Our childhood is perhaps the most formative period of our lives. We learn through our early experiences, such as playing with toys.

Too often, however, the choice of playing with either a doll or model car is not left up to children, but is dictated by whether that child is a boy or a girl. Children should be able to pick and choose what they like on their own, without any questions asked or assumptions made.

In toy stores, the “boy toys” aisles focus on science, building and adventure. The “girl toys” aisles include dolls, toy kitchens and arts-and-crafts kits. This reinforces gender stereotypes and strict divisions based on one’s sex, rather than what a child is genuinely interested in.

Fortunately, there is some movement being made on this issue.

Members of Let Toys Be Toys, a U.K.-based nonprofit, asked retailers to stop limiting children’s interests by promoting some toys as only suitable for girls, and others only for boys.

The U.K. branch of Toys R Us recently pledged to stop organizing its merchandise by gender and designate new standards for in-store signage. A Change.org petition further calls for the Toys R Us branch in the United States to join its overseas counterparts and end the gender stereotyping in its marketing of toys to children.

Some stores are already making progress. Target, Walmart and Kmart have begun organizing their toys by gender-neutral categories such as “Learning Toys,” “Dress Up & Pretend Play,” “Action Figures” and “Dolls & Dollhouses.”

While neutralizing the gender-divided aisles of toy stores is important, the actual toys must be inclusive, as well.

The characters of toys send a message about what boys and girls are able to do. Lego, for example, has mainly produced male figurines, especially in its sets about science.

The company, however, just released its first female scientist figurine named Professor C. Bodin.

We should celebrate this toy as a step in the right direction for a company that has mainly marketed its merchandise to boys. This is also a nice change from Lego’s traditional female figures, which don’t have much more to them than pastel colors and cleavage.

Certain colors further demonstrate gendered toys. Pink is still the dominant color for girls. For boys, it’s blue or black.

Even the targeted audience is seeing a problem with this.

Last year, 13-year-old McKenna Pope from Garfield, N.J., wrote a letter asking Hasbro to offer its Easy-Bake Oven in gender-neutral packaging, since she could find them only in pink and purple. She felt this would discourage boys from using them, like her 4-year-old brother.

The toy is now available in black and silver.

The advertising of toys must be re-evaluated, too. Images of boys playing with “boy toys” and girls with “girl toys” fill catalogs, making it appear unwelcoming for the opposite sex to play with them.

Last Christmas, the Swedish branch of Toys R Us made headlines for its gender-neutral advertising campaign, which showed girls shooting a toy gun and boys and girls playing together in a kitchen.

This is certainly positive, because it shows that girls and boys can fully enjoy the same toys. Still, it’s sad that this is seen as radical enough to make national news.

After all, toys are meant to be fun and entertaining.

All toy companies and stores should adopt a gender-neutral approach. These brands have a powerful opportunity to send the important message that our interests should not be limited by our anatomy.

Laura Cohen is a junior magazine journalism and women’s and gender studies major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected].

Published on September 25, 2013 at 1:33 am