Mr. Potato Head gets a new gender-aware branding

Mr. Potato Head, the root vegetable toy that has fascinated children since the 1950s, is getting a facelift today: In the future, Hasbro will change the name and logo in the interests of gender neutrality.

This fall, Mr. Potato Head will wear the Potato Head brand “to better reflect the full range,” the company said in a press release Thursday. “But rest assured, the iconic Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters are not going anywhere and will remain Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.” Hasbro is also launching a “Create Your Potato Head Family” toy as “a celebration of the many faces of families” including two large potatoes, a small fries and 42 accessories. In an accompanying video, Hasbro called it “a modern look for modern families”

After initial reactions, Hasbro clarified its plans for the Potato Head brand. The tweet included a photo of what appears to be redesigned packaging.

While Hasbro did not return Yahoo Life’s request for comment, Kimberly Boyd, senior vice president and general manager of global brands, said Fast company, “Culture has evolved. Children want to be able to represent their own experiences. The way the brand currently exists – with the ‘Mr.’ and ‘Ms.’ – is limiting with regard to gender identity and family structure. “

She added, “The best place for the toy is two to three years old. Children love to dress up the toy and then act out scenarios from their life. This often takes the form of starting small potato families as they learn what it is like to be in a family. “

The story continues

According to PBS, the idea for Mr. Potato Head came from an inventor named George Lerner, who thought kids would like to poke real potatoes with his plastic props (hands, feet, eyes), although ‘in 1949, he feared that such a game would turn food insecure families off on the heels of World War II. Lerner then sold his idea to a company later renamed Hasbro, which made the body out of plastic. Mrs. Potato Head arrived in 1953 and the couple had “children”.

Today, the Mr. Potato Head range is sold in the image of Star warsby Luke Skywalker (Luke Fry-Walker), Iron Manit’s Tony Stark, Spider ManPeter Parker and same hasselback style.

The announcement made for Twitter news.

“Hasbro’s decision to introduce Potato Head as a gender-neutral toy is the latest move in a wider movement towards greater diversity and inclusion in toys and media for children,” said Rich Ferraro , GLAAD’s communications director in a press release sent. at Yahoo Life. “By providing a toy that exists outside of the male and female binary, Hasbro is helping children see toys simply as toys, which encourages them to be authentic themselves outside the pressures of traditional gender norms.”

The toy redesign follows the inclusive moves of Mattel, whose American Girl line has expanded to include dolls of different abilities and genders, and Barbie, whose animated Facebook vlog tackles gender stereotypes.

“We are seeing through research that the spectrum of gender identities is more widely accepted today – especially among Generation Z,” Christia Brown, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Kentucky and author of Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue: How to Raise Kids Without Gender Stereotypes, says Yahoo Life. “We didn’t see this 7 or 8 years ago.”

In turn, she says, parents are looking for books and toys that represent their children, which signals the demand to businesses. The diversity of toys is important because between 3 and 6 years old children understand the world in black and white terms. “Children this young are not cognitively advanced enough to understand gender variations, so they lead with salient characteristics such as [pink and blue] the clothes, “says Brown.” They also essentialize gender stereotypes – for example, if a girl doesn’t like playing Legos, not all girls like them “amid a cultural fixation on boy-girl (think the holidays reveal gender or “Children in this age group pay attention to ‘rules’ and that’s when we see an increase in stereotypical behavior,” she notes, adding that around 6 and 7 years old , children become more flexible in their perspective.

This is why the evolution of Mr. Potato Head is fascinating. “It’s important when toy makers make such changes, because toys and play are educational,” says Brown. “Representation is a lesson in power in the hands of a 4-year-old, for example. Toymakers have been biased for so long and they can really change the landscape of childhood.”

Learn more about Yahoo Life:

Want to get lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? register here for the Yahoo Life newsletter.