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California to Make Retailers Offer Gender-Neutral Kids' Sections

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  texan1211  •  3 years ago  •  12 comments

By:   Augusta Saraiva (MSN)

California to Make Retailers Offer Gender-Neutral Kids' Sections
(Bloomberg) -- A new California law will require big retailers to create gender-neutral departments for some toys and child care items, signaling an increasing shift away from gender labels by younger consumers. Most Read from Bloomberg NYC's Waldorf Gets Plush Renovation, Becomes Icon of China's Overreach How Singapore's $50 Billion Financial District Will Change After Covid-19 How France Turned the Humble Roundabout Into a Showcase for Art...

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(Bloomberg) -- A new California law will require big retailers to create gender-neutral departments for some toys and child care items, signaling an increasing shift away from gender labels by younger consumers.

The legislation, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom over the weekend, is the first of its kind in the U.S. By the start of 2024, retailers with 500 or more employees in the state have to maintain gender-neutral sections for a "reasonable" amount of kids items. Clothing isn't included. Retailers that fail to comply may face fines of as much as $500 per store.

Even before California took this step, companies had been tweaking how they merchandise products for kids. In 2015, Target stopped displaying gender-based signs on its children's departments.

Nordstrom, Abercrombie & Fitch and Old Navy all offer gender-neutral clothes. The Phluid Project, a gender-neutral clothing brand, has had partnerships with Sephora and others and is planning to create a line for children.

As of last year, 56% of Gen Z, whose oldest members are in their early 20s, shopped outside of their gender, according to the marketing agency Wunderman Thompson. Google searches for unisex names, such as Avery and Morgan, have surged since 2019, with searches for "non-binary names" increasing by 550% in the past year.

The California law came into existence after Britten Sires, then 9, tried to shop for a dinosaur shirt when studying the topic at school and could only find one in the boys section, said her mother, Danielle Sires. They then pushed for legislation after other parents and students shared similar frustration.

"This shouldn't be a stressful situation," Danielle Sires said. "Kids shouldn't have a problem or feel stressed when they go shopping for a toy or clothing."

It will take a while for gender-neutral clothes and toys to become mainstream, according to Emily Kane, a sociologist at Bates College. But "especially among relatively affluent urban consumers, there is movement in that direction, and it will continue."


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Texan1211
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Texan1211    3 years ago

Whew!!!

Thank God California has no more pressing problems than whether retailers are forced to sell items they may not choose to sell.

WTF is wrong with these idiots in Cali?

 
 
 
shona1
PhD Quiet
1.1  shona1  replied to  Texan1211 @1    3 years ago

Morning Texan... thought the same thing...the State went up in flames and I believe water is also is short supply..

Good to see they have their priorities in order..

 
 
 
Texan1211
Professor Principal
1.1.1  seeder  Texan1211  replied to  shona1 @1.1    3 years ago

Good morning!

Seems like something the legislature shouldn't even be involved in.

Way over-reaching there.

But hey, parents now won't have to worry that their kids might be traumatized by shopping and the parents can now focus on housing problems plaguing Cali.

 
 
 
shona1
PhD Quiet
1.1.2  shona1  replied to  Texan1211 @1.1.1    3 years ago

If they get all bent out of shape over a T shirt I don't think there is much hope for them..

Have a lovely evening.. brilliant morning here...even the kookaburras (large birds) are laughing...

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
1.2  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Texan1211 @1    3 years ago

Further unmitigated hogwash from the state that is the biggest cesspool in the nation. 

 
 
 
Texan1211
Professor Principal
2  seeder  Texan1211    3 years ago

Crap like this is probably why Cali is known as being the Land of fruits and Nuts.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
3  Tacos!    3 years ago

This is a solution in search of a problem. Walk into Toys R Us  or FAO Schwarz and you won’t see signs that say “Boys Toys” or “Girls Toys.” Toys are grouped by type and target age of user, but not by sex.

Are Barbie’s grouped together? Of course. But any store puts similar items together. There’s nothing about gender segregation in the toy store, though.

 
 
 
Texan1211
Professor Principal
3.1  seeder  Texan1211  replied to  Tacos! @3    3 years ago

What I want to know is why California reps think that they need to dictate to businesses what they must sell and how they sell it.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
3.1.1  Tacos!  replied to  Texan1211 @3.1    3 years ago

They do this to make themselves and the voters feel like they did something important for the equality, dignity, and inclusiveness of all people. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to do that, but they didn’t actually accomplish anything. It’s therefore empty virtue signaling.

 
 
 
JBB
Professor Principal
4  JBB    3 years ago

Because stigmatizing small kids for playing with the "wrong gender" toys causes unnecessary confusion which can permanently alter a child's self worth...

Little boys should not be made to feel guilty for playing with dolls or girls teased for playing with trucks.

Just another false outrage for the far radical right to be falsely indignant about. Let us all ignore them.

 
 
 
Texan1211
Professor Principal
4.1  seeder  Texan1211  replied to  JBB @4    3 years ago

More like typical Democratic over-reach into matters that shouldn't concern them.

Why on earth should the govt. decide what stores must sell and how they sell it?

Many on the right are adults and don't need the govt. to coddle them from cradle to grave.

 
 
 
Tacos!
Professor Guide
4.2  Tacos!  replied to  JBB @4    3 years ago
Little boys should not be made to feel guilty for playing with dolls or girls teased for playing with trucks.

Toys stores aren’t doing that. People do that.

Just another false outrage for the far radical right to be falsely indignant about.

The false outrage is what generated this law. Go into a major toy store, or a major store (Target, e.g.) that sells toys. You won’t find a “boy’s toys” section.

Next they’ll outlaw slavery and pat themselves on the back for their progressive courage.

 
 

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