Over the past few years, I have found myself mostly uninterested in Black Friday (or, is it now Black Thursday?). My mom and I used to go every year, although we never did any hardcore shopping. Instead, we just got up early and shopped around a bit for fun. My mom and I don’t live in the same state anymore, so I usually just ignore the whole thing now because if you pay enough attention, you’ll find the deals all year long, not just on those couple of days. But, this year, I was drawn back in a little with Walmart’s advertisement for a 1600 piece LEGO set for $30. That’s a steal! And, it was offered online, so I didn’t even have to go to Walmart. Going to Walmart on any given day of the week, much less Black Friday, removes any joy I get from a “deal.”
Anyway, I get online to see if I can get this set, and I see this:
Toys for Boys. With LEGOs as the picture.
I already wrote about this last week, so I was frustrated when I saw this. The outside pressure on our kids is so strong. I constantly hear parents talking about how they keep advertisements and toy catalogs away from their kids for this very reason. Even if the parents are working hard to allow their kids to play with any toy, how quickly could that be undone just by a kid seeing a Walmart ad labeling her favorite toy as “for boys”?
Then, I went to Target’s website (because we already know how the store divides toys) to see what they consider boys and girls toys. Under girls, I by and large get dolls as results. They also have some LEGO Friends in the initial results, but it’s mostly dolls. Target’s toys for boys has all the cool stuff (to me at least) and the regular LEGOs.
LEGO itself has a category for girls, which is actually not that bad. But, it’s worth noting that they only have a category for girls, there is no category for boys. So, I guess the rest of the site is for boys. When I clicked on the “girls” link, I expected to see a variety of LEGO Friends sets. But, instead, they list a lot of Architecture and Creator sets. I remember I did this a couple of years ago. Back then, LEGO didn’t have a specific “girls” link to click, so I just typed “girls” into the search box. I recall getting similar results; I even remember the space shuttle came up under that search. So, it’s great that LEGO recognizes that sets outside of the Friends line can appeal to girls; it’s not so great that they still feel the need to have a separate link for girls but not boys.
I have to say I think Amazon wins here. Both genders get regular LEGOs. But, that’s not the best part. On Amazon, when you choose “girls,” the first toy that shows up (for me anyway) is Cards Against Humanity. For the boys, Cards Against Humanity is the second toy. (This may have something to do with my search history, but, if that were the case, I would really expect to see all LEGOs in both categories because that’s what I really spend time searching for.) Regardlesss, I think Amazon is telling us to skip all the nonsense and get our kids acclimated to real life ASAP. 🙂
I don’t shop for toys (for myself or others) by gender. I shop by toy. For example, if I want LEGOs, I search for LEGOs, not “LEGOs for female adult fans.” Similarly, I imagine that most parents shop for specific toys, rather than by gender. I recognize that many people do still buy gender specific toys, but are we really searching for them that way? Is it really necessary to divide them? Why do we need to hide the catalogs in 2014?
