Toy manufacturer Hasbro is using a rebrand of its famous Mr Potato Head line to promote same-sex couples and parents.
In a bid to make its children’s toys more ‘culturally relevant’, the line was renamed Potato Head. It is also set to launch a new product in the autumn called “Create your Potato Head family”, to encourage children to create same-sex families.
Mr Potato Head first appeared in 1952, followed by Mrs Potato Head a year later. In 2012, Hasbro released a special 60th wedding anniversary edition of the toys.
‘Gender identity’
As it abandoned the traditional family unit, Hasbro said its new product “is a celebration of the many faces of families allowing kids to imagine and create their own Potato Head family” including ‘same-sex’ couples.
In an interview with Fast Company, Hasbro general manager Kimberly Boyd claimed that culture had “evolved”.
She added: “Kids want to be able to represent their own experiences. The way the brand currently exists—with the ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ is limiting when it comes to both gender identity and family structure.”
Push
Welcoming the news, a spokesperson for the LGBT activist group GLAAD claimed: “Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms”.
However, evangelical leader Dr Albert Mohler challenged the change, wondering whether Mr Potato Head should rather be seen as the “latest victim” in an LGBT “gender revolution”.
He observed: “Of course, of course it’s true that civilizations don’t rise and fall on their toys, but it’s also true, don’t miss this, that our toys tell us about the direction about a civilization.
“And not only that, the direction that certain people are trying to push a civilization.”
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