Gender Stereotypes
Here at Partyrama HQ we have some pretty interesting conversations to say the least….
“Are eggs better WITH or WITHOUT Salt?”
“What Superpower would you have and why?”
“Can you work better / faster to the Countdown song?”
But every now and then, things get serious, and recently the hot topic of conversation was about Gender Stereotypes within kids toys.
It’s been an on going topic for a while now – especially in the media. Should you pigeon hole kids toys to be ‘Boys’ or ‘Girls’ or should they fall under the same category….?
We’re not sure there will ever be an answer, as there is definitely some good points to make on either side. On one hand, it makes it easier to work out when buying gifts for children you may not necessarily know all that well – maybe a niece or nephew, who you don’t interact with regularly. You can pick a toy knowing they MIGHT just like, instead of gifting a football to a little girl in the hope she might just like a kick about, when she really LOVES My Little Pony…On the other hand that Niece might be a HUGE footie fan, who also happens to be obsessed with the colour pink, Fairies and Thomas the Tank engine.
Some parents out there are happy to let their kids choose who they want to be, and don’t feel the need to control what they are ‘In to’. That’s great – but what about other children around them? Some parents might not like the idea of their little girl playing rough or getting mucky at the football pitch. So what happens when these two little girls meet? How will one little girls views affect the other? We found that there are parents out there that are almost afraid of gender stereotypes and try with all their might to make sure their little boy loves fairies and baking when all he really wants to do is be Hulk…
How does this come into play with parties? Well, we stock lots of themed parties for children, Minions, Jurassic World, My Little Pony, Paddington Bear and loads more. On our website we’ve gone down the typical route of having the categories ‘Boys’ and ‘Girls’ themes. Is this wrong? How many of you would throw your little girl a Jurassic World party? Does it make it easier for you to choose a theme for your little one, if they haven’t specified themselves?
We would love to hear your thoughts on this pretty intense debate. Are our ‘Traditional’ views changing? We hope so – we think it’s great idea for a child to have the confidence to play with whatever toy / character he or she wants, without worrying about what other people think, but how do we go about this….?