Feminist Friday: Stickers are Sexless

These books have been staring at me for the past couple of weeks and taunting me. Blondie Boy loves stickers, LOVES stickers, so I see sticker books that are relatively inexpensive and I want to buy them for him but you see I can't. I can't because in my honest opinion these stickers books are sexist. How can sticker books be sexist you say? Well grab yourself something to drink and settle in and I'll tell you.

Now I understand some of you might be thinking "what's the big deal?" Well the big deal is gender stereotyping is not okay. Blondie Boy loves trucks and cars but he also loves giraffes, hearts, puppy dogs and fairies (specifically one Miss Abby Cadabby but more on her another time). I hear you 'no big deal' folks saying "Fine just get him the girl's book." That isn't the point. Why do the books even need to be "boy's" and "girl's"? I know Blondie Boy has colouring and sticker books called "big book of cars" or "animals" so why the need to define with boy and girl?


In playing into culturally constructed norms of what either sex should like or be these books are subtly chipping away at our children's identities. Yes, I'm going to take it THAT far because there will be some little boy who goes to get a sticker book and reaches for the copy with giraffes, fairies and ponies only to be told, no that is the girl's book. That little child will have to compromise who they are and what they like because some marketing genius has decided what is for boys and what is for girls and slapped the label on sticker books accordingly.


In my opinion there are no such things are girls things and boys things as far as toys and playthings are concerned. Yes our external and internal genitalia do differentiate male from female but last time I checked most children's toys don't actually require a penis or a vulva/vagina so really why are toys marked as boy and girl? Physically and mentally boys and girls can play with the exact same toys so there is no need to market them as sex specific. Let children choose on their own what they want to play with and enjoy.


I like to buy toys that Blondie Boy would like but as much as he might like either of those colouring books I will not buy them. We have to buck the "snips and snails" versus "sugar and spice" dichotomy or it will just continue. 


At Cybher last Saturday I said to me being a feminist blogger means not shutting up. So I'm not going to shut up. I'll rant about sticker books and anything else that pisses me off and if even one person reads my rants and it makes them think differently then I think I've done my job. Things can't change if you don't let anyone know things are wrong.

Potty Training & Reward Charts

It has been awhile since I have updated on potty training and I know y'all are dying to know what is going on, right? Every one of those stickers is for peeing on the potty. I made him the reward chart and stuck it up in the bathroom. I just used some old poster board and got 1,000 stickers for £1 at Poundland so it wasn't expensive to implement.

As you can see from all the cars he is doing well but that also means he is going a lot. Sometimes he asks to go just to stare at his stickers--seriously. He also has a little sticker book that we used this weekend at his Grandma's house so he is still getting rewarded when away from home.


No pooping on the potty yet which is kind of annoying but I feel like if we can get one he'll be good to go in the future. I gather from others that not pooping on the toilet is normal so I'm not too worried. 


We know he is young so again we aren't pushing it but he asks to go himself now so we are moving forward. If anyone has any tips for the elusive poo in the potty that would be great! We got some Mickey Mouse big boy undies in the US as well so hopefully that will encourage him?