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Sue Needham Cot n Togs, Market Harborough “It helps the customer find what they are looking for easily. We try to have dolls for boys and primary coloured wooden toys which can be for boys or girls.”


Carey Conway Crafts 4 Kids, Orston “Lots of customers want guidance on what appeals to different genders, but it is important that packaging does not stereotype toys and a move to more gender neutral colours, for example, is long overdue.”


Andrew Lord Dress-A-Doll, Lutterworth “As a manufacturer and retailer of ragdolls, we are always being asked for boy ragdolls. Lots of young boys love playing and dressing the boy dolls we have produced. It is a shame that society says that girls play with dolls and boys play with toy trucks. Dress-A-Doll will change people’s thinking on this.”


Carolyn Strand Earlywhirly, Littlehampton “We have always resisted categorising by gender and prefer non-gender specific toys. We see no reason for doing so and overall feel it detrimental to a child’s development.”


Linda Ladley EcoToyStore, Wakefield “We have ensured that we have kept gender out of the categorisation in our toy shop. We focus on how it develops a child rather than whether a girl or boy should play with it.”


Tracie Peacock-Quinney Ella’s Toy Shop, Leamington “We group toys and games in categories rather than by gender. We try to steer away from gender specific toys, but this can be difficult with some toys or activities as the suppliers will package them to the gender they are aiming at. Orchard Toys, Bigjigs and Green Board Games tend to be mainly neutral with the packaging and therefore do not reduce the audience the toys are aimed at.”


Ben Biscoe Fairy Goodies, Corsham “We sell products predominantly aimed at young girls, and I’m always amazed by the number of parents who prevent their young boy looking round or buying fairy wings. They look great on boys too.”


Julian Shelford Final Frontier, Plymouth “As we are not a dedicated toy shop we don’t have to worry about this problem. However, there has to be some sort of categorising for similar toys so as to show the choice available. Displays are what set shops apart from one another, some good some bad, and will help the consumer decide where they want to shop, one thing the internet does not have to worry about. The most important thing is the choice is there and the consumer gets what they want.”


Isaac Leitner Gamez Galore, Manchester “You can’t change nature. Girls are girls and always will be and so too boys.”


Teresa Bramble Hoomble Toys & Collectables, Havant “Pre-school toys tend not to be spilt between girls and boys as boys play with dolls and dressing up and girls play with cars. However by the time children reach school age, they tend to only play with certain toys for their gender. Therefore, from school age I feel it is useful for them to be spilt to ease purchasing.”


Amanda Morgan I Spy Toys, Hertford “Men cook, women do DIY. My Grandfather taught me to sew. I’ve plastered a room. Gender stereotyping (toys or anything) is wrong. But Pink Stinks people are naive and stupid.”


Charlotte Croser Jollys, Oundle


“Customers often ask for children’s gift ideas based on gender, so Jollys always categorise them as such on our website. That doesn’t mean to


say that we don’t recommend dolls for boys and car toys for girls in some cases. There are no rules for what children enjoy playing with, but customers do shop based on gender so we meet their needs by giving them the option to do so.”


Kevin McMahon Kiddy Centre, Glasgow “Having twin boys, you would think we head for the boys section all the time, but we don’t. Our boys, who are four years old, tend to go for the dolls and prams, as they are normally more colourful and cheerful. It’s unnecessary to separate toys in gender.”


Rachel Alexander Knot Toys, Bishop’s Stortford “Being an online store we used to categorise the older children toys by gender. Following a purchase by a friend –who bought a pirate ship for her three daughters – and a suggestion from a customer, who objected to our pirate toys being classed as boys toys and wanted to see girl pirates too, we re-categorised everything into style of toy rather than gender. Our castles and pirates section includes male and female pirates, as well as fairytale castles and traditional castles. We also offer giftwrap for a girl and for a boy irrespective of what the toy is. I think the line between the two is becoming increasingly fuzzy as parents are keen to be seen as actively challenging the idea of gender specific toys.”


Lorena Camacho Koolmami, Bristol “We have them mixed in our shop and parents make their own choices.”


Steve Howe Librium Games, Stone “I think it is wrong but some would argue commercially necessary.”


Amanda Jones Little Tiger Gifts, Ipswich “There are so many ways to categorise toys that I don’t think gender is necessary. On our website, we select a very


Father and son team Tim and Michael Hawkins have run www.toyshopuk.co.uk for over five years, growing the directory into the ultimate resource for consumers to find the toys they need. It has over 10,000 consumer visitors each day. Suppliers and retailers can increase the number of visitors to their website via Toy Shop UK’s packages, many of which are free.


www.toynews-online.biz May 25


INDEPENDENT SURVEY


small range that we class as boys and girls toys but we would never like to make any assumptions. We would rather sort the majority of products by type rather than gender.”


Elaine Lambe Littlesheep Learning, Leamington Spa


“It’s important to us that all children can play with whatever toys that they want to and making pretend play for girls and construction for boys doesn’t help them choose. The only thing that is worse than putting toys into ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ categories is assigning stereotypical gender colours to something like a tea set which alienates children of the opposite sex.”


Debra Scanlon Lootybag, Shrewsbury “There will always be exceptions to the rule but the majority of toys are boys and girls toys.”


Dean Morris


Morris4Minors, Gosport “While I was inclined to check the ‘Essential’ box, I hesitated and decided in the end to opt for ‘Useful’. I think it remains important to genderise toys and identify which are more suited to each sex. There is already too much ‘unisex’ in this world for my liking and to introduce this at the childhood stage would be wrong.”


Sam Haggett Moving Pictures, Ottery St Mary “Categorising by a shared theme like dress up, cars, wrestling, Star Warsor role play is fine. I do not feel that you need to head parts of your shop ‘boys’ or ‘girls’. Children know what they like and will play with those items if they enjoy it and pay no notice to if it is meant for their gender.”


Paul David Mrtoybox, Barnsley “It is what the customer


expects and makes it easier to find the toy they are looking for. Is it programming kids into stereotypes? Probably. Is this good or bad? I’m a traditionalist and I do not think it affects children. If a boy strongly wants to play with a doll, he will. It isn’t useful to place it in with the boys’ toys. He has to understand some will think his decision strange.”


Katie Sykes Roly Poly’s Little People, Brighton & Hove “Don’t stop children discovering things they might be passionate about by prescribing what they should and shouldn’t be interested in. How would girls know they love Transformers, robots and engineering if these types of toys are in the boys aisle?”


Sally Brooming The Hare and the Broom, Emsworth “When we were categorising our toys we found that some toys were easy to put as girls, but we did not have many boy-only so we dropped the gender search category.”


Derrick Bell Toby Wagons, Chelmsford “I sell Toby Wagons which I thought would be aimed at boys, but in a TV cartoon there is a girl who uses a traditional red wagon like ours and that has driven sales for girls, too.”


Rachel Jones Totseat, Edinburgh “We sell the Oobicoo soft toy tot which is more of a soft toy than a doll. Designed specifically to wear outgrown baby clothes, it could be termed a doll but isn’t, as just as many parents buy them for boys, if not more, than for girls. “


Richard Brandt Toypost, Birkenhead “Mindless following of the pink or blue toy brigade.”


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