California’s Latest Woke Mandate: Stores Must Have Sections for “Gender-Neutral Toys”
The single most useless piece of legislation ever created in this history of legislation.
The Legal Insurrection team often reports on California, the petri dish for insane progressive policies. Over the past few weeks, we have written that:
- California’s budget deficit is going to hit $68 Billion.
- The number of illegal immigrants crossing into the state is soaring.
- There was an illegal biolab in the Fresno that was run by China, with a set of pathogens that included Ebola.
- The once prosperous city of Beverly Hills has become a ghost town in the wake of rampant crime.
The stories about California’s decline are climbing; there will be many more in 2024. There are many reasons why I can forecast the failure, but chief among those reasons is the political class in Sacramento.
Its legislature crafted a law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom requiring stores to create gender-neutral sections for children or face a penalty of up to $500.
In 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation, titled Assembly Bill No. 1084, which will require some retail stores in the state to have a gender-neutral section for children “regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”
The bill is set to go into effect on January 1, 2024, and states that stores failing to comply will be “liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $250 for a first violation or $500 for a subsequent violation, as provided.”
The legislation applies to “a retail department store that is physically located in California that has a total of 500 or more employees across all California retail department store locations that sells childcare items or toys.”
This insanity of this law is such that the Editorial Board of the New York Post offered its assessment:
Aside from the fact that nothing now stops any parent from buying any kid any toy (in the family price range) he or she wants.
Indeed, thanks to online retail, no parent ever has to set foot in a toy store.
The fact is, gendered marketing for toys seems to bother whiny adults in deep-blue states far more than it does actual kids.
Yes, little girls generally like to play with dolls and such, and little boys generally like to play with trucks and toy guns. Yet plenty of kids march to the beat of their own drums; all their needs are easily met thanks to the wonders of market capitalism.
And plenty of toys are already as gender-neutral as it gets.
The sentiment was echoed by many on social media:
What a confusing and unnecessary law. All toys are gender neutral, and it would be regressive to suggest otherwise. Sounds like retailers now need to put up a big sign that makes that clear. What else could they do? Label some toys for girls, some for boys, and some that are… pic.twitter.com/0Wleg0bbQI
— Kate Parker (@KateParkerSB) December 10, 2023
According to the bill, the age range of the ‘children’ that the legislation refers to is 12 years of age and under.
According to the bill, ‘childcare items’ refer to any product that is designed to facilitate sleep, feeding children, relaxation, or ‘to help children with sucking or teething’.
…’Toys’ were defined as a product designed or intended to be used by children by the manufacturer.
Californian Democratic Congressman Evan Low backed the bill to the Associated Press
‘We need to stop stigmatizing what’s acceptable for certain genders and just let kids be kids,’ he said.
This has got to be the single most useless piece of legislation ever created in this history of legislation, as my colleague, Fuzzy Slippers, noted in 2021.
Despite decades of leftist social engineering, it turns out that—generally speaking—little girls most enjoy playing with dolls, while little boys most enjoy playing with toy trucks. Moreover, according to a recent study, this tendency to prefer toys associated with “traditional gender roles” has remained steady for 50 years.
I dread 2024, with its slew of new laws and rules created by Sacramento’s political class.
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Comments
Post a sign over one end cap, “Gender Neutral”. Place one doll, and one toy truck there. Then dare the state to specify minimum shelf space or some such.
How about toy guns,
In California?!?
Isn’t that funny? The idea is to sort of comply while causing them indigestion.
No rolls of caps with more than ten things-that-go-bang.
They will only be allowed to hold 10 bb’s.
Super soakers may only hold a half ounce of water
All genders love their trucks to go fast from one stop sign to the next. But you have to “gun it” to pick up much speed in such a short distance.
I really liked my cap gun, there were never enough caps, and I had a sister who loved wasting my caps and constantly misplacing my gun.
This.
Guns are 100% gender-neutral. Put a big “GENDER NEUTRAL” sign on the aisle to receive full credit for your work. In fact, reserve two aisles… just to show your enthusiasm for the new law.
GMTA. I’d go a step further — I’d designate about a foot of shelf space and place NO items in it. Just label it “Gender Neutral.”
But the law states that the retailer must maintain a “reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys.”
There’s no definition in the bill of a “reasonable selection.”
The failure to define “reasonable selection” is by design and not ignorance. Vague definitions are intentional so to “demand” definition by the legal system. Think feature, not flaw.
