Spain has a cabinet that has more women ministers than ministers. The government grants fathers and mothers equal parental leave after giving birth. And more and more men are making full use of this. But if you walk through one of the country’s large department stores during Advent, you can still feel little of the progressive atmosphere. “Princess” is emblazoned on the pink-lined bib, “little genius” on the blue. The roles are clear, even for those who are too small to hold the porridge themselves.
The bigger the children get, the greater the spread: only girls appear in 87 percent of the advertising spots for dolls, while boys are almost always explorers, adventurers and winners in advertising. This is the result of a survey by the Catalan Broadcasting Council.
Where the problem is? Spain’s Minister for Gender Equality Irene Montero and Consumer Protection Minister Alberto Garzón see stereotypical toys as the root of injustice between the sexes. To take action against the latter, the Spanish government is now taking action against sexist advertising for children’s toys. Today’s toys will shape the society of tomorrow, write Montero and Garzón, both in their mid-30s and left-wing populist to communist, in a current guest article in the daily newspaper El País.
Is Garzón fighting windmills?
If girls were pushed into passive roles in this way, while little boys were always the makers, one should not be surprised that little progress is being made in society. “There is sexist behavior in advertising that needs to be eradicated because it promotes machismo,” says Consumer Protection Minister Garzón. Especially since the audience to which this advertising is aimed does not yet have any protective mechanisms against such influences, says Garzón, who is himself the father of two daughters.
Isn’t someone fighting against windmills? Spain’s 36-year-old consumer protection minister has a knack for attracting malice and ridicule with his political advances. It was not long ago that he called on the Spanish to eat less meat in favor of the climate, which Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez repaid with a smug remark about his preference for steak. Garzón also wants to ban that sweetened so-called children’s foods can continue to be advertised. And the Spaniards ask themselves: doesn’t our country have any other problems?
Now Garzón has buttoned up the toy industry: 80,000 euros should tasted a video of his ministry, in which animated action figures call for the “strike of the toys”. They are tired, says one of the characters, that they should only ever play with half of the children. In the future, all toys are there for everyone.
The advertising film cost 80,000 euros.
(Photo: YouTube / Ministerio de Consumo)
But the well-intentioned appeal has fizzled out. The demonstration, to which the Spanish government had invited families for this Sunday in Madrid’s Retiro Park, was more like a somewhat cheerless children’s birthday party, including a clown ordered. “Playing has no gender”, the children should repeat after the purple-clad man on stage. It only got funny when he unpacked the ukulele. It was not a “historical pause that invites the world to reflect,” as the strike call put it.
Especially since the makers of the animated film missed an essential detail: In the video, a female and a male superhero doll appear, but not toys, which, according to the guest contribution by the ministers, are typical “girls’ toys”. So where are the revolutionary pink horses, the roaring Barbie dolls? The way to a “Christmas free of stereotypes”, as the minister would like, is further than expected.