Tesco were recently in the news for having a sign which referred to a superhero alarm clock as a “gift for a boy”, and suffered a Tweetstorm of bad press after a complaint from a seven-year-old girl, resulting in them removing it. It was a minor victory in the fight against gender bias and the imposition of gender roles on children.
A quick google will show plenty of sites carrying the story.
Here are a few:
www.bbc.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk
metro.co.uk
mashable.com
www.independent.co.uk
And, from the horse’s mouth, a blog post from Karen Cole (the mum of the girl) herself with the background story:
athiefoftime.blogspot.co.uk
My favourite satirical website The Daily Mash were quick to jump on this one with a satirical version:
Angry men have told Tesco to remove signs implying toys are for children
That did make me rather chuckle. 🙂
The Daily Mash’s post might be satirical, but in many ways it is continuing the same theme – toys are toys and should be for everyone. We shouldn’t seek to dictate to people what they should and shouldn’t do, so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
And finally, in the same vein, a cartoon from Chris Hallbeck (used with permission)
(Chris has some great gender-themed cartoons. You can search for them by tag by clicking this link)