GENDER LINE BLURRING: HASBRO SAYS IT “ELIMINATED OLD DELINEATION OF GENDER” TO THINK OF TOYS MORE “INCLUSIVELY”
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the CEO of Hasbro
outlined that the company has changed its thinking regarding certain
toys being geared toward particular genders.
Brian Goldner told the outlet
that Hasbro has found that a significant percentage of boys are
interested in My Little Pony, and that girls might like some of the Star
Wars products the company will soon be releasing.
“You’ve pivoted Hasbro’s focus from mostly boys to girls as well, and
the stock hit an all-time high in February. What does that say about
the marketplace?” reporter Tatiana Siegel asked.
“We look at our brands more inclusively than ever. In fact, we
eliminated the old delineation of gender,” Goldner said. “And if you
think about a brand, be it My Little Pony, where 30 percent of our
global TV audience is boys, or Star Wars, where we are launching
[all-female animated series] Forces of Destiny with Lucas and Disney,
you’re seeing people who want to be engaged in these stories.”
“And we don’t care who they are. We just care that they love that brand,” he added.
Earlier this year, Fortune Magazine
also noted Hasbro’s desire not to divide toys as being for just girls
or only boys, outlining that “[e]xecutives say this is a sign of the
times, as Millennial parents in particular don’t want their children to
learn stereotypical gender habits.”
“We want to be inclusive in our approach across gender and
ethnicity,” said President John Frascotti. “Instead of thinking, that’s a
boy brand or a girl brand, we see them as dual-gender. … Our approach
is we build brands for consumers.”
He likewise noted that My Little Pony, Star Wars and Transformers brands have had appeal for both boys and girls.
In January, an eight-year-old girl’s letter to Hasbro
went viral after she wrote to the company to complain that it had left
out the female character Rey from its new Star Wars Monopoly game. She
thought that perhaps the company had only focused on the male
characters.
“[W]ithout her, the bad guys would have won! Besides, boys and girls
need to see women can be as strong as men,” Annie Rose wrote in
handwritten note to the company. “Boy or girl, who cares? We are equal,
all of us!”
Hasbro responded that it did not include Rey because it would have
been a spoiler for the movie as the game was released before the film,
and that it would release the action figure separately.
“We are thrilled with the popularity of this compelling character and
will continue to look for ways to showcase Rey across all our product
lines,” the company responded in part.
However, some have expressed concern about Hasbro’s elimination of
gender delineation for its brands or product lines, lamenting that toy
companies have now seemingly jumped on the “gender neutral” bandwagon.
“Hasbro’s Star Wars and Jurassic Park lines have performed well with
boys. It recently purchased Disney Princesses, but apparently the
company doesn’t plan to market them [only] to girls, since it doesn’t
believe in gender delineation,” wrote Erin Pierri of TellMeNow. “What
sense does this make? The left wants to turn us all into non-gender
robots. It will never work as biology will win this war long term.”