“Why do you think that is Riley?” Asks her father. “Well, the companies that makes these toys try to trick the girls into buying the pink stuff, instead of stuff the boys want to buy, right?”

Apart from her little frustrated rant being adorably cute, she makes a very deep point that one London based toy store has taken to heart.

“Hamleys has removed “sexist” signs dividing its toys into boys and girls departments after being accused of gender stereotyping. The world famous London toy store has scrapped pink and blue signs and replaced them with gender neutral red and white ones. The Regent Street store now categories toys by interest and type rather than whether they are aimed at boys or girls after an online campaign.”

Little Riley is already quite a self actualized young lady, who in her naive way, is concerned about gender politics. She understands what the Yin Yang Blend™ wave is all about.  It’s about balancing the sexes. The Human Truth™ is: “We see the line between the sexes as dotted.”™ I personally like the direction Hamley’s has taken. I think when we categorize girls and boys toys so distinctly we send a message about what is “right” or “normal”.

Like little Riley says: “Some girls like super heroes and some boys like princesses!”. Here’s to a future where kids can be attracted to things based solely on their personal interests, and not which aisle of the store it’s in.

In recent weeks I’ve seen stories about: “mandals” (male sandals), “murses” (purses), “mantyhose” (pantyhose), “mankinis” (swimsuit variants), “manties” (male panties), “manscara” (male mascara)

Now we have Guylashes….yep, male eyelashes.

“Eylure – a brand endorsed by Girls Aloud and stocked in stores across the UK from Boots to Harrods – are selling fake eyelashes for men priced at £4.75 a pair.Wearers can choose from thick or fine varieties,which are designed to be discreet with invisible clear plastic sticky strips and both styles promise to recreate that ‘Hollywood gaze’.

Any music fan understands that it’s not just a “gay thing”. Its a form of expression that doesn’t like rules. The people that embrace the Yin Yang Blend™ wave know the Human Truth™ of this wave: “We see the line between sexes as dotted.”™

“Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” says Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher. “Egalia gives them a fantastic opportunity to be whoever they want to be.”

The school is unusual even for the progressive and egalitarian culture of Sweden.  The Yahoo! News article quotes a disapproving child psychologist (from the University of California mind you, not Sweden) that worries  it may lead to “emasculating maleness”.

“Nearly all the children’s books deal with homosexual couples, single parents or adopted children. There are no “Snow White,” ”Cinderella” or other classic fairy tales seen as cementing stereotypes.” I would find that appealing as someone that would wish to raise my child without the indoctrination of “the princess myth.”

Yin Yang Blend™is about balancing the sexes.  The people who fall into this wave tout the Human Truth™ as their daily mantra:  “We see the line between the sexes as dotted.” While this wave may never become entirely mainstream, when you think of how much this trend has grown- even in the past 5 years, it’s certainly interesting to keep an eye on.

The Daily Mail reports: “Barnes & Noble is said to have told Dossier’s distributor that it would have to forfeit the order or agree to a covering concealing the image. It said that though it understood that Mr Pejic was male and not female, ‘the model is young and it could be deemed as a naked female’.”

No denying, anyone glancing around a Barnes & Noble would automatically assume that the cover is a topless woman.  Andrej is the toast of the fashion world because of his stunning androgyny.  This Aussie boy is a long way from his working class suburb of Melbourne.  He has set Paris on fire, appearing in both the male and female Gaultier runway shows.

I personally think the censorship is dumb, however, I don’t think artful images of women should be censored either… oh how “bohemian” of me!  I do however, like the debate this has brought up though.  In one of current event show interviews about Mr. Pejic, a designer mentions how androgyny is so “in” right now, when asked why, the answer was: “who knows…that’s fashion!”.

The Yin Yang Blend™ wave is filled with similar evidence.  Whether there is some deep social imperative at work or it simply being a case of society becoming more accepting of gender bending, I for one, think it’s great that we can celebrate beauty in all it’s forms.  As the Human Truth™ for this wave says: “We see the line between sexes as dotted.”

The first one is a little bit more legit than the other… depending on your point of view I suppose.

“Luke Haynes explores ways of using fabric as a medium for both functional quilts as well as wall hangings. His collections include Man Stuff, American Nostalgia, Self-portraits, Flightless Birds, Objects & Accessories as well as commissions and gifts. “  His examples of quilt art are filled with “macho” images like sunglasses, tools, classic cars even MacDonald’s fries.

