Minister calls on Manufacturers to Take a Critical Look at Sexist Toys
You only have to enter a toy store to see that there is still a sharp distinction between kids gifts toys for boys and toys for girls. Dolls and play kitchens are for girls, and toy cars and drills are for boys, the norm dictates. Research shows that the generation of toys has a long-term impact on the development of children. The message “pink is for girls” is internalized just as easily as the message “math is for boys”. Or as minister Ingrid van Engelshoven remarks in the AD today: “Girls are caring, boys are adventurous.” According to the minister, gender stereotypes lead to the personal and professional development of women, in particular, is hindered.
Warning: Children Believing from Manufacturers Toys
To prevent children from believing that they are limited to the role that some toy manufacturers assign to them, France will end the classification of “boys” and “girls” in toy stores from 2020. Folders will no longer promote toys as “for boys” or “for girls” and the store will no longer be used for the gender of the child for which the gift was requested. Today, Minister Van Engelshoven calls on toy manufacturers to “review role-fixing toys in their collection” and to discuss stereotyping with textbook publishers. So there is no prohibition of anything in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, her appeal has fallen badly to coalition partners VVD, CDA, and ChristenUnie, who wonder aloud whether the minister on Education has nothing better to do.
A few years ago, toy store Bart Smit came under fire, after it praised toy vacuum cleaners, irons and mop buckets in a folder with the words: “As good as a mom, you want that too.” Boys who were doing household chores in no fields or roads. A year later, both boys and girls took up the vacuum cleaner. There are now more stores that no longer feel it necessary to tell children what they should like, but let them choose for themselves. The toy manufacturers also see bread in a gender-neutral offer. Mattel has been around for 74 years and is best known for the Barbie doll. The toy manufacturer recently launched Creatable World, its first series of gender-neutral dolls. The dolls do not have broad shoulders, full hips, or long eyelashes. Clothes and hairstyles are completely flexible for all dolls and children can make them what or who they want.