Shooting for a favourite client who produces wooden toys when a hoary old subject came up.
Do girls play with Dollies and boys with cars ?
Do girls like pastel colours and boys like the vibrant ones ?
Yup ! The old gender stereo-typing issue.

If like me you have been properly re-educated in the ways of political correctness by a caring, intelligent and beautiful wife, you will have no problem with this.
If however you are producing a catalogue of children’s toys do you simply accept the status quo; not rock the boat, conform to the old perceptions of gender ?
Tricky, but my clients Le Toyvan were trying to take a more mature attitude.
“Lets try and get the boys into the kitchen shots”
“What about a girl with the workbench ?”

Our models were young kiddies, 3 to 5 years old and didn’t complain when we offered them different toys to play with but they did show a little less enthusiasm – or am I imagining that ?
When my children were growing up we always tried to do the “Right Thing” and avoid gender specific toys: Sophie was encouraged to play with the cars and Patrick with the dollies.
So was it peer pressure that eventually made them assert their gender ?
Sophie went back to the dollies and Patrick the cars.
She’s now a nightclub bouncer and Patrick is with the Bolshoi !
(Sorry kids only joking !)
Be that as it may I am pleased that the design team at Le Toyvan were aware of the problem and prepared to spend time trying to correct it.
It’s a great idea of course but when it comes to printing the catalogue I wonder how many of the “New Style” shots make it in ?
Don’t be too tough on them though, it’s hard to be a social pioneer when you’re running a company and are responsible for many people’s livelihoods.

For all the chaps who think a woman’s place is in the kitchen, remember that’s where the knives are kept.

As an airplane is about to crash, a female passenger jumps up frantically and announces, “If I’m going to die, I want to die feeling like a woman.”
She removes all her clothes and asks, “Is there someone on this plane who is man enough to make me feel like a woman?”
A man stands up, removes his shirt and says, “Here, iron this!”.