M&S should know better

Erica has tweeted, posted to Facebook and blogged about gender stereotyping in the past but this is a first for me. I would have thought that M&S would have known better than this.

Here is a nice big magnet IDEAL FOR LITTLE HANDS but then they go and put BOY STUFF on the opposite corner of the box. This is just so WRONG. I can be equally offensive and say that the BOY STUFF is put on there to let girls know – they would be able to read it but the boys wouldn’t at that age. The boys have been too busy playing with their trucks and diggers and guns to do sissy stuff like reading.

And next to it was this megaphone with 3 voices Spaceman, Robot and Alien. Perhaps they should have added a 4th for when it’s not switched on or the batteries are flat – Misogynist.

I had no intention of buying one but I did ask a member of staff if they had one for a girl (shock! horror!). She said they did not have them in different packaging; which suggested she had thought about the issue, others might have simply said “Sorry, We don’t have them for girls.” She suggested taking it out of the packaging before wrapping it. Sensible, but so unnecessary.