Most people love the experience of shopping at Target. You can always find great deals on things that you didn’t even know you needed. The dollar section is my personal weakness. Target stores are usually clean and the aisles are neat and tidy. Objectively, the experience of shopping at Target is generally pleasant. For these reasons, I have always enjoyed giving Target my business.
Recently, the company has been making headlines with its liberal new policy. A hot topic in the media right now is bathrooms, specifically those in Target and North Carolina. Before getting any further, I’ll make it clear that I support Target and their culture of inclusivity. Actually, to say I support them is putting it lightly. I really admire their recent decision about bathroom usage. (To see what the company themselves had to say about it, view their statement here.) So, if you disagree, feel free to stop reading. If you want to know a little more about this company and its values, then feel free to continue reading.
This isn’t the first time that Target has made headlines by making bold moves. Last summer, the stores began to remove gender-specific labels from their toy aisles in order to be more inclusive and gender neutral. The company hopes to encourage girls and boys to play with whatever toys match their interests, rather than feeling forced to shop in an aisle because it is labeled “Girls’ Toys,” or excluded from an aisle that doesn’t include their gender. Gender specific aisles perpetuate gender stereotypes by featuring girls’ toys that are decked out in pink and boys’ toys in blue. Society tells girls that they should like dolls; boys are taught to like cars. Children may feel wrong when they want to play with a toy that is “outside” of their gender, so Target is striving to change this.
Earlier this year, the store made another progressive move when they launched a new bedding line for kids called Pillowfort. It’s entirely gender-neutral and lacks labels of boy/girl. While young girls should be allowed to love pink and want pink bedding, it shouldn’t be their only option. The same concept goes for boys; they shouldn’t feel as though they must have bedding with trucks or cars plastered all over it. Stereotypes can limit the gender expression of young children and make them feel as though they have to fit a certain picture of a perfect young boy or girl. Kids should be free to develop their own unique ways to express their gender identity.
To get a little technical, gender identity, as well as expression, can be viewed along a continuum. There’s a lot of technical terms here with very specific definitions that I won’t take the time to get into, but feel free to do some research if you are unfamiliar with the definitions. Sex (biological), gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation are four very different things. This is an understanding that I did not have growing up, but now it is very clear to me.
Another reason that I love Target is because the company is an advocate for equality. They have made their stance on marriage equality clear and can be considered an ally for the LGBT community. To show their support for marriage equality, Target released an advertisement that features a same-sex couple and their website features an edited version of their bulls-eye logo that contains the LGBT rainbow. Not many other large corporations are as bold or straightforward in their support of equality.
It should be clearer now that Target’s recent policy fits perfectly with their past actions and their mission of inclusivity. They know that a move like this bathroom policy is going to lose them many, many conservative customers, but their steadfast commitment to the decision is proving that inclusion and acceptance are more important than losing some business, in the opinion of the company.
(This is purely an opinion piece and reflects no official views of Target. I have, however, provided several links to their corporate website and press releases.)