Flip that over on its head and it becomes easy. Post a sign that says “All of our toys are gender-neutral.”
There’s significant irony in this because a little over ten years ago, Hasbro produced the 4th generation of My Little Pony. By the second year, teenagers had surpassed the target demographic of 8-10 year old girls. By the *end* of the second year, college students. Around the fourth year, the MLP brand was one of only two or three profitable lines in Hasbro because young adults (male and female, including military bronies) were buying so much merchandise and watching the surprisingly good G4 cartoon. This ran just over a decade until 2019, at which point they shut down G4 for G5 (to much disappointment). A remarkable fandom with very low (comparatively) toxicity that supported family and virtue. The target was young girls, but the conventions looked like a college campus. (yes, I write in the fandom for practice and to become a better and someday commercial writer)
They should not reveal the gender of their children until after they’re grown up. Last year a California couple had a gender-reveal party that started a wildfire that burned 7,000 acres.
I always go to the gender neutral section to get my teddy bears. I find they are very gentle.
Seriously, I often wish that neutering mares and jennies was as routine an operation as neutering stallions and jacks. They bully geldings with true bitchiness.
Good point!
The litmus test to me in Washington was when they started banning plastic shopping bags and then plastic straws.
A government that is empowered to control your life to that level of detail has NO limits except those imposed by retaliatory mob violence that signifies the abject break down of civilized society.
I can remember when switching to plastic bags meant saving trees!
We need to save the trees so we can have forest fires.
This is an unconstitutional government overreach. I hope that at least one store decides to challenge it.
Does the Constitution apply in California to any who are not Democrat Protected Classes?
Subotai Bahadur
What’s unconstitutional about it? What part of the CA or US constitutions prohibits a state from making such a useless law?
Toy soldiers should be gender neutral as both sexes are free to play with their little privates.
Ladies and gentlemen, E. Howard will be here all week, three shows nightly.
Try the Chef’s Special, and don’t forget to tip your waitstaff!
(Hey, I thought it was funny — “little privates.”)
There’s a troll lurking
Me too. Like Private Parts, Major Disorders (and his buddy Major Difficulties), and General Problems.
I suspect that for many “progressives” it has nothing to do with the toys per se; it’s rather that they find the labeling and marketing to be “triggering” i.e. “I shouldn’t have to walk into a toy store and see that!”
Heh, I’ll bet many of the worst whiners aren’t even parents.
“Heh, I’ll bet many of the worst whiners aren’t even parents.”
I’ll bet most of those screaming about Indian team names aren’t Indian / Native American / First Nation.
I’ll bet most of those screaming “me too!” were never raped, or even propositioned.
And so on.
The history of gender-neutral toys probably goes back to the first time a human child picked up a stick. There have always been gender-neutral toys – what does the California government imagine retailers did with them, and how is it different from what they’re now required to do?
What the Progressives want to ban is the perfectly normal and natural thing is that most girls pick up a stick and it’s a magical wand, and most boys pick it up and it turns into a sword or gun (or a bow for the slightly more historical and a bendier stick). They insist that everyone must do things in a perfectly interchangeable cog-like manner.
Dammit, don’t nobody roll hoops anymore? Whippersnappers!
You need a really bendy stick for that. And another one, not bendy, to push with.
Damn, you made your own hoops? You win!
You can bet that was an early-human BOY who first picked up that stick.
Then, of course, waved it around, chased his cave-dweller sister with it.
If gender is meaningless to democrats, what the #$@! is gender-neutral?
Good point! Stores could just argue, “What do you mean guns and tractors aren’t for girls! That’s sexist! So you don’t think boys can play with dolls?
Put an egg of play-doh on the shelf and call it done.
And, Plato for the bright kids.
It will give them something printed to lift with the Play-Doh, since no one has b&w comics in a newspaper in their house, any more.
(Yes, I conflated Play-Doh with Silly Putty. Now go make like a slinky so we can smile. :p )
Sand buckets and shovels. Musical instruments.
Woke progressive lefties said same sex marriage was about “equality”. That was so 5 years ago, now its about trans groomers for 5 y/o.
Retail toy displays are already gender-neutral. The articles are arranged on the shelves by type (dolls with dolls, trucks with trucks, board games with board games, etc.), not by the genders one might assume would play with certain toys. That is to say, there are no “boys’ sections” and “girls’ sections” in toy departments or toy stores.
They should stop the production of “girls’ bikes” and just make “boys’ bikes” and label them “gender neutral.” When the girls complain about the discomfort, call them haters, and explain that this is a Democrat “improvement.” Then maybe when they grow up, they’ll vote better.
