Major retailers in California are just weeks away from being required to establish gender-neutral toy sections for children or face fines of up to $500.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed this legislation into law back in 2021, and it's going to take effect in the new year. California is leading this charge (an initiative no one asked for) by being the first state in the country to impose such a law.
California-based department stores with 500 or more employees that sell "childcare items or toys" must incorporate a gender-neutral section, "regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys."
The law defines "childcare items" as any product intended to facilitate sleep, feeding children, relaxation, or "to help children with sucking or teething." It also specifies that children, for the purpose of this law, are considered to be those 12 and under.
Failure to make space for and create a gender-neutral section could result in a $250 fine for the department store in question for the first violation and a $500 fine for subsequent violations.
Congressman Evan Low told the Washington Post that kids' toys and products have traditionally been "categorized by a child's gender."
In retail, this has led to the proliferation of [science, technology, engineering and mathematics]-geared toys in a ‘boys' section and toys that direct girls to pursuits such as caring for a baby, fashion and domestic life.
The segregation of toys by a social construct of what is appropriate for which gender is the antithesis of modern thinking.
Is it a social construct? OR is that argument just a pile of baloney?
(Maybe "modern thinking" is the problem.)
There is nothing wrong with a girl playing with dolls and a boy playing with trucks. There would also be nothing wrong if it were the other way around. Believe it or not, I played with a ball and toy cars here and there, and I turned out just fine(ish)!
But you know what would have really messed me up?
If my parents, teachers, TV, movies, and society kept telling me there was no such thing as biological sex and that I could be one of infinite "genders."
Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Law Council lobbying group, says state legislators have "no right to force retailers to espouse government-approved messages about gender."
It's a violation of free speech, and it's just plain wrong.
But maybe I'm wrong: Maybe this is all just a ploy to keep us confused, lost, and stuck in stores for hours. 🤷♀️
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