{"id":1678,"date":"2010-12-14T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T09:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=1678"},"modified":"2012-12-17T18:47:34","modified_gmt":"2012-12-17T18:47:34","slug":"all-i-want-for-christmas-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2010\/12\/14\/all-i-want-for-christmas-is\/","title":{"rendered":"All I want for Christmas is\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s the Festive Season, so we are putting up tinsel on the collective BadRep Christmas tree and trying not to speculate too deeply on the reason why we lug a lot of greenery into the house during winter time (it’s not pagan, it’s traditional. Honest). We are also shopping for gifts. I like presents. I like selecting the right ones for my nearest and dearest so they know that I love them, and that I’ve spent at least some part of my life thinking about what would be most appropriate to give them. Hopefully they’ve done the same thing too, and we shall all be happy.\u00a0 However, the process of actually getting those gifts is fraught with danger and turmoil of the gendered kind. Because at this time of the year, more so than perhaps any other, we see the division along the pink and blue lines where people are encouraged to think of Gifts For Him and Gifts For Her. A quick trawl through the websites of some of the UK’s most popular Christmas stores shows this wave of sexual stereotyping crashing on the shores of our present-buying choices.<\/p>\n

There are desperately predictable pickings over at Our Favourite Chemist<\/a>, “feminine” monstrosities at the shop now sadly departed from the high street<\/a> – although with this sort of blatant sexism, perhaps good riddance? These include the despressing Christmas staple of “girl” versions of items once considered gender neutral but now given the familiar make-over of normal is for men, pink is for women<\/em>. Even the world of silly gadgets<\/a> is not immune to this disease – pink, fluffy, heart covered, plushie, watered down and washed up doo-dads of every Barbie-filled nightmare haunt the screen.<\/p>\n

\"Pink<\/a>

Because otherwise women wouldn't know they were allowed to play computer games.<\/p><\/div>\n

I’ve selected the girly items to avoid over-linking, but the ones for men are just as bad, though less eye-gougingly pastel. Department stores like Debenhams <\/a>and Selfridges<\/a> dole out the standard patter of perfume, chocolates, underwear, jewellery, handbags and ungents. (Expensive) stuff to eat and (expensive) stuff to wear. That’s what women want, clearly.<\/p>\n

Now before anyone begins with the “But I am a woman and I like flowers\/scent\/bags\/this maribou feather hat and gloves combo”. Yes. That is fine. Good. Carry on. There is nothing wrong<\/em> with individuals liking things that are traditionally ascribed to their gender. Wearing pink does not make you a Bad Feminist (TM). But there is a whole heap wrong with assuming that someone must like those things because<\/em> they are a woman. And that is just what is happening on the High Street right now. Millions of people are walking around choosing gifts sold to them under these headlines.<\/p>\n

These are tropes so ingrained that it seems almost part of our social furniture. Girls get X and Boys get Y. Even at this time of goodwill to all, we seem unable to shake the idea that gender is biologically constructed and that our chromosomes deliver different desires so that shopping arcade Santas can conveniently wrap it all up in cis-tastic cerise and cyan. I appreciate that it is useful for businesses to be able to categorise gifts into different areas for ease of shopping, but this gendered nonsense has to stop. Not only is it reductive and ridiculous, it also makes the present less special, less unique to that supposedly unique person in your life because it’s just the same as what half of the population is supposed to want. Fortunately, for all of you frantic shoppers out there who unlike me probably have a family larger than four (yup, it’s just me, my parents and my brother) there is a solution. You could do what the biggest Christmas retailer has done and just browse by category<\/em>. That’s right, Amazon<\/a>, in a stroke of genius, have divided their goods up according to the type of item.<\/em> Not For Girls or For Boys but, you know, For People. Who like things.<\/p>\n

So I’ll be buying from them this year. And I suggest you do too.<\/p>\n