10
Social change
P&B: Is there anything else you would add about this?
Tamara: I feel like places like Target are really doing the best thing, which is taking down the pink shelves, because I do think sometimes as an adult it's easy to be like, "Oh, I don't want my kid to be that way, but we have to remember peer pressue is real and hard. And we're not the ones who would have to deal with being bullied or made fun of, so in places like Toys "R" Us has a pink section and your son wants to go to that section, I think it's a lot of pressure on a very young child and it's not fair. It's easy as a parent to say, "Oh my son will shop in that section," but I'm not the one who has to go to school the next day and maybe be made fun of by other kids.
I think the more we can push the institutions to change, that's the greatest service to our kids, cause that's a lot to demand of a young child, or pre-teen or teenager, to take on social change.
P&B: Robbie, do you have anything else you would add about this as a father?
Tamara: Would you buy Wes an American Girl doll?
Robbie: I would not suggest it to him, but if he were to be researching it and decided that's what he wanted, I wouldn't discourage him from it.
Tamara: Like I said, I don't feel like we're extreme. We're not going to make him wear princess dress-up only and no superheroes. I think in a way that's just as bad. It's still letting the label control what you get. So we'll let him get what he wants.
~mandyditto13@gmail.com
To read a blog post more about the gendering of toys and kids things from Tamara, visit our blog.