From gender and marriage equality to women’s rights, Target is currently one of the largest corporations to advocate feminism. While feminism still carries a negative connotation of man-hating, lesbian, witch, bra-burning extremists, what it really is about is gender equality and everything it encompasses. Thankfully Target has been using its powers for good by supporting equality and rights, showing their customers -- or "guests" as they call them -- that they care about them and the community as a whole.
One of the ways Target expresses its love for witch craft is by promoting homosexual rights. They even aired a commercial which showed two dads having fun, painting with their child. To regularly show their support, Target takes part in local pride weeks and even hosts a #TakePride campaign for pride month and selling pride related products towards the LGBTI community. This I know, for I have worked at target for 3 #proud years and couldn’t be more thankful to work for such an amazing corporation.
Another way that Target gets their extreme-man-hating pants on is their recent approach to gender-neutral toys for children. In my experience working for Target, I’ve noticed a nice, pretty in pink, flowery section that was clearly meant for girls’ toys and girls’ toys only. It consisted of baby dolls and kitchen sets, you know, housewife essentials. While the boys sections was marked with darker colors and consisted of monster trucks, nerf guns and even play-doctor sets. According to Melissa Wardy in her article “Target Moves Away From Gendered Signs And Shelving,” she writes in bold, “This change is a step towards removing gender limitations in childhood, but when one of the world’s largest retailers does this, the ripple effect will be significant.” Instead of "girls toys" and "boys toys" it will now just be "toys." As Wardy said, it will remove gender limitations, meaning a girl doesn’t have to be limited to cooking dinner and taking care of children; she can play with that doctor set too because she has every right and potential of becoming a good doctor as a boy does becoming a good father and cook.
And the final, but not least, way that Target burns the bra, is by supporting women’s right to breast feed in public within their stores. There have been many scenarios in which restaurants have kicked out women for breastfeeding their babies within their dining area. An example of this happened in the winter of 2014 in Henry County, Georgia. According to CBS46 News in their posting conveniently titled “Mother Alleges Restaurant Kicked Her Out For Breastfeeding,” a woman was told to leave the restaurant due to the fact that she was breastfeeding her infant even though she was in an empty booth.
Many people find breastfeeding "disgusting" or "gross." However, Target and I believe feeding babies is a beautiful, natural thing and of course a well needed thing. According to Target’s policy on breastfeeding, Target supports breastfeeding in any part of the store, including fitting rooms even if that means making other guests wait. They also state that one should not approach a woman who is breastfeeding and also to not suggest using a bathroom as an area to breastfeed, but the fitting room instead. These policies are music to my ears. Target clearly has no interest in rushing women during the process and they also care about the safety, cleanliness, and optional privacy of the woman and her baby by allowing them to use fitting rooms and not bathrooms. Free the boobies and feed the babies!
With Target being a powerful corporation, it has the ability to influence the minds of its customers via marketing and advertising in order to sell its products. However Target has been using this technique towards making society a better place. From supporting LGBTQI rights to normalizing public breastfeeding, Target is the leading feminist of corporate capitalism. With that power, they can influence the values of other major corporations and ultimately reshape society.
