(Madrid) “What we want is to see a little boy with a baby carrier in a Christmas catalogue”. In Spain, a pioneering country in terms of feminism, the toy industry and the government are mobilizing to try to put an end to gender stereotypes from an early age.
For ten years, the Toy Planet brand, based in Paterna near Valencia, has been promoting unisex advertising.
Leafing through his catalog, we come across a little girl, pistol in hand and wearing an elite police bulletproof vest. A few pages later, another hits a punching bag, while a little boy stands behind a stroller.
“Toys have an important function in adult education” and “we want a boy to be a midwife in the future and a girl to be a mechanic”, explains Ignacio Gaspar, its director.
This company decided ten years ago to “reverse the situation” by showing “boys with dolls and girls with toolboxes”, after listening to its customers denouncing “old-fashioned” communication on social networks.
However, she had to face very violent criticism like “‘you’re going to make boys fags and little girls tomboys'”, says Ignacio Gaspar.
Stop blue/pink
A pioneer in the fight against gender violence, Spain has a very powerful feminist movement, which the left-wing government of Pedro Sanchez claims to support.
Its Minister for Consumer Affairs, Alberto Garzon, signed a code of good practice with the toy industry, which entered into force on 1er December, with the aim of “encouraging gender equality in toy advertising”.
Advertisements in the media, on television or on social networks will therefore no longer have to explicitly state that a toy is intended for one gender rather than another, assign pink to girls and blue to boys or reproduce “the gender roles”.
This code, signed with the Spanish Association of Toy Manufacturers (AEFJ), which brings together 90% of producers in Spain, required a year of work, specifies the director general of Consumption and Games of the ministry, Rafael Escudero.
Its scope remains limited, however, since it does not concern packaging and will not apply to advertising in the streets, nor to the catalogs of toy stores, he explains, acknowledging that any sprains on the part of companies will not lead to sanctions but to “reputational risk”.
Major international brands are also not affected, which also limits the scope of these rules.
“It is obviously not enough, but it is necessary to move forward” in the face of “macho and sexist stereotypes that exist in all sectors of society”, insists Rafael Escudero.
On the Madrid avenue of Gran Via, where passers-by do their Christmas shopping, Julio Cesar Araujo, 62-year-old grandfather, still cares about gender differences. “The girls will have dolls” at Christmas, he says, before qualifying immediately. “But hey, if a girl wants to play with a toy car, we’ll buy her a toy car. »
“Pedagogical duty”
Owner with her husband of the Madrid store Kamchatka, selling “educational, non-sexist, ecological and anti-belligerent toys”, Nathalie Rodriguez, 48, strives to dismantle stereotypes.
“I believe in the educational duty of the person who sells” the toys, explains the shopkeeper, inhabited by her activism.
“The toy in itself does not imply” sexism, “it is the gaze of the adult who is behind (the child), who manufactures it, who sells it or markets it which can involve it”, analyzes she. “What we want is to see a little boy with a baby carrier in a catalog. »
With humour, she offers alternatives to customers: “When a grandfather tells you that he doesn’t want the kitchen, because the present is for a boy, I answer that it doesn’t make sense in a country that has so many recognized leaders. »
Some parents, like Tania San José, a 41-year-old teacher in Pamplona, think it was time for the government to impose rules even if it happens “late”. “Unfortunately there are still boys’ toys and girls’ toys, but our generation (of parents) is trying to make sure that’s not the case anymore,” she says.
Proof that minds have already evolved, Angela Muñoz, 47, is almost disconcerted by questions on the subject and assures us that “we can very well buy a doll for (her) son”, because “children must be able to use any toy”.