Saturday 22 July 2017

Toy ad rules - some thoughts

One thing that's been in the news here are new regulations governing gender stereotyping in advertising be it in print, on tv or online which have brought many varied responses from people.
Most of us can agree some of of these stereotypes such as mom at home, dad at work or dad does things for himself, mom cooks and runs the house are out of date, do promote less co-operative ideas about how males and females can get on productively and so shouldn't be pushed to children still forming their own ideas.
There are still some situations though where certain scenes generally won't happen.
That whole necessary conversation between daughter and mom as they play would never be the same even if we had dad playing with dolls with her so should a ad like this from nineteen sixty-five be banned or totally degendered if someone came up with something similar?
Equally is there anything wrong in itself with an ad showing a boy engrossed repairing a bike with dad or an uncle where often there's more going on than fixing the bike, like fixing how to be the best boy and in time being the best adult male he can?
I'm totally for gender neutral play and fighting the tyranny of pink and blue but this kind of relating actual aids kids form relationships and make good connections with adults that help move them on in time toward maturity. 

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