Let Toys Be Toys is a campaign designed to persuade retailers to stop categorising toys by gender.
It was started by a group of parents on the parenting on-line discussion forum
Mumsnet
Mumsnet is a London-based internet forum, created in 2000 by Justine Roberts for discussion between parents of children and teenagers.
History and finances
Mumsnet was created in 2000 by Justine Roberts, who came up with the idea of a we ...
.
History
In 2012, a
thread was opened on the Mumsnet online forum which said: "If you think that girls and boys should feel free to play with whatever toys that interest them most, and that they shouldn't walk into a toy store and feel pressurised to conform into archaic gender roles and stifling stereotypes, please join in the discussion!"
As a result of the debate which followed, the Let Toys Be Toys campaign was officially launched in November 2012. Shortly afterwards, volunteer mystery shoppers from the campaign visited various retailers to gather information about how they were promoting toys; this was then used to decide which should be targeted by the campaign. The organisers set out their objectives, saying:
“Toys are for fun, for learning, for stoking imagination and encouraging creativity. Children should feel free to play with the toys that most interest them. Isn’t it time that shops stopped limiting our children’s imagination by telling them what they ought to play with? The answer is simple – we’re asking retailers and manufacturers to sort and label toys by theme or function, rather than by gender, and let the children decide which toys they enjoy best. Let toys be toys – for girls and boys.”
In February 2014,
Chi Onwurah
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (born 12 April 1965) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central since 2010.
She was shadow minister for Industrial Strategy, Science and Innovation u ...
, MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central, mentioned the Let Toys Be Toys campaign in a parliamentary debate she had called on gender-specific toy marketing. She told the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
:
“Before entering Parliament, I spent two decades as a professional engineer, working across three continents. Regardless of where I was or the size of the company, it was always a predominantly male, or indeed all-male, environment, but it is only when I walk into a toy shop that I feel I am really experiencing gender segregation. At some point over the past three decades, the toy industry decided that parents and children could not be trusted to figure out what to buy without colour-coded gender labelling—that means Science museum toys being labelled “for boys”, whereas miniature dustpans and brushes are “Girl Stuff”, according to SportsDirect.
I say over the past three decades, because there was a time when toys were toys and blue and pink were just colours. An Argos
Argos most often refers to:
* Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece
** Ancient Argos, the ancient city
* Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland
Argos or ARGOS may also refer to:
Businesses
* ...
catalogue page from 1976 shows toy houses, prams and so on all in different colours. Now they only sell them in pink. Recently, a Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
advert from 1981 went viral
Viral means "relating to viruses" (small infectious agents).
Viral may also refer to:
Viral behavior, or virality
Memetic behavior likened that of a virus, for example:
* Viral marketing, the use of existing social networks to spread a marke ...
on the internet because it showed a girl proudly clasping her latest Lego creation. None of the text was gender-specific and the girl was actually wearing blue.
What happened? Did someone dye the Y chromosome blue in the ’80s or force the X chromosome to secrete only pink hormones? No. This aggressive gender segregation is a consequence of big-company marketing tactics. Every successful marketeer knows that differentiation makes for greater profit margins and segmentation gives a bigger overall market, so with three-year-old girls only being able to “choose” pink tricycles, the manufacturer can charge more for that special girly shade of pink and the premium princess saddle. Of course, that trike cannot be handed over to a brother or nephew, ensuring further sales of blue bikes with Action Man handlebars. It has got to the point where it is difficult to buy toys for girls that are not pink, princess-primed and/or fairy-infused.”
Onwurah later told
Kira Cochrane
Kira Cochrane (; born 1977) is a British journalist and novelist. She is the Head of Features at ''The Guardian,'' and worked previously as Head of Opinion. Cochrane is an advocate for women's rights, as well as an active participant in fourth ...
, a reporter for UK Newspaper ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', that she believes the limiting of children by gender stereotypes is a serious economic issue, with the proportion of female students on engineering degree courses having fallen from 12% to 8% in the thirty years since she had started studying for one herself. She said: "We have some big economic problems, and one is a huge skills shortage in engineering and technology. There are thousands of jobs going unfilled, and in addition a lot of our engineers are in their 50s and retiring in the next five years. At the same time we have the lowest proportion in Europe of women who are professional engineers.
