"Mister" is now incorrect

Mr Potato Head is no longer a mister. Hasbro, the company that's made the potato-shaped plastic toy for nearly 70 years, is giving the spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on boxes this year.

Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to today's kids and reflect more modern families.

"It's a potato," said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider.

"But kids like to see themselves in the toys they are playing with."

Barbie, for example, has tried to shed the blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones and body shapes. The Thomas the Tank Engine toy line added more female characters, while American Girl is now selling a boy doll.

As part of the rebranding, Hasbro will release a new Potato Head playset that will let kids create their own type of families, including two mums or two dads.

The Mr and Mrs Potato Head characters will live on in some form, Hasbro said.

Both have appeared in the Toy Story movies.

Mattel's Creatable World dolls, released in 2019, are the first line of gender-neutral dolls produced by the company famous for Barbie.

The company describes the range of dolls as "designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in", for which Mattel consulted physicians, hundreds of families as well as experts in gender identity in researching the product.

Dropping the "Mr" from Potato Head's name could encourage other companies to stop assigning genders to its toys, a trend that has already been happening, Mierzejewski said. "It's setting this new standard," she said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-26/mr-potato-head-goes-gender-neutral/13195698

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Australia: Panic attacks as kids taught not to use words ‘boy’ or ‘girl’

Gender language warriors are making kids frightened to say “boy” or “girl”, with one Queensland doctor warning we risk a generation scared “to admit they are heterosexual”.

The warning from Logan doctor Thomas Lyons comes as mums of two transgender children who say kids need support, not gender neutral language.

Midwives are also battling to head off the push to drop “breastfeeding” for “chestfeeding” and “mother’s milk” for human milk.

“If the push to eliminate gender from society continues we are likely to see a wave of suicidal adolescents who are too anxious to admit they are heterosexual and happy in the bodies they were born into,” GP Dr Thomas Lyons said.

The medic is angry that a non-binary blanket is being thrown over the wider community when the majority of the population has no problem with the words ‘boy”, “girl”, “father” or “mother”.

“Who are these fascists who assert authority over the lives, culture and values of the majority, This coup will fail,” the doctor said.

Dr Lyons admits that the drive to outlaw gendered language became a problem for him after an experience where he had six kids visit his surgery. When he was testing their sight with a chart showing the drawings of animals and people, four of the kids refused to say the words ‘boy” or “girl” and all six were stressed and panicky.

“These children, without the knowledge or permission of the principal and parents, had been taught by teachers that the words ‘boy’ and ‘girl’ had some kind of bad magic and to utter them would somehow harm people. The children knew what they could see and hear but could not reconcile themselves with the notion that this was wrong to see boys and girls as different. Watching a six-year-old have a panic attack over use of gender identifying language is disturbing,” he said.

Adding to the debate, two Queensland mothers who have lived the reality of raising transgender children are not fans of gender-neutral parenting.

“Most children are happy in who they are and to raise them in a world without the word ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ and letting them decide for themselves is putting undue pressure on young minds,” Meagan Hayes, mother of 16-year-old transgender daughter Emma, said.

“I respect those who make this choice but it is my experience that children are what they are and nothing will change that,” the Gympie mum told The Sunday Mail.

“My daughter tried to cut off her own penis at the age of four. At that very young age she instinctively knew she was a girl and told everyone that she was a girl.

“My parenting style or any restricted use of language would not change that in any way.”

Michelle Suters from Rothwell, north of Brisbane, is the mother of four children and two step-children. Her son Nate, 17, is transgender.

“My children were all raised the same. They could play with whatever toys they wanted whether trucks or dolls. Nate wasn’t interested in dolls, he wanted to be a superhero and loved worm farms. He wanted his hair short from when he was 10. We just accepted him as he was no questions asked,” Ms Suters said.

“I am not a fan of gender-neutral parenting. Most children are happy to be either a boy or a girl. I don’t think they need to be made frightened of being one of the other. Nature has a way or making things happen as they should. All any parent can do is support and love their child for what they are or what they want to be,” she said.

Both mothers agree that gender words should not be erased but children should be taught that their opportunities are not hindered by gender and it’s OK to buck stereotypes.

But on the flip side Nate Musiello himself told The Sunday Mail that he believes that in the future people will adapt to a world without gender. “I think my generation see things a bit differently and the world is ready for the shift. The use of the words ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ were hurtful to me as I grew up. I will raise my own children gender neutral and I think small things like removing the Mr from the toy Potato Head is a good thing. Why does a potato have to be a man?” Nate said.

Social commentator David Chalke said the bid to wipe out the words “girl” or “boy” in society is ludicrous. “Parents can raise children in whatever way they see fit but to throw out these ideas to fit the wider community is a mistake,” he said.

“No child should be directed to be scared of certain words and children are too young to understand the extreme message.

“This trend is a push by a minority that should not impact the whole community particularly children. I have a manhole leading up to my attic, is that going to be a problem?”

A push for midwives to use more gender-inclusive words like “chestfeeding” rather than “breastfeeding”, “feeding parent” rather than “mother”, and “peri-natal” instead of “maternity” is gathering momentum, but the Australian College of Midwives is standing firm against the drive, determined they will not wipe out “women” from the health system.

Maternity consumer advocates state that removing words such as “mother”, “breastfeeding” and “woman” from experiences that are direct experiences of women is “completely misogynist”.

“This is something that is coming to the fore and we hear about it regularly but our stance is that changing the vernacular to remove the word “women” is going to take us backward rather than forward. Women make up over 50 per cent of the population,” Ruth King, adviser to the ACM said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/panic-attacks-as-kids-taught-not-to-use-words-boy-or-girl/news-story/3bbb0a43c9eb25dd57e4684722c4f8f8

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My other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://awesternheart.blogspot.com.au/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)

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