Ally Middleton – Opinions Columnist
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Target recently announced its decision to remove gender labels from many of its children’s departments after being called out by an angry customer who tweeted a picture of a sign labeled “Building Sets” and “Girls’ Building Sets” with the simple caption “Don’t do this, @Target.”
As expected, this decision is certainly facing heavy backlash.
Both the toy department and the bedding section will no longer have signs specifically for boys or girls, and the pink and blue backdrops on the shelves will be removed as well. This is definitely a step in the right direction when it comes to breaking down gender stereotypes. After all, pink and blue are just colors.
Children should not have to feel ashamed for wanting to play with toys that do not lie within the traditionally accepted toys for their gender. For a second opinion, I talked with UAB Sociology
Professor Dr. Adrienne Milner about why people are saying Target’s decision is ruining America.
“I think they’re upset because they’re sexist and maybe homophobic,” said Milner. “They do not want to accept androgyny—they’re used to traditional gender role socialization.”
This tradition, however, probably doesn’t make a little boy feel too great if he wants a doll but has to walk down a pink aisle covered in signs screaming that dolls are meant for girls. How often do you think children stray away from their true interests because it doesn’t fit the old-fashioned mold of what each gender should like?
Similarly, when stores sell engineering kits and microscopes in the boys’ section, it is no wonder young girls are hesitant to aspire to a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Milner pointed out that we “shouldn’t blame women for not going into these STEM fields.” The fault, instead, lies in the fields themselves and their “non-inclusive and sexist structures.” As a kid, I felt oddly about having to venture into the boys’ section to pick out the science-related toys that I was interested in, but I shouldn’t have had to feel ashamed for not wanting Barbies or ponies or whatever other stereotypical seven-year-old girl toy.
The debate over labeling toys by gender is a much deeper problem than it may appear on the surface. Milner suggests that, as a whole, we will “lose out as a country” by limiting women and not socializing them into STEM fields.
“If we let kids play with whatever toys they want, this helps all children develop to their fullest capabilities,” she said.
In her recent book, Milner cited Judith Owen’s description of a study where 1292 undergraduate students rated 126 toys on what gender they were best suited for. The study found that the toys rated as “strongly gender-typed” seem to be “less supportive of optimal development” than the toys rated as “neutral.”
Unlike their parents and other adults, kids are not interested in the dichotomy society has created between genders. Kids are interested in the world, and they will develop and discover their preferences on their own without having to be forced in the “right” direction.
Too many of the parents protesting Target might simply be too closed-minded and afraid that the preferences their children develop are not going to be the ones they want them to have. It’s only hurting the children and their sense of individuality to be told, essentially, not to live outside of the boundaries deemed acceptable by societal norms.
