The Lavender Aisle

This week mega-retailer Target announced that it will be doing away with gender signage in the children toy,entertainment, and home goods department.  The move comes after parents complained about the pink aisle, a pink fluffy princess zone full of all things sugar and spice and everything nice.  How do you grow up to love math, or science, or reading, or adventure if the only toys and goodies you see are focused on looking pretty and dressing up?  You can’t.

I grew up with three brothers and I never wanted to be left behind because I was a girl.  Seeing my older brothers as role models meant I saw worlds of possibility blocked from the view of the pink isle.  Now all girls, with brothers or not will see a world of play more like the real world that they will grow into.  Boys likewise will be freed from early training in hyper masculinity and have new opportunities for play and imagination–like this sweet easy bake oven.

Let’s hope target is just the first of many stores that open up the traditionally binding boundaries of gender in boys and girls play and products.  Here’s to more lavender!

Author: Susan X Jane

Susan X Jane, Principal of Navigators Consulting, has over 30 years of experience exploring race and representation in both the public and private sectors.  Susan is a transracial adoptee—a Black woman raised in a White family and community—an experience that created an early focus on the way race shapes our concept of ourselves and each other. Susan has worked to address race and racism as a community organizer, nonprofit program developer, professor of communications, and consultant to corporations and impact-focused institutions.  As Principal of Navigators Consulting, she draws on decades of experience to work with organizations in the public and private sectors. To any who seeks to build a better world, she offers her skills as a teacher, coach, and strategic partner to help create diverse and inclusive environments where the humanity of all is respected and protected. View all posts by Susan X Jane