Because a kid won't like seahorses unless they are gender-coded!

If you haven’t been reading The Tired Feminist lately you might have missed my new recurring feature TMF: Toy Marketing FAIL! It’s a chance to dissect (and vent about) the various gender-coding and sexist stereotyping in children’s toys, clothing and other stuff.

For instance, take the picture at left. These are two seahorse toys, similar to glow worms. They play music and are cute and cuddly. No problem there. But why is that they are only available in pink and blue? Is it that important that when you put your baby down to sleep that s/he be comforted by the “correct” gendered toy? The baby doesn’t know. No one else is there to judge you, so you aren’t doing it because of judgment from anyone else. It’s because you need the toys to be gender-specific! When people talk about institutionalized sexism and patriarchy, this is it manifesting right here!

For more indignant rantings, check out the first two TMFs here:

• Introducing TMF: Toy Marketing FAIL! Exhibit A: Sexist  baby teethers.
• TMF: Boys do stuff, girls are pretty

Check The Tired Feminist for regular updates to this feature! And you can follow TF on facebook, too!