The Advertising Standards Authority in the United Kingdom recently announced that it will release a new code to ban gender stereotyping in advertisements in June 2019. Harmful gender stereotypes will be banned from advertisement of British companies.
After the release of this positive notice the gender equality and women’s rights charity Fawcett Society decided to launch a social media campaign in order to combat gender stereotyped toys in the lead up to Christmas.
Sam Smethers, Fawcett Chief Executive, says: “What the ASA has done is very welcome. It is time for us to wake up to the harm that gender norms and stereotypes can do. Limiting girls’ horizons and career choices, objectifying women and causing them to self-harm; legitimising violence and aggression in boys and inhibiting dads’ caring roles. Our society and our economy pays a heavy price for the constraints we place on boys and girls from our earliest moments of life. It has to change.”
In 2015 IAWM itself took a stance against toy genderization. During the EU-project She Culture five artists from different countries created videos against gender-stereotyping toys. The videos can be accessed here. This is the video created of the Italian artist Teresa Sala: