Toys for Thoughts

“My daughter definitely does. She’s a dancer, and so she’s considered to be girly, and it drives her crazy,” Wheeling Park math teacher Mrs. Crews said. “Having a son and a daughter, you see all the boys get all the building toys like Legos and Lincoln Logs… and the girls get the dolls and the fake makeup and the dress-up clothes.” 

But it’s not just her children who are affected by gendered products. 

“As a woman, I can tell you that women’s products that compare to men’s products are always more expensive because they try to make it so that it fits the pink tax. And it’s ridiculous. So we do buy a lot of men’s razors and those kinds of things because they’re cheaper and they do the same thing,” said Crews

Lilah Jidestig, a student at Wheeling Park, shared her opinion on the matter: “I think it’s absolutely disgusting that they have higher prices for women’s products. I think that’s very immature. That stuff should be the same for both parties.”

As a kid, she often received Barbies for Christmas, despite never wanting them, and her brothers were also gifted sports-related presents.

“It took a while for my parents to realize that they were not really into that… I feel like when people don’t know who you are, they automatically assume what you’re into based on outside views like gender or what they see you as. They just automatically link that to specific things they think you’ll like and expect you to like it.”

She went on to suggest, “Rather than having it ‘for her’ or ‘for him’ or whatever, you could just sell hygienic products or just sell razors and just list what they’re good for… with scents, I think the description between womens’ perfume and mens’ cologne is really weird. It shouldn’t matter. You should just be able to pick a scent regardless of who it’s for.”

Another student, Wilkie Pavilack, can relate. They often got toys that would stereotypically be gifted to men, when they would have preferred other presents such as jewelry.

However, more often than not they see jewelry advertised towards women and other gendered products such as shoes specifically for men “that would be cool for one but not both.” Their response?

“Just let kids have their fun. Some stuff I feel like maybe it’s good for, but that would be very, very specific stuff like clothes… If it doesn’t need to be gendered, why gender it? Why raise the price depending on the gender, anyways?”