This is how crazy the United States has gone.
Mr. Potato Head is no longer a mister.
Hasbro, the company that’s made the potato-shaped plastic toy for nearly 70 years, is giving the spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on boxes this year.
Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to today’s kids and reflect more modern families.
“It’s a potato,” said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider. “But kids like to see themselves in the toys they are playing with.”
Barbie, for example, has tried to shed its blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones and body shapes. The Thomas the Tank Engine toy line added more girl characters. And American Girl is now selling a boy doll.
As part of the rebranding, Hasbro will release a new Potato Head playset this fall that will let kids create their own type of families, including two moms or two dads.
The Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters will live on in some form, Hasbro said, but didn’t provide details. Both have appeared in the “Toy Story” movies.
Dropping the “Mr.” from its name could encourage other companies to stop assigning genders to its toys, a trend that has already been happening, said Mierzejewski. Barbie maker Mattel released a gender-neutral doll line in 2019. But Mr. Potato Head is one of the biggest brands to do so.
“It’s setting this new standard,” Mierzejewski said.
GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy group, applauded the genderless toy potato.
“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,” said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD’s chief communications officer, in a statement.
Mr. Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn’t even come with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke eyes, a nose or mustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic spud.
(AP)
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10 Responses
Don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out!!! We have two very unique genders in our society, and they are not interchangeable! Each gender has its own strengths and weaknesses which is compensated for by the other gender’s weaknesses and strengths. That’s how Hashem created us. This uni-gender business is just plain nuts.
Ah yes. The hard-hitting important issues of 2021. An androgynous toy shaped like a potato that has been androgynous for 60 years is slightly renamed to state what it is. Mr. And Mrs. Potato Head are the same, only the accessories are different (facial features, etc.), which can interchange with any other potato… because it’s a plastic potato. Potatoes don’t have a gender.
Conservatives have tried to run the US for 40 years, and have implemented all of their bull—- culture war nonsense and laissez faire economic policies. As we see from the state of the US… you failed. All you have left is lies and cultural grievance. It’s time to sit down and shut up.
How much you want to bet that sales in Mr. Potato Head will fall drastically in the coming year?!
Boom. All problems fixed.
People who are upset about the gender of a potato are not, dare-I-say, motivated by science
Ty YWN for posting such important info to the tzibur we really appreciate it
When will the accessories include a black hat, yarmulke, tallis and tefillin for Mr. Frum Potato Head?
When I want to explain to young adults how old I am, I tell them, truthfully, that when I was a child, the Mr. Potato Head was an actual potato. Most of them think I am kidding.
@OrechDin
Perhaps the sun that shines upon you and your high horse is getting in your eyes.
It is NOT conservatives making a big deal about this. It is the liberal, left wing, “progressives” who even bother to make issues out of non-issues. It is they who make announcements, and post to twitter, youtube, facebook, and TikTok pushing “wokeness” into the faces of disinterested parties who were minding their own business. When conservatives call them out, they get accused of creating the issue. That is at best cynical, dishonest, and manipulative.
It can also be called gaslighting.
The TRUTH is, these pronouncements are a symptom of a society gone mad. And if you think it’s just cultural grievance: tell that to your daughters when they are shocked to find a grown man using the little girls room at the airport, in Macy’s, or even in their school, because he (yes, his DNA is not up for interpretation) identifies as a girl… or a potato.
Have you even looked at the contents of the “Equality Act” that has already PASSED in the House of Representatives??? Hashem Yishmor.
I think a potato head of any gender is racist against potatoes! It should be banned!
Hashm yiracheim!