Sarah & Ian Hoffman

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The Toy Question: Answered

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So I told you that I’d let you know how McDonald’s responded to my query about gender bias and Happy Meal toys. This is what they said:

Thank you for taking the time to write McDonald’s and to share your thoughts with us about our Happy Meals.
 First, please be assured that none of our toys are meant to be gender-restricted. Rather, all of our toys are meant to be enjoyed by all our younger customers—both girls AND boys.

When we offer a Happy Meal with two different themes, our employees have been specifically trained to ask customers which of the two toys offered that week they would like, and not whether they would like a “girl” toy or a “boy” toy. I’m sorry if you’ve experienced anything different.

Please be assured, we would never want any of our promotions, games or premium items to disappoint our customers. Because you’re a valued customer, your comments are very important to us, and have been shared with our Marketing staff for their on-going review.

Which I thought was really cool.

I wrote back to thank them, and to suggest that some additional employee training may be warranted given how often we hear reports of the question “Girl toy or boy toy?” when a parent orders a Happy Meal. I encourage you to contact them too. It’s a small act of activism that has the potential to have a lasting impact on the cultural conversation about gender.

Whatever we think about McDonald’s, there is no question that their actions reverberate throughout our culture. The McDonald’s commercial aired this week featuring a gay teen was, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, meant to “recognize the diversity of McDonald’s customers in France.” When a mainstream corporation recognizes diversity of sexuality and gender, we are one step closer to broader cultural recognition and acceptance of our kids.

And, when you write to McDonald’s, don’t forget to tell them how cool they are.

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On The Importance of Being Interviewed

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I get a fair number of requests to be interviewed by academics and talk-show hosts. I say no to anyone who wants to feature an image of my child, but I tend to say yes to everyone else. Why? Because I believe that the more we talk about our gender-nonconforming kids, the more we build acceptance in the world for them. And I always say yes to solid academic researchers, who are collectively building a body of evidence documenting that accepting our kids leads to healthier, happier human beings.

Last year I was interviewed by Elizabeth Rahilly, a sociology graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is conducting doctoral research on the experiences, viewpoints, and feelings of parents of gender-nonconforming children. She wants to understand our experiences with our children, and in turn to bring a deeper understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of gender to the field. Her data come from in-depth interviews with parents like me–and maybe like you.

If you are a parent of a child aged 4-14, please consider contacting Elizabeth for an interview. Think of it as an act of progressive activism, an act of conscience, a gift to your child.

Elizabeth Rahilly
erahilly@umail.ucsb.edu
(347) 968-1891

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