Sexism With a Side of Fries: How to Combat Sexism at the DriveThru

McDonald’s Employee: Welcome to McDonald's. Place your order when you’re ready.
Me: Hi. I’d like a cheeseburger happy meal please.
McDonald’s Employee: Is that for a boy or a girl?

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In New Zealand, when a child orders a McDonald’s Happy Meal they are either asked if the meal is for a boy or a girl, or if they want a "girl toy" or a "boy toy". If the available toy series is considered "genderless" then the question isn’t asked and all children receive the same toy.

Why does this matter, and why should we care?

The Happy Meal toy is an example of how society teaches children about gender.

As a society we have been conditioned to believe that our gender determines our interests, capabilities, and how much we are worth to an employer. We are led to think that our gender dictates what toys we play with, which emotions we can express, which career we can have, which clothes we can wear, and which furnishing we can decorate our house with.

MCDONALD'S TOYS REINFORCE THE IDEA THAT THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF TOYS - TOYS FOR BOYS AND TOYS FOR GIRLS

We are not born with ideas about "boy toys" and "girl toys". We are born into a culture that teaches us that there are rules around who gets to play with what.

GENDER IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION, AND WHEN WE GENDER TOYS WE ARE LIMITING OUR CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT

So Why Do McDonald’s Gender Their Toys.
There are two main reasons why McDonald’s gender their toys.

1) The Happy Meal Toy is a Marketing Strategy.
McDonald’s want their Happy Meal to make kids happy, because happy customers become loyal customers. The toy incentive separates McDonald’s from other big-name fast-food chains. By marketed the toys in a set it places pressure on the child to get all of the toys in the set before they are replaced by the next series. The toys are then perceived as “special” because they have a “limited time only” quality.

McDonald’s offers children a circus-like experience with its clown mascot, adventure playgrounds, birthday parties, sweet treats, salty fatty foods, ice creams, and soda. The Happy Meal packaging resembles a present box, and each child gets to open their own gift each time they get their meal - it's like they get their own mini-birthday party each time they go to McDonald's. By marketing to children McDonald’s is acknowledging the buying power of children – the ‘nag factor’ allows companies to employ children to market their products to parents.

The toy is a crucial part of the McDonald’s experience. But this strategy doesn’t work if a child opens their Happy Meal box and gets a toy they don’t like. To decrease the chances of this happening McDonald’s maximises the appeal of the toy by offering two options.

(For more on how the Happy Meal toy works as an advertisement: https://steemit.com/philosophy/@sowhat/food-for-thought-the-emoji-movie-happy-meal)

2) Gendered Toys Supports The Fast Food Mentality
By labeling the two Happy Meal toys as either a “boy toy” or a “girl toy” McDonald’s is able to support their fast-food mantra. Everything about McDonald’s is fast: fast food, fast service. Efficient service means more customers can be served, increasing McDonald’s profit. One guaranteed way for slowing down service is by getting a child to decide which toy they want. McDonald’s takes back this time by working on the assumption that girls and boy like and play with different toys.

McDonald’s also saves time by not having to constantly update their computer ordering systems with each toy cycle, and instead stream the ordering to “boy toy” and “girl toy”. 

The purpose of this article is not to tell people to stop going to McDonald’s. The reality is, most parents, myself included, will buy their children McDonald's.

The key here is that knowledge is power. The Happy Meal Toy is representative of a larger societal issue, the reinforcement of gender stereotypes.

By understanding the marketing processes we can rewrite the conversations and take back the power.

Here are three easy and practical ideas to use at your next visit!

1. Don’t use the labels ‘boy toy’ or ‘girl toy’. When you are asked if you want a ‘boy toy’ or a girl’ ask what the toys are. Then ask your child which toy they would like using the names of the toys and not the gendered labels. Respect the child’s choice.

2. Teach your child that “TOYS ARE FOR EVERYONE”. If your child only wants a toy based on the gendered label given to it, remind your child that the labels are wrong and that ‘Toys are for everyone’. This is also a great phrase that can be repeated on many occasions and especially for your child to be able to repeat when peers question their choices that don't conform to gender stereotypes.

3. Don’t ask your child what toy they want, let it be a surprise.

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  THIS ARTICLE IS AN ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTION

Author: Melissa Gould, Ph.D (AUT), MCS, BCS (Hons), BCS.

Dr Melissa Gould holds a Ph.D from the School of Communications at Auckland University of Technology in Auckland, New Zealand. She worked as a Media and Communications Lecturer at the School, and now works as an independent researcher and writer. Her primary research areas include media communication theory and cultural studies that examine religion, gender, religion, and childhood.

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