Gender Meals

Someone wrote…

I went into a McDonald’s recently for the first time in years, and their Happy Meals had a choice- a “boy toy” (car) or a “girl toy” (Barbie). As the adult version of that girl who liked to play with toy cars, this saddened me.

What’s your take on this?

And what are you thinking about gender right now?


Posted by on November 13th, 2008 at 10:56 am

Category: your voice 5 comments »

5 Responses to “Gender Meals”

  1. Kate Sloan

    Reminds me of when I was little. My tiny brother & I used to order a Happy Meal each, but since he had a shock of blonde curls & dainty, pretty features, it would always be assumed that he was a girl, & he’d get Barbies & such in his Happy Meal.

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  2. Steve C

    I’m always struck and saddened by this when I see it. They don’t needlessly gender toys at any other time – buty every holiday season when they run the cars and barbie series, they make them “boy toy” and “girl toy.”
    The weird gendering of products is always sad to me. I used to work in the shoe dept. at a department store and parents would very often – I heard this almost daily – tell their kids they couldn’t have a shoe because “that’s a girl shoe,” etc. Sometimes this was the manufacturer’s fault for putting superman and princesses on different shoes, but very often it was an invention of the parents, based only on the color of the shoe or its laces. I didn’t want to interfere in their parenting, but I always tried to tell them that those shoes just came in different colors and people can wear the colors they want. Sometimes the kids believed me, but I usually got dirty looks from parents.
    It disturbs me how important gender is to our culture.

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  3. Anne

    I had really short hair when I was a little girl and frequently would get the cars when I wanted the Barbie.

    If someone mistook me for a boy now, I’d be flattered, but back then it made me cry and feel ashamed of myself.

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  4. Zan

    I remember asking the drive through worker why the toy has to be gender specific. Poor high school kids had no answer, so I said that this time I would order the boy toy, even though my gender is female, because I prefer rough and tough toys to those of the pillow queens!

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  5. Anonymous

    Ho yeah, I remember those fast food kid’s meals. I always wanted the boy toys, but sometimes I got stuck with the girl ones simply because I was a girl. It sucked.

    [Reply]


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