Let Toys Be Toys
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| Formation | November 2012 |
|---|---|
| Type | Advocacy group |
| Purpose | To counter gender stereotyping of children’s toys |
| Subsidiaries | Let Books Be Books |
| Slogan | "Let Toys Be Toys – For Girls And Boys" |
| Website | www |
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.
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, 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:
“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 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 advert from 1981 went viral 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.
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