Target degendering campaign is a throwback to the 1970s

Target is removing gender-based signage in its toy and children’s bedding sections, according to an announcement on the company’s website late last week. The move, reportedly made after customer complaints, is part of a wider trend of children’s retailers going “gender-neutral” in response to activists claiming children should be allowed to explore beyond gender stereotypes.

But some critics say the change is more about adults than kids.

“This is all about the parents,” said Glenn Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family and author of Secure Daughters, Confident Sons: How Parents Guide Their Children into Authentic Masculinity & Femininity. “It’s a thing to satisfy adults with a radical view of gender and a completely baseless view of gender.”

Stanton said the latest trend harkens back to 1970s-era efforts to neutralize children’s toys.

“We’ve been here before, we’ve done this before, and it was a massive and embarrassing failure for the gender activists,” he said. Back then, parents found kids still generally gravitated to specific play: Suzy put her fire truck down for a nap, and Johnny took the broom from his kitchen set and made it a gun.

Target executives say they are making the shift to accommodate changes in “shopping preferences and needs,” noting they don’t want customers to feel frustrated or limited by the way merchandise is presented: “Over the past year, guests have raised important questions about a handful of signs in our stores that offer product suggestions based on gender.”

The announcement notes some sections will retain gender signage, like clothing, where fit and size need to be associated with gender. But the Minneapolis-based retailer says its staff is working across the store to identify areas where gender-based signage can be phased out. The company plans to start with removing “boys” and “girls” labels on children’s bedding and call the section “kids.” It also plans to remove gender references, including pink, blue, yellow, and green shelf display paper, in the toy aisles. Changes will go into effect in the next few months.

Some credit the shift in corporate policy to a viral tweet by an Ohio mom earlier this summer. Tweeting a picture of Target aisle signage that differentiated “building sets” and “girl’s building sets,” she wrote, “Don’t do this, @Target.”

“I didn’t expect it to become the center of this entire discussion about gender and the way toys are marketed,” mom Abi Bechtel told the Star Tribune. “But Caitlyn Jenner’s picture had just come out. And the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage came out soon after. So there was a whole lot of discussion about gender and gender roles anyway. The tweet just landed at the right time.”

Hamleys and Harrods, two U.K. retailers, first removed gender-specific toy sections in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Toys-R-Us followed suit in its U.K. stores in 2013 and now follows a similar policy in all U.S. stores. Australia-based organization Play Unlimited launched its “No Gender December” campaign in 2013, an effort to remove gendered toys from Christmas.

Stanton said parents should talk meaningfully but not stereotypically about gender. He encourages parents to not freak out: “Let your kids like the toys that they like.” But he argues efforts to deny gender differences in children are like trying to push a beach ball under water.

“The truth of this issue is something that will rise to the surface,” he said.