A new campaign launched in Australia is aimed at convincing parents to do away with traditional “girls” and “boys” this Christmas and encourage their children to play with gender-neutral items.

The Daily Mail is reporting on the “No Gender December” campaign T  which was launched in Australia this month by Play Unlimited, a grass roots organization arguing against gender stereotypes they say can perpetuate discrimination. The campaign calls upon consumers to avoid stereotypical toys this Christmas by making “informed decisions” when purchasing gifts.

“We don’t to stop girls from playing with dolls or boys playing with trucks,” says Play Unlimited co-founder Julie Huberman, to Daily Mail Australia.

“We want kids to be able to choose rather than being told what to play with. There are plenty of little girls out there who want to play with trucks. It’s 2014 – women mow lawns and men push prams but while we’ve moved on, many toy companies haven’t. . . . It’s not doing away with anything but just making it a choice.”

One of the aims of the campaign is to convince the Australian government to ban all gender-based marketing. At least one lawmaker, Senator Larissa Waters, is already on board.

“Out-dated stereotypes about girls and boys and men and women, perpetuate gender inequality, which can feed into very serious problems such as domestic violence and the gender pay gap,” Senator Waters said.

“The separate aisles of pink and blue common in many stores might seem harmless, especially to well-meaning relatives and friends, who are buying plenty of children’s gifts at this time of the year. However, setting such stark gender roles at such an early age can have a long-term impact on our children, including impacting self-perception and career choices later in life.”

Many psychologists disagree with the underlying premise of the campaign, that gender stereotypes promote violence and discrimination.

“These gender differences are hard wired, and while I’m sure socialization plays a role, to argue that toys in any way relate to domestic violence is, I think, too far a stretch,” said Dr Michael Carr-Gregg to News Corp.

“It’s a nail in the coffin of common sense,” he added.

Nevertheless, the No Gender December campaign is calling upon people to “take the pledge” not to purchase gendered toys this Christmas and to sign a petition asking the Australian government to legislate against gendered marketing.

If it ever happens, it won’t be the first time a government decided to opt in on the trend to raise genderless children. In 2012, Sweden actually added a gender-neutral personal pronoun – “hen” – to the country’s vocabulary. One Swedish clothing manufacturer has done away with all designated “boys” and “girls” sections to become a gender-neutral outlet, while another toy catalog features boys in Spider Man costumes pushing pink baby carriages.

The trend hasn’t yet caught on in the U.S. but it’s close. A Toronto couple has famously refused to reveal the gender of their child named Storm who is now four years old. Their nine year old son, Jazz, was permitted to “gravitate” toward dresses and long hair and is now requesting that he be referred to as a “she”. Of course, his parents are all for it.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly teaches that “Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others” (2332).

It goes on to teach that “Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out” (No.2333).

Allowing children to choose opposite-gender toys might seem harmful, but as we see in the case of the Toronto couple’s son, this can lead to gender confusion as the child grows, a condition associated with a host of physical, emotional, and psychological problems.

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