Feminists Insert Warning Pamphlets inside Children’s Gifts

Hundreds of French boys and girls will find an unexpected pamphlet accompanying their Christmas presents thanks to a group of French feminists.  [1] [2] Slamming the prevalence on store shelves of pink-clad dolls for girls and swords for boys the protesters urged shoppers to opt for gender-neutral gifts. [5]  According to The Telegraph, French feminist group FièrEs have secretly inserted pamphlets inside children’s toys from plastic guns to Barbie dolls issuing a warning that “this toy is sexist.”  [1] [3] [6]  “We targeted games that are emblematic of boy-girl stereotypes,” Delphine Asian, a legal representative for the feminist group, told The Telegraph.  [3] “We have caused no damage or ripped any plastic. We simply slipped the message in boxes, or in books.” [6]  “Around 500” of such pamphlets were inserted into a range of toys in about a dozen shops in Paris, according to The Telegraph. [3] [4] The pamphlets requests parents sign a petition and send it to those “responsible.”  Asian added that the purpose of the operation was not to “make parents feel guilty,” but to “raise awareness about the fact that toymakers and sellers play a part in the fact that not a single little girl asks Father Christmas for a sword.”  [3] [4] “We know well that parents follow the lists their children write and don’t think they’re doing any harm,” she told Le Parisien newspaper. [7] But Frank Mathais of the French toy chain, Grande Récré told The Telegraph that “things have evolved a lot in the past 20 years.”  [1] [3] He pointed out that some of the year’s most popular gifts among boys were rainbow loom bracelets.

Meanwhile, the project comes a week after another group of feminists protested the separate placement of gender toys in a Toys “R” Us shop in Paris. [7] “Sexed toys like science kits for little boys and dining or makeup sets for little girls are a shocking regression. It sets a disastrous example and restricts children to stereotypes,” Roselyne Segalen, member of feminist group les Chiennes de garde, said. [5] [7]  Gender equality is a hot topic in France, which saw mass demonstrations by conservatives in May over an experimental school programme that encouraged children to question stereotypes. [5] Carting shopping bags out of the shop, one woman expressed support for the protest. “I bought my daughter a dragon!” she said. [5]

In order to get back to logic and common sense, I propose that we take a look at the following schema that I found on The Feminist Agenda. [9]