The fact that there is a "Gender" slot at all in the toys descriptions is interesting. I wonder how many/what kind of toys say "both/either" there.

When I was a kid I distinctly remember being completely confused by toy commercials that never showed girls playing with the "fun" toys that I wanted. I hated toys that were specifically marketed "for girls" because that just meant they were crappy versions of the "normal" toy made for boys (example: girl legos. They only come in pastel colors and there were less in the box than the "boy" version that was the same price and had more colors).

One would think that 20 years later maybe toy companies would be a little more on the ball with stuff like this, but I guess I'm not really surprised here. Is the 'for girls' version a Meter Maid car? Come on guys, why was there even a "gender" listing on the toy specification at all?

@korybing...they gender thing is because many people are looking for specific things for their kids. It is easier to look up action figures under "boys" than a general search. It is just the way the websites are made sometimes. You can't always search for "action figures" for example. I have a boy and a girl and sometimes it is a pain trying to find what he wants the way these websites are set up for search even if you know the name of the product.

If you check though, they have the exact kind of car sans the police stickers in Pink for girls...cuz you know all girls want pink things...they could "never" want to have a police car!

/sarcasm

To be fair though...my girl likes pink things better for some reason. If she has a choice she gravitates to pink things. shrug I don't like it...because I hate pink. LOL

It is interesting to me that gender differentiation is so pervasive in the children's product market. One might reasonably expect that forty years after the women's momement began, we'd see a more gender-neutral picture, but there seems to be no sense whatsoever in the mainstream market that that is even a consideration, let alone a goal.

Walk through BabiesRUs, for example. Every.single.product category is differentiated: everything from pacifiers to silverware to baby swings to car seats to strollers (and of course the less surprising things like clothes, decor, and bedding) is categorized as boys' or girls.' There's an out-of-place looking section of very tiny clothing in green and yellow, generally no larger than 6-9 months, for those benighted souls like me who don't find out the sex of the baby before birth. And otherwise, the entire store is a tribute to traditional gender roles and the extraordinarily efficient socialization of children into those roles.

Some websites do have neutral gender categories...and most of the time those are very limited.

However, you also have to think there are a lot of people out there (I have some in my family) that are very into gender roles. My ex-BIL wouldn't let my nephew have a doll...even if it was marketed for boys. Is it right? No. But...there are a lot of people that do buy into the gender roles and raise their kids accordingly.

I am lucky, I have a boy and a girl and while we do buy more dolls now, we let the kids choose what they want. I never shied away from getting my son dolls, though he was more into the usual "boy" things. We have plenty of cars and trucks and whatnot (that is what my son wanted...he is really into cars and robots and transformers..our apartment is saturated with them) that we buy dolls to make up the difference. Both of my kids play with both kinds of toys...though they do gravitate towards one or the other. Girl likes the dolls a bit more but will play with the cars...Boy likes his cars and robots but you will see him carrying around a doll in a blanket now and again.

Strongly gendered toys means you sell more toys. Parents who buy into it (or have children who have strongly bought into it) have to buy new toys when they have children of both genders rather than pass the on or have the kids share.

I don't think anyone is actually mystified by the fact that lazy gifters and clueless parents will desire a 'gender' designation - nor are they mystified by the fact that businesses generally do what is most profitable. Posts like these are just examples of how our culture takes gender and gender roles very seriously.

It does no service to children to divide toys into boy and girl categories. Steering parents into buying female-bodied children 'girl' toys and male-bodied children 'boy' toys limits the horizons of all children, and it can be very hurtful to those who don't conform.

There are plenty of ways to organize toys without resorting to 'girl' and 'boy' labels.

Hanlon's Razor: Do not attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. I doubt someone really wanted to make a boys only toy, or to put boys/girls into a gender role regarding law enforcement. If I were to put my money on it, I'd say that as the Walmart online employee listed the product on the internet, they came to an impasse. List the toy as boy or girl? Can it be both? Can it be neither? Well crap, screw it, it's black, make it a boy's toy.

Maybe I'm just too skeptical/cynical/jaded, but aren't there better things to worry about right now than a "boys" label on a plastic ride-in police car? Does that seem, I don't know, Amero-centrist? Why not focus on something like, shariah law, or the ongoing liberation effort in Iran? At least, that's my perspective.

This is talking about the subtleties of separating gender. Many times we never think of things like this...and these things do lead into more abuses such as feeling women are inferior. On the surface it seems silly, petty and a non-issue. But that is not the case.

For example, if you look at the "neutral" category at Walmart...there are only 2 items and neither of those is this police car. If you look at the "girl" category you only get the pink cozy coupe and the red one...NOT the boy one.

They could have put it in the category of "neutral" but didn't. They specifically chose the "boy" category. The idea is if someone is looking at the "girl" category or even the "neutral" one they will not come across this car and therefore (potentially) only buy the pink or red car with no wording on it, subtly telling the girls that they are not meant to be policewomen.

As a woman who was raised with this kind of subtle references, I totally see it. As the mother of a daughter, I totally see it. Actions always speak louder than words, and if all her little girlfriends have the pink cars and the boys the Police cars...then she isn't going to think that she can one day be a police officer.

This brings to mind a toy one of my younger sisters has. She is almost three, and my dad and stepmom purchased one of those plastic rocking police motorcycle toys. It has flashing lights, a police radio, the whole nine yards (it is also blue). Yet she calls it her "horsey." I have to wonder how a three year old came to call that toy a horsey instead of a police motorcycle (or just motorcycle). Someone told her that it was a horse, for reasons I can't fathom.

Either it was a mistake from a neighbor kid (which would mean the 7 year old girl down the road who loves dolls and dress up), or an adult called it that. Either way, it has some social implications. If a boy had been involved, I think it would have been called a motorcycle all around.