The second, one might say more dubious example, is a Louisiana, MO man by the name of Louis Garrett, who has made a quilt out of women’s panties. And yes, he has missing teeth and facial tattoos… and he makes quilts… out of knickers.

Well I have to say, the Yin Yang Blend wave is always interesting.  Some kooky stuff happens when “we see the line between the sexes as dotted”.

The American founder of Spanx, Sarah Blakely, said: ‘We applied out 10 years of knowledge and expertise in compression fabrics and transforming the body to this first-of-its-kind collection for men.’

Now before you roll your eyes at this as another oversharing moment on Twitter, hear me out.  I really see this a great example of our Wave Yin Yang Blend™.

It’s a belt that monitors a babies kicking in the womb and sends a tweet every time the little tyke gets all “Karate Kid”.  Ok, I agree that if you let these tweets go out to your entire online community of friends, family, and tweeps you can totally expect to be blocked and defriended.

However, to me the point is sharing the experience of pregnancy with the Daddy (or the other Mommy: coz we roll inclusive here at CultureWaves).

In fact, that is why Kickbee™ founder Corey Menscher was inspired to create it for his then pregnant wife.  He say’s he wanted to “help dads get in on some of the action that moms feel 24/7 during pregnancy. In a perfect world, when your baby kicks, you might grab your husband’s hand to place it on your belly so he can experience one of your baby’s first movements, too. Well, at least some of the time. But what if he’s at work, or if you’re at work, or if he’s serving in Iraq, or if you’re traveling cross country? Dad misses out on the one-of-a-kind experience. So Mensher wanted to come up with a way to connect parents during pregnancy even when they can’t be in kicking distance of each other.”

I think this is a great way of utilizing existing communication tools to not only “Blur the line between the sexes” but share experiences that create deeper connections.  Now perhaps some sadist out there will come up with a device that emulates the pain of child birth!  Coz I’m sure you’d be into sharing that feeling…. right guys??

Nevermind the fact that this is a game and not something that actually has any kind of basis in reality. Nevermind the fact that these are digital avatars meant to represent who we want to project into a digital world, not who we really are. Most importantly, forget the very idea that you have the freedom to choose. They do not want boys playing as girls, and have taken a very hard line against it. Are you a boy and wish to play as a girl? The Banhammer awaits. This amazing and overzealous act of sexism displays not only ignorance but also a blatant disregard for your player base and their wishes. I’m not sure this has anything to do with respecting the fairer sex so much as maybe a CEO in the company found out the hard way that some dainty little sprite within the game named “Luvlee” was actually a 400 pound man from Brooklyn named Bob.

Respecting you customer base within their worlds, meeting them exactly where they want to be, if possible, and actually find out what respect means to them, not what you assume; those are the things that will foster customer loyalty. Not this.

/facepalm

I don’t know about you but I don’t remember anything of that sort from my sixth grade experience. Is this their idea of a social science project? What other projects are they embarking on? Developing a nuclear fusion reactor? Creating a probe to analyze the martian surface? Were falling way behind!

Anyhoo…

According to the youngsters, the Toys”R”Us Christmas catalogue featured “outdated gender roles because boys and girls were shown playing with different types of toys, whereby the boys were portrayed as active and the girls as passive”, according to a statement from Ro.

The group’s teacher explained to the local Smålandsposten newspaper that filing the complaint was the culmination of more than two years of “long-term work” by the students on gender roles.

One boy from the class commented:
“Small girls in princess stuff…and here are boys dressed as super heroes. It’s obvious that you get affected by this.”

Since we’ve got the guyliner for eyes, the manscara, the manties, the guy girdles, we just can’t forget the finger nails. So, the rise of the male polish begins. And I’m not just talking about Cuccio’s spa line. You’ve got your share of retail products as well, from Europop lines to “Man Glaze”.

As the line continues, even as slow as it does, to blur between masculinity and femininity in Yin-Yang Blend, you have to wonder where it’s going to end up. Two years ago we were arguing about men wearing eyeliner, and we’re seeing it appear outside of its respected music scenes more and more. Women are frequently saying they’re very attracted towards men with feminine facial definitions, and transexual bathrooms are popping up around the world.  So in the long run can we expect a more unisex view on everything?