Will you only use earplugs if they’re the “girl” earplugs?
I’ve found a great new source of hilarity – the visitor posts on Target’s Facebook page.
Like this response to the frenzied protesters:
Alright opposition, let’s get one thing straight. Removing gendered labeling does not mean those things are now only for people who do not conform to the traditional gender binary. Most things in Target stores are not gendered. Do you only buy a television if it’s a “girl” television? Will you only use earplugs if they’re the “girl” earplugs (although these are actually a thing)? Are you constantly suffering from headaches because the Advil is ungendered (OH THE HUMANITY!)? And if you can’t sort out for yourself what the “girl” and “boy” toys are without the labels and colored backgrounds, then clearly you don’t have a strong enough concept of what that means to you anyway. Maybe you should let your kid loose on the aisles and see what THEY choose. If your girl chooses a truck, then that truck is a “girl” toy. Your boy wants My Little Pony, it’s a “boy” toy (and you may have a future Brony on your hands). If you won’t let Target teach you how to be open-minded, let your very own kids show you how it’s done.
“Do you only buy a television if it’s a “girl” television?” Hahahahahaha
And immediately below it, a good “traditional” shopper expresses her rage:
If you go to gender neutral throughout your store myself and my family will no longer shop at Target!!
When I go into buy a boy toy or boy clothes, I want to be able to go straight to the BOY section and get what I want/need!!!
Same applies to girl toys and clothes!!!
She NEVER wants to just go to the toy section and browse on the basis of what would be a FUN TOY because that way gender anarchy lies.
One guy is upset about the new difficulty in locating adult underwear:
So why just eliminate the children’s gender labels? why not the adults too? I would like to buy my boxers in the same aisle as Kathy buying her bra and thongs. I DEMAND MY ADULT GENDER EQUALITY AS WELL!
No wonder a jokey guy pretended to be Target to respond to some of the nice upholders of Traditional Gender Segregation of Toys.
Mike Melgaard pretended to be Target on Facebook and teased people who are threatening to boycott Target for removing gender labeling from toy aisles (e.g., separate labeling for “Building Sets” and “Girls Building Sets”). The boycotters were nonplussed.
Oh those horrible liberals, suggesting that children should be able to choose whatever toys they want to play with as opposed to being shunted into cisnormative choices by the retail industry.
And how do they cook?
Her first three initials are also rather unfortunate.
Hmm. Kind of suggests Kristi Kiki might be making a point.
Self-important culture warriors can be so tiresome, can’t they?
“If you go to gender neutral throughout your store myself and my family will no longer shop at Target!!”
I think this poster might mean that Target will be too confusing for them to shop at. . . Traditional shoppers do not like chaotic gender neutral environments.
How on earth did people work out what their gender was when absolutely everything came in a brown paper bag?
What’s hysterical to me is all the “political correctness gone mad” bullshit. Gendering (or hyper-gendering) toys is not a traditional phenomena. No one is forcing people to look at toys in a new way, if anything it’s turning back the clock.
I’m not that old and I remember when toy aisles were…. Toy. Aisles. No boy/girl distinction, although obviously the toys were often purchased in a gendered way. Fast forward 30 yrs, and my daughter is face with the “boy” toy aisle in all camouflage and the “girl” toy aisle in the colour of a Pepto-Bismol puke.
THAT situation is new, unnecessary and, frankly, unprofitable. Kids want to play with all sorts of stuff and, from a store’s perspective, it’s better to let them run throughout the section and check out everything. They will want what they see and they’ll see more. Why limit the sales?
[…] Ophelia Benson has more. She quotes “Do you only buy a television if it’s a “girl” television? ” Which I know is meant to ZING the rightwing weirdos but now has me slavering me for a pink television. Oops, too late, it’s a thing…and it’s SO SAD. […]
@4 Eamon Knight
“Self-important culture warriors can be so tiresome, can’t they?’
(What a marvellously ambiguous comment).
Agreed.
Not usually any sort of fan of people trolling but this :
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2015/08/12/man-poses-as-target-on-facebook-then-comically-responds-to-complaints-about-gender-neutrality/
was pretty funny and well done in response to this.
Aaaannnd now I see the link in the OP to this. Sorry. Not my night here I’m afraid. :-(
“I would like to buy my boxers in the same aisle as Kathy buying her bra and thongs.”
I know this guy was suggesting it as something unthinkable and outrageous, but as someone who wears bras and favours men’s boxer briefs, that would be very convenient for me. Of course, I would never mistake “more convenient for me but less convenient for others” for GENDER EQUALITY.