Ohio Target’s ‘Gender Bias’ Upsets Mom Abi Bechtel With ‘Sexist’ Girls’ Building Sets Sign

Gender bias in toy marketing is the central theme of a complaint by mom Abi Bechtel, who claims that Target stores are showing a bias against girls by using signs that speak about “girls’ building sets.”

In a related report by the Inquisitr, some proclaimed gender bias when Virginia Valdez tried to cut off her husband’s penis, but only received a relative slap on the wrist as punishment. Caitlyn Jenner’s plastic surgery has been held up as an example for the LGBT community, but some critics claim the doctors “butchered” Bruce’s face.

The reason that the mother called out gender bias is because the sign said both “building sets” and “girls’ building sets” with the implication being that the former listing was for boys.

“It makes it seem like it’s so normal for building sets to be for boys, and oh by the way, girls can build stuff too we guess,” Bechtel said. “At a time when there’s such a focus on increasing the number of women in STEM fields, Target’s gendering toys like these as male comes across as out of touch.”

Bechtel took the above photo and posted it to her Twitter account with the message, “Don’t do this, @Target.” The image was retweeted thousands of times, and some of the other Twitter users called the Target sign “sexist.”

When Target responded to the controversy, officials said it was “absolutely not [their] intent] to draw a distinction between “building sets” and “girls’ building sets” which might appear sexist.

“At Target, our goal is to provide our guests with choices,” an email from Target read, according to Opposing Views. “In our toy department, we offer a wide assortment of unique, differentiated, must-have merchandise, that children of all ages, stages and interests will love. We know families are tight on time and looking for inspiration. Therefore, we continually explore how to organize our stores and website in ways that will be convenient, appealing and helpful to our guests.”

Althogh she recognizes the intention of Target, Abi Bechtel still believes the sign is “problematic on a couple of levels” because the way it’s written “sets up boys’ building sets…as normative/generic and girls’ as specialized/other.” In addition, the mother claims the gender bias is unncessary, saying it is an “an encapsulation of how Target (and many other retailers) persistently genders toys that don’t need to be gendered.”

What do you think about the Target sign?