toy stores

In recent years, I've really come to hate toy stores. Yeah, you heard me right: I. Hate. Toy. Stores. It's not the toys I hate, it's the stores. Toy stores are so evil. And what's even more evil is that they probably don't realize how evil they are.

I hate them because I think toy stores are largely responsible for perpetuating stupid gender stereotypes. Don't believe me? Check this out.

I visited Toys R' Us in Robinsons Galleria the other day to shop for a gift for Rap's brother, Gabriel, and here's what I saw.

Not many people will see anything wrong with this. So I must explain.

The picture on top shows the signs marking the "boys' section" of the store, and the picture below shows the same for the girls'. Notice how the boys' section, which contains robots and daggers and arrows and rockets and even some really cool Adventure Time merch, is labelled "Action and Adventure." The girls' section, containing dolls and little kitchens and stuffed animals and jewelry kits, is simply labelled "Favorites."

One question: Why wasn't it called "Girls' Action and Adventure" instead?

I'll tell you why. It's because girls aren't supposed to go on adventures! Little girls can't go around firing guns and smashing up monsters and commanding robots! The only "action" a little girl is supposed to see should be when she's cooking a plastic meal, nursing a fake baby, or dressing up Barbies!

So obviously, because girls are so fragile and weak and unfit for the kind of play that boys are accustomed to, the "Action and Adventure" title should be reserved just for boys. The girls' section has to be labelled "Favorites."

My next question: Exactly whose favorites are these?

Sure, cooking, nursing, and dress-up indeed are among the list of things that some girls love to do, but the operative word here is some. Yes, they are indeed among "girls' favorites." But they're only a few activities among a thousand. What about all the girls who love to play basketball, or race cars, or fight dragons? Where are those favorites, might I ask? Oh wait! There they are, in the BOYS' section. Whoever came up with this stupid marketing idea sure as hell didn't do their homework, because if they had consulted enough girls, they would know that what they're doing is downright unfair.

And this kind of biased labelling doesn't just happen in toy stores. It's a nationwide pandemic. Last week, in the SM department store in CDO, my sister and I stumbled upon a motherlode of awesome fan shirts. Among Spongebob and Adventure Time stuff, we excitedly picked out matching "Pokemon Master" shirts. It took us a couple of seconds to realize that we were standing in the section marked "Boy's Teens Wear." The "Girls' Teens Wear" didn't carry any of that stuff. We were pissed.

And I am still pissed.

There's a really big discussion about toys and gender here that I can't get into right now (because I have to get studying and all), but I really do feel for all you little kids. Somewhere out there is a little girl who wants to fire a Nerf dart onto her sister's head, or even a little boy who wants to cook up a nice plastic egg on a nice plastic stove. But in a toy store with screwed-up labels (and in a society with screwed-up gender stereotypes), neither of those kids will ever find the toy they're looking for for as long as they search where the toy companies expect them to.

. . .

In other news, med school has started. Yes, it has been very long since I last updated this, and I expect that it will be very long until I update it again. Maybe you'll have to wait until the next sexist thing pisses me off. In that case, it might not be a very long wait.