Swedish toymaker publishes ‘gender-neutral’ children’s Christmas catalogue
- By Loretta Boronat
- •
- 11 Sep, 2015
- •
Top Toy, one of the largest toy chains in Sweden, has published a gender-neutral Christmas catalogue featuring photos of boys playing with dolls and girls holding toy machine guns– and it has sparked another round of debates about views on gender roles in the country. Basically, the company produced identical Christmas catalogues for both Toys R Us and BR in Denmark and Sweden, with the gender of the pictured kids reversed in the latter. For example, they switched out a boy wielding a toy machine gun with a girl in one photo, and in another they changed one girl’s pink t-shirt into a light blue color. This is a very different approach that the company is taking after coming under fire from Swedish advertising watchdog Reklamombudsmannen (RO) in 2008 for propagating outdated gender stereotypes in their catalogues. Now, Top Toy Director of Sales Jan Nyberg says they are following the new gender thinking and not segregating its products as a boy or a girl thing, but simply a toy for children. Click here for the full story…

"My daughter is adopted, a little Alaska Native child with Inuit blood coursing through her veins. It was perhaps because of that background that a recent NPR piece titled “How Inuit Parents Teach Kids to Control Their Anger” first jumped out at me." Read more here: https://www.mysiblingdolls.com/why-parenting-without-yelling-is-better-for-kids-and-you

"There are numerous studies showing that low-income children who begin kindergarten at the same academic level as children from wealthier families are more likely to graduate on time, go to college and start a career." Read more here: https://www.mysiblingdolls.com/parenting-matters-investing-in-our-young-children

"But aside from improving your children’s vocabulary, research shows that being an early reader helps kids develop comprehension skills, makes them more receptive to creativity, and better able to navigate change." Read more here: https://www.mysiblingdolls.com/here-are-parenting-tips-to-learn-how-to-raise-a-reader