Gender-Neutral Toys and Parenting

Several articles this week mentioned gender-neutral toys and parenting this week. Multiple articles discussed the famous child’s toy “Mr. Potato Head” dropping the “Mr.” in their title in order to be more gender neutral and gender inclusive. The brand will now be referred to as “Potato Head” but will still carry both Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. The company also plans to soon launch a “Create Your Potato Head Family” kit in which kids can make a variety of families from two parents and a baby Potato Head. The recent brand shift has been so widely discussed that it even made an appearance in an SNL skit. A company executive stated, “Culture has evolved. Kids want to be able to represent their own experiences. The way the brand currently exists—with the ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’—is limiting when it comes to both gender identity and family structure.” The brand will also sell box sets that don’t represent a “normative family structure”.

One article discussed the importance of this shift and so that children can “project their own ideas about gender, sexuality, and family onto the toy, without necessarily offending parents that have more conservative notions about family.” Another article mentioned how this could encourage other companies to stop gendering their toys. A spokesperson for an LGBTQ+  advocacy group, GLAAD commented, “Hasbro’s decision to introduce Potato Head as a gender-neutral toy is the latest move in a larger movement towards greater diversity and inclusion in toys and media aimed at kids. By offering a toy that exists outside of the binary of male and female, Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms.”

While there have been some upset from conservative voices, the surrounding news about the name change has mainly been positive. Meanwhile, one article highlighted a children’s store in Philadelphia that sells gender-neutral toys. Other articles featured some gender-neutral baby gift ideas and the best gender-neutral baby clothing brands. In other news, an article about parents avoiding gender stereotypes discussed the importance of using gender-neutral language. Another article mentioned that 73% of cisgender mothers encourage gender-neutral play for their children. This is 14% more than cisgender fathers do for their kids.