Monday, October 12, 2009

Toy R Us gets schooled on gender roles

A group of Swedish sixth-graders issued a complaint against Toys “R” Us for gender discrimination and one of the nation’s consumer advocacy groups agrees.

Advocate reports:
The complaint was filed with the Reklamombudsmannen, a self-regulatory agency that polices marketing and advertising in Sweden, and claims that the retailer’s 2008 Christmas catalog featured “outdated gender roles,” reports United Press International. The sixth-grade class was learning about gender roles by studying the catalog. “Small girls in princess stuff…and here are boys dressed as super heroes. It’s obvious that you get affected by this,” 13-year-old Hannes Psajd told Swedish paper The Local. READ MORE