© Associated Press
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California became the first state in the United States to ask major manufacturers to display toys and other items for children in “gender-neutral” ways. write BBC.
The new law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newson, does not prohibit “male” and “female” sections in stores, but there should be others that are not sold for a particular gender. For the first violation, the companies will receive fines of $ 250, for the second – $ 500.
The new rules will take effect only for large stores – with more than 500 or more employees. They will not cover goods such as clothing, but will affect the sale of toys and any items intended to support sleep, rest, nutrition and more.
The aim is for consumers to “notice unjustified differences in the same products”, connected with the marketing of a product as related to one and not the other sex.
According to a representative of the Democrats in California, the inspiration for the change was his eight-year-old daughter, who asked her mother why she had to go to the boys’ section to find a specific toy. “The segregation of toys through the social construct of what gender is the antithesis of modern thinking,” says Evan Lowe.
According to him, it is a vicious practice to divide toys categorized by gender mainly into technological, scientific and similar in the sections for boys, and those for baby care, fashion and “household” – in that for girls.
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