Toys are so important and formative, and for me this is about the jobs of the future, about what happens in 10 or 15 years' time. We can't go on with a segregated society."
In October 2014, Jess Day, a Let Toys be Toys campaigner told UK newspaper the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'':
"It's easy to dismiss toys as trivial, but this is one way we can help our children feel confident that they don't have to fit in with old-fashioned stereotypes. Labelling construction toys as boys’ toys and craft or dolls as girls’ toys restricts play. Play is important and different types toys help hone different skills. Telling girls that construction and science toys are for boys we limit what they think they can achieve before they've even had the chance to try it out. There's nothing wrong with giving a girl a doll for Christmas, or a boy a car – but children need a variety of play. Why would we want to tell them that only certain types of play are allowed for them? That sounds like the opposite of fun!”
The
Fawcett Society
The Fawcett Society is a membership charity in the United Kingdom which campaigns for women's rights. The organisation dates back to 1866, when Millicent Garrett Fawcett dedicated her life to the peaceful campaign for women's suffrage. Originall ...
published the results of an 18-month study into gender stereotyping's impact on young children in December 2020, together with a list of ten cheap gender-neutral toys and games in collaboration with Let Toys Be Toys.
Response from retailers and manufacturers
Amongst early responses from retailers were decisions by
Boots UK
Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists), trading as Boots, is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom and other countries and territories including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand an ...
and The Entertainer to remove all ’boys’ and ‘girls’ toys signage in their stores, and a promise from
Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
to make all their toy ranges inclusive.
By December 2013, one year after the launch of Let Toys Be Toys, half of the 14 major retailers contacted by the campaign had already removed in-store ‘girls’ and boys’ signage and stopped using gendered labelling on their own-brand toy packaging; a further five were taking steps to do so.
A pre-Christmas survey of toyshops in the UK and Ireland conducted by Let Toys Be Toys supporters in November 2013 showed a 60% reduction in the use of gendered signs in retail outlets in comparison to Christmas 2012 when the campaign began. Retailer
Hobbycraft
Hobbycraft is an arts and crafts superstore retail chain in the United Kingdom. It is currently owned by investment group Bridgepoint.
History
It was started by the Haskins Group, a nursery and garden supplier in the south of England, an ...
came top of the list of stores promoting and selling toys without relying on gender stereotypes and was named the ’best of the high street’ by the campaign;
Toymaster
Toymaster is a British buying group, buying group association of independently owned toy stores, founded in 1977. Whilst some members brand themselves as Toymaster, others choose to retain their own branding to promote their independence. The asso ...
and
Fenwick came second and third respectively. Fenwick was also, along with Debenhams and
TK Maxx
TK Maxx is a subsidiary of the American apparel and home goods company TJX Companies based in Framingham, Massachusetts. The stores operate throughout the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Austria and the Netherlands, totalli ...
, named as the most improved store; all three had decided to stop using ’girls’ and ’boys’ signage. However, overall the campaign’s survey found that more than 70% of stores inspected used some form of gender-based marketing; gender-based labelling was used to sell the majority of toys in 40%.
Let Toys Be Toys co-founder Kerry Brennan said:
“While there’s still a long way to go to address sexism in the toy industry, the changes in major retail chains like Debenhams are just brilliant to see. They’ve replaced pink and blue ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ signs with new colourful signs that say ‘Vehicles’, ‘Superheroes’, ‘Soft Toys’, and ‘TV Characters’, among others. Everything is much easier to find and children are no longer being sent the message that science and adventure are only for boys, crafts and nurturing play only for girls”.
In November 2014, supermarket chain
Tesco
Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...
removed "gift for a boy" signage from superhero alarm clocks in its shops after a shopper’s photo of her "superhero-loving" daughter next to the sign was posted on
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
and retweeted more than 10,000 times. Tesco apologised saying the clock would "make a great gift for both girls and boys". Let Toys Be Toys said the group was pleased the photo had resulted in the removal of the sign, adding: "Signs like these do influence people in their choice of what toys to buy children
and they"make children feel 'wrong' for liking certain things".
