Gender Bias: Holiday Gifts

[slayground]

This time of year, we're surrounded by advertisements urging us to get gifts for our friends and family members. The ads targetted specifically to families and parents remind us to pick up the latest toys and gadgets for kids and often leave out books, performing arts, and other such hobbies and endeavors. Commercials and print ads that split up

Comments

[rockinlibrarian]

you know, I was recently looking at the December issues of two different parenting magazines. They both had gift guides, and luckily all the kids' gifts were split into age groups, but the adult gifts in the one were split into "gifts for him" "gifts for her" and "gifts for grandparents" or something; and in the OTHER they were actually split into categories by interest: "the entertainer," "the gamer," "the traveler," etc. And I noticed, not only that I wasn't remotely interested in anything in the "gifts for her" section and didn't think my husband would like the "gifts for him" and wondered exactly who "her" and "him" were in the first place, but on the other hand the interest-grouped gifts were ALL more interesting (even if the interest wasn't my own), just because instead of some vague gender-notion to aim at, they actually were thinking about things a more-specific person would like. If only that Target gift guide had just skipped over the girl/boy split at the beginning....

...also, why is it so dang hard to find a toy vacuum cleaner that is not pink and say "just for girls" or something like that? By the time I do, I don't think my son will be interested anymore...

[slayground]

Discovery Toys had a little yellow push-toy that looked like a stand-up cleaner, and it made little popping noises when pushed along. You might see if they still make it or something like it!

Thanks for reading the article. I agree that grouping things by interest is better than by gender.