McDonald's Is Sexist

Like most kids, mine love McDonald's food. Right now the kids meals are featuring the Build-A-Bear Mini Friends and NFL Rush Zone from Nick.

Van, my 6 year old boy, has seen Build-A-Bear (BAB) commercials recently and has fallen in love with them. I figured the BAB toys from McDonald's would make a good incentive reward for him so earlier this week I bought 2 of the set that one of our local McDonald's with out having to buy a kids meal.

Van and his Build-A-Bear Mini Friends

Today Van was very good at school and asked if I had a BAB for him at home. I told him I didn't but as a treat for being so good this week, we could go get him a Happy Meal. When we got to McDonald's, I found out that they had BABs that he didn't already have and so I ordered two Happy Meals, one for Van and one for my older son Quinn. The person asked me, "Do you want a boy toy or a girl toy?"

My first thought was that I was asking about the BAB so what do you think I want?!?! What I said was, "I want the BAB, one of each of the ones you have."

Her response was "Is that the girl toy or the boy toy?"

This irritated me for 2 reasons, I had just asked about the BAB and by labeling it a "boy" or "girl" toy, they make the assumption that my little boy would be more interested in NFL Rush Zone toys.

My reply to her was, "I would like the 2 different BAB toys which I will assume you have your as the "girl" toy"

For a very long time, McDonald's has sometimes offer two different toys, which I think is great so the kids have a choice. I just don't believe they should be labeled as "Girls" and "Boys". My oldest child, Samantha, sometimes wanted the toy that was labeled for boys and my boys sometimes wanted the girl labeled toy.

Why, in 2013, is McDonald's still trying to make a gender-based distinction as to which toys our kids might want to play with?