On 30 November 2014, UK newspaper ''
The Independent on Sunday
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
'' reported the story of a seven-year-old girl who had been upset when the best and most complex train sets disappeared from the
Toys R US
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include Toy block, toy blocks, Board game, board games, and Doll, dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed sp ...
website when her mother applied the “For girls” filter. She had asked her mother to apply the filter as she had previously been bullied at school because she liked dinosaurs and had worn Spider-Man sandals. Her mother told the newspaper that her daughter had asked "Why are they saying I can't have that train set because I am a girl?" She had then lost "all confidence in her choices" and said that she didn't want a train set for Christmas after all. Following a complaint, Toys R Us’ managing director phoned the mother to discuss the issue and to offer vouchers as compensation for the upset caused by the incident.
The ''Independent on Sunday'' report also noted: “Interestingly,
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
does not tend to use gender on its UK site, although gender signposting is prominent in its main US site.” It added that: “… a letter ‘To Parents’ thought to have been included in a 1974
Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
boxset saying ‘The urge to create is equally strong in all children. Boys and girls’ has also been getting thousands of shares on social media”.
Let Toys Be Toys were consulted by Arklu Ltd. when it designed and marketed its
Lottie Dolls
Lottie Dolls are a series of dolls created by Arklu Ltd. Launched in August 2012.
Lottie promotes STEM subjects for kids and was even the first doll in space when she travelled to the International Space Station alongside British European Space A ...
range of products.
Awards
In November 2013 Let Toys Be Toys were awarded the Progressive Preschool 2013 Marketing Award for their campaign against sexism in toy retail.
The campaign was shortlisted in the 2014 National Diversity Awards and in March 2015 came top in the Advocacy category in Westbourne Comms third annual Change Opinion awards. This was followed by a win in the
Care2
Care2 is a social networking website that was founded by Randy Paynter in 1998. The goal of the site is to connect activists from around the world with other individuals, organizations and responsible businesses making an impact.
Overview
Care2 me ...
Awards presented in May 2015.
In January 2016 it was announced that Let Toys Be Toys had won the
Brio
Brio (stylized BRIO) is a wooden toy company founded in Sweden. The company was founded in the small town of Boalt, Scania, Götaland in 1884 by basket maker Ivar Bengtsson. For a long time the company was based in Osby, Scania, in southern Swede ...
Prize.
Other campaigns inspired by Let Toys Be Toys
Let Books Be Books
Let Toys Be Toys campaigners launched the
Let Books Be Books Let Books Be Books was founded in March 2014 as a campaign to persuade publishers of children's books to stop labelling and promoting books as 'for boys' or 'for girls'. The campaign, which is led by parents and traces its origins to a thread on th ...
campaign to persuade publishers to remove gender labels from their book titles and to encourage publishers and retailers to stop promoting books as ‘for girls’ or ‘for boys’. The campaign was supported by prominent authors including former and current
children's laureates Anne Fine
Anne Fine OBE FRSL (born 7 December 1947) is an English writer. Although best known for children's books, she also writes for adults. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and she was appointed an OBE in 2003.
Fine has written mor ...
and
Malorie Blackman
Malorie Blackman is a British writer who held the position of Children's Laureate from 2013 to 2015. She primarily writes literature and television drama for children and young adults. She has used science fiction to explore social and ethica ...
, the
poet laureate
A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) ...
Carol-Ann Duffy
Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first ...
, and
Philip Pullman
Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman (born 19 October 1946) is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy ''His Dark Materials'' and ''The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'', a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, ''The ...
.
Publishers
Parragon Books,
Usborne Publishing
Usborne Publishing, often called Usborne Books, is a British publisher of children's books. Founded by Peter Usborne in 1973, Usborne Publishing uses an in-house team of writers, editors and designers. One of its sales channels is Usborne Books ...
,
Ladybird Books
Ladybird Books is a London-based publishing company, trading as a stand-alone imprint within the Penguin Group of companies. The Ladybird imprint publishes mass-market children's books.
It is an imprint of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of ...
,
Dorling Kindersley
Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages.
It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media co ...
,
Chad Valley and
Miles Kelly Publishing
Miles Kelly Publishing is an independent children's publishing company founded by Jim Miles and Gerard Kelly in 1996. It is based in the village of Bardfield End Green near Thaxted in Essex, UK, after moving from its base of 13 years in Grea ...
were amongst those who announced that they would no longer be publishing gender-specific titles.
