The company was reprimanded three years ago following complaints over “outdated gender roles” in its 2008 Christmas catalog, namely that boys were dressed as superheroes and girls as princesses. This year, the company has made noticeable changes to its Swedish catalog as compared to its Danish equivalent.

AFP is reporting that Sweden’s largest toy chain has declared its toys to be “gender neutral” as its Christmas catalog depicts boys holding baby dolls and girls brandishing toy guns.

Top Toy, northern Europe’s franchise-holder for the US toy chain Toys “R” Us, has stated that “the gender debate has grown so strong in the Swedish market that we…have had to adjust.”

The company was reprimanded three years ago following complaints over “outdated gender roles” in its 2008 Christmas catalog, namely that boys were dressed as superheroes and girls as princesses. This year, the company has made noticeable changes to its Swedish catalog as compared to its Danish equivalent:

A comparison between this year’s Toys R Us catalogues in Sweden and Denmark, where Top Toy is also the franchisee, showed that a boy wielding a toy machine gun in the Danish edition had been replaced by a girl in Sweden.

Elsewhere, a girl was Photoshopped out of the “Hello Kitty” page, a girl holding a baby doll was replaced by a boy, and, in sister chain BR’s catalogue, a young girl’s pink T-shirt was turned light blue.

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In reporting this same story, CNS New reminds that,

Earlier this year Sweden stoked debate by adding to its official lexicon a new, gender-neutral pronoun, in a bid to bring language into line with progressive norms being promoted as early as preschool level.

The Swedish term for “he” is “han” and for “she” is “hon.” The newly-coined “hen” can be used to refer to a person without signifying gender.

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Said Top Toy’s director of sales about the Christmas catalog ordeal, “With the new gender thinking, there is nothing that is right or wrong.” Indeed, there is no clearer description of the postmodern mentality that dominates Western culture today.

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