If the toy packaging doesn’t say “For Boys” or “For Girls” then leave everything in the store the way it is. You can’t expect the store to AsSUmE the gender of the toy, can you? Can you!!!
Are any toys currently labeled “For Boys” or “For Girls?” I rather doubt it — not because the manufacturers are woke, but I’d expect the maker to try to maximize sales by not restricting their toys to either gender.
Well, some are definitely PINK in a way that practically screams “Hey there, little girl! Don’t you wanna play with me? You boys can just go on to the next aisle.”
Little Dylan stands transfixed before them in rapt attention…
Just tell the inspectors, “Hey! I’m not a toyologist!”
I don’t know what gender that toy identifies as! Go ask it yourself!
A father wanted to expand his daughter’s toy and gave her a toy truck. So he came up and asked her why she wasn’t playing with truck. She said “quiet, the truck is sleeping.”
I didn’t realize the family connection for the Left with the genus Grinch.
The law clearly doesn’t go nearly far enough. Toys should only be sold in pairs. Want a football? You also have to buy a Barbie doll. Want a science kit? Need to buy a glue on fingernail kit. Etc. Etc.
What an utterly ridiculous, offensive and stupid bit of pandering to the tranny narcissists/misogynists/totalitarians, by the vile Dhimmi-crats.
You left out vile.
;-{)}}}
I ascribe it all to female sociology degree holders with hyphenated names.
No need to make fun of hyp-en-ated na-mes. Don’t you realize you are pointing a finger at 21,250 of the last 22,000 illegal aliens to cross the border today.
If one wanted to employ every pejorative adjective available, to fittingly describe these reprobates, the day would never end… 😉
This is CA sliding down the sliding slope. In few years it will become proclaimed by CA state law that all marketing must be “gender neutral” however they choose to define it under penalty of law?
Is a dildo a gender-neutral toy in California? Asking for a friend who isn’t sure if he or she is a he or she.
What color?
Black, of course. May as well check all the (toy) boxes.
That’s DILDOS: Dartmouth Industrial Limited Disc Operating System.
Or “Dildoes”, a brand name for pickled deer meat pieces.
I will bet that a lot more than worrying about kids who want to play with “the other gender’s” toys, this was about a mom who wanted to force her boy to play with a doll, and the kid said something like “I hate pink! I’m not playing with the doll!” So, she wanted to require girly toys for her boy, and someone thought a “gender-neutral” aisle would be a good solution (rather than the better solution of no solution, and the mom can just get over it).
(Yes, that would be stupid, since there are male
dollsaction figures that he would happily play with. But I don’t write the scripts for these things – idiot journalists and politicians do.)Probably driven by same sex couple taking their adopted child toy shopping. The kids certainly aren’t driving the legislation. For example CA state legislator scott weiner (from SF) is communist groomer.
Oh, nonsense.
Democratic politicians such as state Sen. Scott Wiener said that this bill allows children to feel safe without pushing them to “conform,” according to multiple outlets.
I was more replying to the same-sex couples driving this demand. Please, show some evidence. Links are fine.
Every store has a gender neutral area … it’s called … checkout.
They should have a Lea Thomas Transformer.
“Transformers! More than meets the eye!”
Only if it comes with its own supply of eye bleach.
It’s not the eyes they bleach.
If you had a Lea Thomas Barbie Doll, it would turn into Ken when you took it’s clothes off.
Any anatomical analogy that relies on Barbie and Ken is fatally flawed.
So why is the legislature doing this?
Leslie answered the question: the state has a $68 billion deficit, and the legislature would like to distract you for a bit. It won’t work for long but don’t worry, the legislature has all sorts of new, stupid laws to roll out…
So a shelf with a bunch of toys still widely available in the 70’s; Slinky, Etch a Sketch, Slime, Lite Brite and Lincoln Logs? Add some board games and a store is good to go. Make sure to add Life to make their heads explode.
Noncompliance is the only way to go.
And just to be trans-friendly — “Operation Pro — The New, Enhanced Version.”
“The single most useless piece of legislation ever created in this history of legislation.”
Oh, I’d take ringside bets on this one.
Other contenders are Massachusetts’ laws against blasphemy and marrying your mother-in-law., and the entire federal Gun-Free School Zones Act.
I believe it was Texas that had a law applying to the operation of railroads. If two trains converged at a diamond crossing, only one was allowed over the crossing at a time.