Let Clothes Be Clothes
Let Clothes Be Clothes launched in 2014 as an allied but separate campaign to Let Toys Be Toys, focused on challenging gender stereotyping in the design and marketing of childrenswear, footwear and accessories on the UK high street. The campaign is led by writer and activist Francesca Cambridge Mallen, a former indie business owner who in 2013 started making childrenswear from home after becoming concerned at the lack of STEM themed clothing marketed to girls. Inspired by Craftivist
Sarah Corbett
Sarah Corbett is a speaker, professional activist, author and the founder of Craftivist Collective, a social enterprise which uses the technique of craftivism - combining craft and activism - to engage people in social justice issues "in a qui ...
, Mallen taught herself to make simple space themed dresses, dinosaur skirts and unicorn trousers, selling under the name Sewing Circus until she sold the business in 2018.
In 2015 the campaign challenged a range of science themed t-shirts produced in collaboration between
Marks and Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
and the
Natural History Museum
A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in London, which were marketed to boys only. In March 2015 a demonstration led by Let Clothes Be Clothes took place outside the Natural History Museum where staff were handed a petition of over 5000 names, demanding that the range be marketed to both boys and girls. The demonstration was supported by Labour MP
Chi Onwurah
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (born 12 April 1965) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle upon Tyne Central since 2010.
She was shadow minister for Industrial Strategy, Science and Innovation u ...
who went on twitter to encourage others to turn out and support the action stating "''girls want a share in science too''" as well as her Labour colleague
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jane Helen Douglas Jowell, Baroness Jowell, (; 18 September 1947 – 12 May 2018) was a British Labour Party politician and life peer who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dulwich and West Norwood, previously Dulwich, from 199 ...
"''Come on M&S/NHM. The clocks changed but it’s still 2015. Can’t believe I have to say this: girls enjoy science too!”''
John Lewis
John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...
became the first major retailer to remove girls and boys labels from its clothing range. Some declared the move an act of political correctness, including
Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (; né O'Meara; born 30 March 1965) is a British broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began his Fleet Street career in 1988 at '' The Sun''. In 1994, aged 29, he was appointed editor of the ...
who tweeted ''"Britain has officially gone bonkers"'' over a photograph of the newspaper article. The move was heavily praised by parents and commentators, outweighing more conservative views such as Tory Councillor Luke Stubbs, who threatened to burn his John Lewis Loyalty Card in protest. Writing for the
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
, Victoria Smith poked fun at such attitudes stating that perhaps a content warning was needed "''whenever there's a risk they might come into contact with a toddler of ambiguous gender presentation''?" while at the
New Scientist
''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...
, Lara Williams wrote "''If sex and gender aren't a perfect dichotomy - why should clothing be?''"
Play Unlimited
In 2013, the Play Unlimited campaign was launched in Australia by campaigners who had been inspired by Let Toys Be Toys. It was successful in persuading
Toys R Us
A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include Toy block, toy blocks, Board game, board games, and Doll, dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed sp ...
to drop gender labelling from its website.
See also
*
Gender polarization
Gender polarization is a concept in sociology by American psychologist Sandra Bem which states that societies tend to define femininity and masculinity as polar opposite genders, such that male-acceptable behaviors and attitudes are not seen as a ...
*
Gender stereotypes
A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cente ...
*
The LEGO Group - Gender equality
*
Let Books Be Books Let Books Be Books was founded in March 2014 as a campaign to persuade publishers of children's books to stop labelling and promoting books as 'for boys' or 'for girls'. The campaign, which is led by parents and traces its origins to a thread on th ...
*
Pinkstinks
Pinkstinks is a campaign founded in London in May 2008 by twin sisters Emma Moore and Abi Moore (born 1971, London) to raise awareness of what they claim is damage caused by gender stereotyping of children. Pinkstinks claims that the marketing ...
*
Creatable World
Creatable World is the first line of gender-neutral dolls produced by Mattel. Creatable World dolls differ in design from other dolls produced by Mattel. The design of the doll is unique and is noticeably different from both Barbie and Ken; there a ...
References
External links
*{{Official website, www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk
Toy culture
Gender roles
Toy controversies