Target Will No Longer Suggest Blue for Boys & Pink for Girls
Photo: Target
Buzz Bissinger was on NPR’s Fresh Air last week in celebration of the 25th anniversary of his most famous work: Friday Night Lights. More recently, he’s written for Vanity Fair of his sexual leather fetish, and also to introduce the world to Caitlyn Jenner. While discussing both, he mentioned to Terry Gross that he hates how stores separate their departments based on gender. Why can’t men and women shop leather pants off the same rack?
As interest in and curiosity around gender fluidity reaches fever pitch, one might expect a store like Barneys or Opening Ceremony to say hell ya! We’re going to organize the store by color, not male vs. female. Instead, it’s Target.
On Friday, the mega retailer published a quiet post on their corporate blog title “Moving Away from Gender-based Signs.” They use signs to make shopping in-store easier and more efficient, they wrote, but “we never want guests or their families to feel frustrated or limited by the way things are presented. Over the past year, guests have raised important questions about a handful of signs in our stores that offer product suggestions based on gender.”
The store argues that while gender-based signs are necessary for apparel—”there are fit and sizing differences”—they acknowledge they’re not so in other areas. “Right now, our teams are working across the store to identify areas where we can phase out gender-based signage to help strike a better balance. For example, in the kids’ Bedding area, signs will no longer feature suggestions for boys or girls, just kids. In the Toys aisles, we’ll also remove reference to gender, including the use of pink, blue, yellow or green paper on the back walls of our shelves. You’ll see these changes start to happen over the next few months.”
It might not be quite what Bissinger had in mind, but it’s quite a leap forward. Imagine a magical world in which all-blue everything is pushed on little boys and bikes are marketed toward girls in something other than pink—Target’s on its way.
Related: Bruce Jenner Reveals Caitlyn on Vanity Fair Cover
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