It has been a while since I’ve been in-store at ToysRus – and so can not comment on in-store aisle categorization. I am pleased to hear that it is not gender specific in-store. On the web, however, I do use filters – and there within lies their gender restrictions.

I’m not sure why my daughter gravitates to Star Wars – though the strong female role models play a strong part I’m sure. She is still a fan of Disney, pink & purple and has her Rapunzel polly pocket is playing alongside Ahsoka lego action figures. She doesn’t mind athletic type violence though admittedly is not enamored with the Darths, unlike my son. And yet, it is a franchise that has my daughter reading, consuming and talking to adults. It is her own world and I am thrilled that we can do activities together. (Montreal has an upcoming Star Wars Identities show).

Most of all, I’m glad to hear that you see a good mix of girls and boys of all ages at recent Toronto Star Wars events – perhaps a good indication that ToysRus online filtering of Star Wars toys needs a changing.

Thanks again.

Perhaps the difference between boys’ and girls’ toys rests on how violent the source material is. As magical and generation-gap closing as star wars is, there’s little argument that compared to Teddy Ruxpin, Star Wars is violent. Boys tend to like grittier things and girls do not. We are all socialized into those gender roles from a young age either in school or at home. Here’s an old poem that illustrates that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Are_Little_Boys_Made_Of%3F

When I was a kid I was fascinated by Teddy Ruxpin because the brilliant creator of Teddy and his pals was able to make a toy that was definitely gender neutral. You had the fuzzy, cute teddy bear that happened to tell stories of high adventure and imagination – although not particularly violent stories. At school everyone had or wanted one, both boys and girls. However a boy would not be caught dead with Barbie anywhere near them because there was just nothing to relate to – again they are just so over the top. Girls however could play with say, Micro Machines because they were fun and non-violent, and not really get too much flak for it. But whenever a girl wanted to join in playing Transformers or Kenner Superfriends they would almost invariably take the theme of the play in a direction that smacked of Barbie type play style (i.e. Superman and Wonderwoman would play house instead of kicking the Joker’s and Lex Luthor’s asses). But what if you were a boy that was curious about Barbie? I mean plenty of girls were positively obsessed with Barbie so what if a boy just wanted to know what all the fuss was about? Yowch!

When I organized Star Wars Day in Toronto we had a pretty good mix of girls and boys of all ages. Fans of the franchise all know that the entire story is gender neutral. Leia was the picture of female empowerment and ever since then, Star Wars has always had a strong female character as part of their formula. Amidala, Ahsoka, Asajj Ventress, Master Luminara and more. In fact I would conjecture that having strong female characters is a big reason for the Franchise’s longevity and accessibility – there’s something for everyone. Love stories, action, political drama (The Senate and Republic, War) etc etc. I think that in the same way that Star Wars bridges the generation gap, it could also bridge the gender gap. If kids of either gender are watching Clone Wars then they know that the female Jedi kick as much butt as Obi Wan and Anakin and would therefore play truer to the source material because that’s what they see on TV and would want to recreate that.