With Black Friday fast approaching and the holidays right around the corner, most parents’ thoughts usually turn to shopping for their loved ones especially their kids. But despite toys becoming increasingly more elaborate and expensive today, the gender binary in children’s toys has remained constant. For birthdays or Christmas presents, girls get Barbie dolls, baby dolls, anything with a floral design, and many things that are considered to be “appropriate for girls only”; while on the other hand, boys are most likely to receive toys like cars and trucks, superhero action figures, and toy guns amongst other things. These learned preferences are partly because of social ideologies on gender and partly because of capitalism. But in Sweden recently, a toy catalog seems to deviate from this standard and completely reverses gender expectations. It shows little girls wearing blue and wielding toy guns and boys in Hello Kitty tees playing with dolls. Though some may think this change in marketing strategy may just be another attempt at generating more profits, children may still benefit from the catalog’s message and encourage everyone to think differently. Read the full article here…