According to the world you see in toy catalogs, boys like trucks, girls like dolls, end of story. Well, there's been a small step forward on that front.
Parents have convinced the UK arm of toy giant Toys R Us to offer gender-neutral marketing and remove girl and boy section signage from stores, according to Huffington Post. Grassroots organization Let Toys be Toys met with the corporation, who then “confirmed that they would draw up a set of principles for in-store signage meaning that, in the long-term, explicit references to gender will be removed and images will show boys and girls enjoying the same toys. They promised to start by looking at the way toys are represented in their upcoming Christmas catalog,” according to a press release.
The parent-led organization aims to encourage kids to play with whatever toys interest them, not what’s most gender-appropriate. “Isn’t it time that shops stopped limiting our children’s imagination by telling them what they ought to play with?,” its web site asks. They’ve already been successful in convincing British stores Tesco and Boots to adopt new signs. Toys R Us, for its part, has already made an effort to combat sexism with a tradition-busting holiday catalogue in Sweden.
Toys R Us, when will we see these welcome changes stateside?
Mom of two Sasha Emmons is a writer and editor. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.
A version of this story originally appeared on iVillage.