A group of French feminists have chosen to teach children lessons on 'sexism' in a rather unusual way this Christmas. Hundreds of French boys and girls are finding unexpected pamphlets inside their Christmas gifts ranging from Barbie dolls to plastic guns.
French children's presents placed under the foot of the tree are accompanied by a note saying that the particular toy encourages stereotypes, reports have noted.
The surprising accompanying note resembles those found in Chinese "fortune cookies" but the message neither provide instructions nor give out a prediction of the future. Instead, it simply reads: "Warning, this toy is sexist".
The operation was launched by feminist group FièrEs, which inserted around 500 such notes in various toys in dozens of shops in Paris, reported the Telegraph. The pamphlets request parents to sign a petition and send it to those responsible to bring about a change.
"We targeted games that are emblematic of boy-girl stereotypes," the newspaper quoted Delhpine Asian, the legal representative for the feminist group.
"We have caused no damage or ripped any plastic. We simply slipped the message in boxes, or in books," the feminist activist said adding they did not intend to make the parents feel guilty.
"We want to raise awareness about the fact that toy-makers and sellers play a part in the fact that not a single little girl asks Father Christmas for a sword."
This comes a week after another feminist group in Paris staged an operation in a toy shop to protest against setting different sections for toys as "boys" and "girls".
However Franck Mathais of a toy chain was quoted as saying that they were not "sexist" but "sexed", adding that there was a difference between the two.
"Things have evolved a lot in the past 20 years," he said noting that among this year's most popular toys for boys were 'rainbow loom bracelets'.
