I know because I have a little boy -- the Duplo blocks come in either primary colors (for a boy) or pastels (and purples and pinks) I assume for a little girl. Because, you know, that matters to toddlers.

Yeah, we wouldn't want our 3 year-old boys caught dead with pastel colored Duplo blocks, or girls being forced to touch icky primary colors!

I pretended to shop for an imaginary 2 year old on the Toys R Us site, and the steps (aside from the mandatory gender split) weren't terrible. It asks for an age range and a personality, followed by an interests checklist. For both genders, the personality options are "adventurous, creative, sporty, techie, smarty pants, outdoorsy." The really odd exception is the interests checklist, in which the choices are identical except for the fact that girls are allowed to have one more interest than boys: cooking. Otherwise, they're all the same.

As far as I could tell, the results weren't horribly gendered. There were play houses, sleds, etc. None of it stood out to me as overly 'pink' or 'blue,' so to speak. But then again, I only looked 2-year-old appropriate options. One could spend a lot of time playing with this thing.

I played with it too and it looks like the results are almost the same for both sexes until after four years old. I think up until four they are trying to sell blocks and coordination toys to both sexes. I even selected things like, "3 year old, Smarty Pants, and Animals & Nature" and the results were a bunch of blocks...which had nothing to do with Animals or Nature. That search is just a joke and they want parents to think those toys are exclusively for girls or boys but they are selling you the same things.

I really do like the search because if you are buying something for someone other child its nice because they separate the ridiculous "Glamour Girl" stuff from the "Smarty Pants" but then it made me think...so if I am a smart 14 year old girl, I am being grouped into stereotypical categories? Therefore I should have no interest in make-up and chemistry at the same time? That's weird...because I am a 20-year old Pre-Medicine and Biological Anthropology student and although I love chemistry, microbiology, physics, and medical anthropology I also love fashion, graphic design and making my own crazy outfits to wear to class--because my dad got me interested in fashion and design. But according to this search, that should never happen.

Parents should know what their child wants if they take the time to get to know them. Plus, I have the type of relationship with my parents where they buy me things I personally request for. If I did not ask for it, they do not buy it. They know I would never use some randomly bought item that I had no previous need for.

EDIT: I meant, "some other child." Sorry...haha! And the "Glamour Girl" stuff isn't ridiculous. I realized that could insult someone's child. It is ridiculous to me because when I thought of "Glamour Girl" I was expecting more toys directed at beautifying someone or making make-up and things of that nature.

I love the cartoony pictures of a GIRL and BOY so you can TELL THE DIFFERENCE. If only they'd have chosen a cartoony picture of a little kid penis and little kid vulva, just to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR we should in no way commence buying toys unless we are SURE what genitalia the recipient has.

I got basically the same results for an adventurous, creative child who liked music and building things, regardless of which gender I chose. With a few differences; the magic princess castle and the Hannah Montana guitar only showed up on the girl's page.

Even if you ignore the stereotyping, this is just an incredibly useless sorting tool.

I used to work for Toys R Us and I can' tell you how much the boy/girl split annoyed me. Cooking and housekeeping toys were in the "girls" section, all of the craft kits were pink and obviously for girls, and it irked me to no end that we sold a pink telescope (and not a high powered one).

And yet there were customers that would have a veritable fit if we didn't have a toy in pink.

I found this while stumbling and found it really interesting.
also how are Swedish kids this smart and proactive?

/womensrights.change.org/blog/view/swedish_children_push_back_on_gender_stereotyping

I love pink, but I never had a pink toy when I was little. I think the closest thing I got to pink was an orange bear. I've never understood the whole color issue or why it's so important to parents, and it almost seems like it's getting worse every year, instead of better.

Minor point amongst all the rest of it, but this gets to me....

As a parent I would be closing the browser as soon as I saw:

"First thing's first"

I'm not a spelling & grammar nitpicker in personal correspondence of any kind, but once you're in the professional arena, if you as an organisation allow someone who makes a high-school error like that write copy for you, and no-one spots it in proofing...I lose all my respect for you. No eye for detail. No credibility.

I played with the Toys R Us gift finder a little and compared the options for boys and girls if I picked 5-7 years old and adventurous - for boys you got a total of 239 gift ideas, and for girls... 7 ideas (and the majority of the suggestions for girls were actually DVDs). 8-11 years is even worse with 245 compared to 5!

When one of my cousins was a little baby, I remember once time at Christmas, I saw him pick up a barbie doll and just look at it and wave it around like babies do. His aunt rushed over and snatched it out of his hand as fast as she could. It was a very interesting thing to watch. I wonder when the whole pink and blue thing began. I am assuming that it is a Western thing (as in it has European origins)?

Pink and red used to be boy colors - strong, manly colors of flesh and blood. Blue was a girl color, as it was the color of the Virgin's veil.

And this is from Denmark, one of the most progressive societies there are in terms of gender equality! Or maybe it was the American branch of the firm that made this advert. But still, it is a Danish company. I guess the powers of capitalism overrule any notions of gender equality in the home society when you're marketing to an American market.

http://womensrights.change.org/blog/view/swedish_children_push_back_on_gender_stereotyping

Makes me glad I'm Swedish.

When I shop for my eight year old daughter, I look at both. So I first search the girl option, then the boy option. She often likes the "boy" option selections better than the "girl" options. As she says, "Barbie just doesn't do it for me."

My wife relates her experience with LEGO and gender roles: http://almostdiamonds.blogspot.com/2008/01/oh-lego_18.html

I checked out the Toys R' Us Canada (http://www.toysrus.ca/) page and they do not make you have to browse by gender. But, if you scroll down the first page they give a few category ideas by gender. Boys get Action Figures, Electronics, & Trains. While girls get Baby Dolls, Houses & Castles, and Crafts.

Also, once you start browsing you can narrow you search by gender. I found that it didn't make much of a difference except that girl results had more Barbie's and Brats and boys had more toy guns. There was a lot of cross over (science toys, cameras, playmobile...).

So, the Canadian site isn't great, but it doesn't force you to look by gender.

Is it that surprising? The fact is that in general girls like Barbies, dolls, and crafts more, while boys like hot wheels and tools. Whether that's socialization or not is irrelevant from the store's point of view; it's just good business to cater to demand.

I work at a day spa that hosts "Diva" birthday parties for young girls. The party room is pink and purple, as is our dress code, but I tend to find that the blue, green, gold and other not-strictly-"girly" nail polishes are really popular, sometimes more so than the pinks and reds. I also enjoy asking the girls what their favorite color is-- many of the very young ones (4-5) will say something like pink or purple, but as they get older I find that their favorite colors tend to vary more, with more than a few girls telling me that they like too many colors to choose. By age 8-10ish, I rarely get pink for an answer, though purple isn't uncommon. I've had girls whose favorite colors are orange or yellow or even black. Not really sure what that says about genderization, but I certainly find it interesting.