

There are no boys and girls at Egalia-just "friends" and "buddies." Classic fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White have been replaced by tales of two male giraffes who parent abandoned crocodile eggs. The Most Complicated Words in English: 'He,' 'She,' and 'They'Įgalia, a new state-sponsored pre-school in Stockholm, is dedicated to the total obliteration of the male and female distinction. In April 2012, following the celebration of International Women's Day, the Swedes formally introduced the genderless pronoun "hen" to be used in place of he and she (han and hon). In 2004, the leader of the Sweden's Left Party Feminist Council, Gudrun Schyman,proposed a "man tax"-a special tariff to be levied on men to pay for all the violence and mayhem wrought by their sex. A few years ago, a feminist political party proposed a law requiring men to sit while urinating-less messy and more equal. Swedes can be remarkably thorough in their pursuit of gender parity. As its marketing director explains, "For several years, we have found that the gender debate has grown so strong in the Swedish market that we have had to adjust."

The catalog shows little boys playing with a Barbie Dream House and girls with guns and gory action figures. After receiving "training and guidance" from RO equity experts, Top-Toy introduced gender neutrality in its 2012 Christmas catalogue. The Reklamombudsmannen (RO) has reprimanded Top-Toy, a licensee of Toys"R"Us and one of the largest toy companies in Northern Europe, for its "outdated" advertisements and has pressured it to mend its "narrow-minded" ways. Is it discriminatory and degrading for toy catalogs to show girls playing with tea sets and boys with Nerf guns? A Swedish regulatory group says yes.
