated audience (though many females watch as well), so this influences the promotion and sales of their toys.
The mandate in California will require Target to do what they’ve voluntarily done for the past 6 years. They will sell the same products to boys and girls because gender isn’t a factor in those sales. So, Play-Doh will be sold in a section devoid of gender. Both boys and girls use Play-Doh, and there’s no reason to keep it in the “girls” section; even if the Doh is pink.
If the closure of Toys R Us has told us anything, toy stores were already in trouble before California proposed a genderless section. If the state wants to create a more inclusive environment, the stores will adapt. Children will quickly understand that they’re able to play with gender-free toys and they won’t have a hard time navigating these changes. We’re far more likely to see parents take issue with these changes. Children will go into the store, get their toys, and move on with their lives.