Theorists Against Gendered Baby Toys

A Subset of the Group Reject All Gender Stereotypes (RAGS)

This group really peels back the onion on children's toys and gender. It's a common belief that girls are more likely to play with dolls and boys like trucks and Legos. But this groups advocates for parents to question that assumption and to take a long, hard look at what they give their kids. They don't want to upset small children, but they are working on some guerilla tactics in toy stores—like mixing and matching body parts on Ken and Barbie. Nothing too dark, though—they want to recruit more members, not scare people off.

Sigmund Freud

Honorary Member

Freud wouldn't make it in today's discussion of gender stereotyping and transsexuality, but the group still likes to give him cred for being the first to shine a light on society's glib equation of male and female as masculine and feminine. The group nostalgically accepts his research on "sex typing"—but they've come a long way, baby.

Michael Walter

Social Liaison

Michael's take-no-prisoners attitude about sex typing really keeps the group's rage focused on the right issues. He leaves Freud in the dust by giving the group the real deal about how children are chastised or praised for being gender-appropriate. It's a cruel, cruel world, according to this guy.

Sandra Lipsitz Bem

Adult Education Organizer

Sandra offers periodical DIY courses on raising children who aren't bent on jumping on the gender binary express. Her most popular class is "Undermining Dominant Ideology: How to Get Your Son into a Tutu and Your Daughter Into a Bob the Builder Yellow Construction Hat with Minimal Stress."

Sandra offers such tips as building up a tolerance to society's gender expectations, which is basically the ideological equivalent of getting your kid a polio immunization at the pediatrician. It all starts with you, mom and dad, or mom and mom, or dad and dad. Sandy believes that feminist parents need to switch it up and act as good gender-neutral models for their kids.

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