Where Are the “Gender Neutral” Toys?

I have been thinking about the intersections of marketing and gender and thought I’d talk about it at some point, but thehouseofadoll’s post yesterday just geared me up for the topic!

I think the most interesting area within gendered marketing is toys and products for children. Children are strongly socialized into gender through material possessions and status of those possessions. So toys like American Girl dolls and exact replicas of monster trucks can sell for high cost in order to achieve a particular gendered status. However, the toy industry is shifting in how they market certain toys to boys and girls. It seems like suddenly they realized girls might just like cars and boys might like dolls. The toy industry has made strides in adjusting marketing of “boy toys” to be inclusive for girls. But critics question whether this inclusion is genuine and equal or a marketing tactic?

For example, while Nerf marketed a gun toward girls the “equality” isn’t quite there with girls get whopping two darts while boys get 25. Have you ever thought to yourself as a kid, oh I can totally win this Nerf gun fight with only TWO darts? Plus, NPR points out with the launch of Lego Friends, their “girl friendly” Legos, “Why can’t [girls] just play with regular Legos? Why does it have to be girl-driven?”

What has become even more of a challenge, however, is attempting to transform the view of feminine gendered toys and marketing them as masculine. While it seems to be easier to take masculine marketed toys and make them feminine and girls accepting those gender bending lines- “girl toys” haven’t had it so easy. Take Easy Bake Oven for example. After being under fire last year for being extremely girl inclusive in all forms of advertising, Hasbro claimed they would release a “boy” Easy Bake Oven. But since the media attention at the end of 2012, Hasbro slipped back under the radar and changed the marketing for the oven to go from “boy friendly” to “50^th anniversary”, as if the anniversary was their motive to change color. By not addressing the oven directly as a shift to make boys feel included in the kitchen, Hasbro got cold feet and look a less gender driven route. The oven has been out for several months and the responses have been less than expected, with no media attention since the initial 2012 announcement. Advertisements are still girl centered and the divide, while weakening, still stands.

Marketing has done a wonderful job to become more inclusive of both genders when marketing toys in order to allow for a myriad of possibilities while children become socialized into gender. But there is still areas that are dominated by hot pink that need to bring their sparkly walls down and allow all children in. There is room for growth. Millennials need to lead this change and bring down the “just for girls” and “just for guys” barriers for the next generation so Batman and Barbie can sit side by side in one kid’s toy box.