I’ve written critically about Target, here, here, here, and here, but today, I’m happy to share some positive news about the large retailer, Target. They are implementing gender neutral shopping experiences in children’s bedding and toys.
Last year, Target instituted gender-free toy labeling and bedding areas. Now the chain is carrying a new kids’ home decor line, Pillowfort, that offers a gender-neutral array of children’s bedding that will become available later this month. This is part of a complete image flip for the retailer’s children’s line.
“It was an aisle of pink, fairy princesses, ponies, and flowers,” Julie Guggemos, Target’s senior vice president of design and product development told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “And for the boys it was rockets and dinosaurs. Well, you know what? Girls like rockets and basketball. And boys like ponies.”
Gender norms perpetuated by segregating pink and blue, gender rigid ideas is one of the greatest reasons why queer kids of any type struggle in their youth. Yough experience things personally or from parents and other authority figures, “If you were a normal boy or girl you would…” But these rigid archaic ideas are not the reality that fit our youth, and this move by Target makes perfect sense both financially as well as culturally.
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