--- title: How Target Just Proved Donald Trump Right About Something description: Gender neutrality ignores that boys and girls are biologically different canonical: https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/ author: Suzanne Venker article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-13T20:17:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:31:40.120Z article:section: Ideas og:title: How Target Just Proved Donald Trump Right About Something og:description: Gender neutrality ignores that boys and girls are biologically different og:url: https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8536591fd9fe40/698781f9cd1bba09256f5808/target.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: A sign for a Target store is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois on Feb. 10, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Target Just Proved Donald Trump Right About Something twitter:description: Gender neutrality ignores that boys and girls are biologically different twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8536591fd9fe40/698781f9cd1bba09256f5808/target.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Target Just Proved Donald Trump Right About Something > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b25e01cf-2382-44bd-abf9-d07acf67aca2&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Target's Gender-Neutral Push Endorsed By Internet Troll [Watch (HLS stream): Target's Gender-Neutral Push Endorsed By Internet Troll](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5T6VFyGq.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2015-08-14. Someone made a fake Target-branded customer-service account to troll those who were angry about the retailer's move towards gender-neutral toy aisles._ by [Suzanne Venker](https://time.com/author/suzanne-venker/) ## Suzanne Venker Aug 13, 2015 8:17 PM UTC Someone made a fake Target-branded customer-service account to troll those who were angry about the retailer's move towards gender-neutral toy aisles. by [Suzanne Venker](https://time.com/author/suzanne-venker/) ## Suzanne Venker Aug 13, 2015 8:17 PM UTC In last week’s GOP debate, Donald Trump said one of the greatest problems this country faces “[is being politically correct](http://time.com/3988276/republican-debate-primetime-transcript-full-text/).” A great example occurred the next day when retail giant Target [announced](http://time.com/3989850/target-gender-signs/) it would no longer separate its toys or bedding into ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ sections. It’s all just “kids’” stuff now. In a spectacular display of American groupthink, Target has become gender-neutral. That boys and girls are vastly different—that they have different hormones, different brain structures, different attitudes, different preferences and different behaviors, all due to their unique biology—is now taboo to admit. [According to Target](http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-target-toys-bedding-gender-20150810-story.html), the new policy is simply a response to parental demands. It seems parents everywhere are grossly offended by the separation of items into ‘boy’ stuff and ‘girl’ stuff. Really? I’ve spent thousands of dollars at Target since I became a mother (of a boy and a girl) more than 15 years ago, and I’ve never seen nor heard of a parent who was put off by gender-based aisles. It isn’t even that obvious. But when Abi Bechtel, a self-proclaimed “[feminist mother](http://time.com/3991166/target-viral-tweet-about-boys-and-girls-toys/),” noticed a sign in the toy section of an Green, Ohio Target that separated building sets by gender, she tweeted, “Don’t do this, @Target.” And it went viral. Two months later, Target instituted [its new policy](https://corporate.target.com/article/2015/08/gender-based-signs-corporate#sf39850073). ”Over the past year, guests have raised important questions about a handful of signs in our stores that offer product suggestions based on gender.” _That’s_ political correctness: when companies (or governments, or churches) cave to pressure from a select, albeit vociferous, few who insist society change to accommodate them. “Our society is constantly telling kids how they’re expected to perform girlhood or boyhood,” writes Bechtel, “and so my partner and I spend a lot of time trying to help our boys to unlearn these messages.” That’s a matter of opinion, and Bechtel’s entitled to it. But she’s not entitled to demand society conform to her views, particularly since Target’s new policy panders to the notion that sex differences don’t exist. “So much of this is sort of social conditioning that happens as a result of generations of \[this\] being passed on to us,” [said](http://www.today.com/parents/target-removing-gender-based-signage-after-complaints-t37711) psychiatrist Sue Varma on the _Today_ show. Read: Biology isn’t real. We’ve just been taught to think it is. It may be trendy to think this way, but that doesn’t make it true. There are many authorities in the area of sex differences—Michael Gurian, author of _The Minds of Boys_ and _The Wonder of Girls_; Leonard Sax, author of _Why Gender Matters_; and Louann Brizendine, author of _The Female Brain_ and _The Male Brain,_ to name a few_—_who could easily prove otherwise. “The behavioral influences of male and female hormones on the brain are major,” writes Brizendine. “My son didn’t turn Barbie into a sword because his environment promoted the use of weapons. He was practicing the instincts of his male brain to aggressively protect and defend.” In the America of today, such biological facts are dismissed as “[regressive and harmful](http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/09/living/target-girls-building-set-feat/).” That is to our discredit, for there is much to be gained by embracing male and female nature. Will parents get used to the new organization at Target? Eventually—they’ll have no choice. But that’s not the point. The point is that Target has legitimized the hoopla surrounding Caitlyn Jenner. There’s a huge difference between a Hollywood personality insisting he’s neither fully male nor fully female and allowing an entertainment industry to exploit his predicament for monetary gain, and another for a major Midwestern retailer that caters to millions of families across this country to perpetuate the notion that biology isn’t real when it is. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that girls walk around with dolls in their arms while boys look for things they can smash or crash. If your child is different in this way, so be it. Steer him or her to the appropriate aisle—no one’s stopping you. The new Target policy is nothing more than political correctness run amok. What’s next? Will the ‘male’ and ‘female’ checkboxes on medical forms soon say ‘person, place or thing’? It’s madness. ## Transcript [00:00] Target is getting rid of the gender divide between [00:02] boys' and girls' toys and some people have a lot of [00:05] strong opinions about this. I think it's a slap in their [00:08] faces this whole gender neutral business is going too [00:11] far. At first the idea there can have no gender, I [00:13] thought, well. How am I gonna find their clothes? [00:17] Or shoes? But the most visible action happened on [00:20] Facebook where outraged customers complained [00:23] about Target's new policy on social media. They were [00:26] met with what appeared to be an unusually sassy [00:28] customer service rep. The Target branded Ask For [00:31] Help Facebook account actually belongs to Mike [00:34] Melgard, who does not work at Target but supports [00:37] Target's new initiative and found the trolliest way to [00:39] express that. Target's not happy about having it's [00:42] brand co- opted by an internet prankster, Melgard's [00:45] account has been taken down and the retailer issued a [00:48] statement, distancing itself from his comments. The [00:51] prank probably hasn't been great for Target's PR. The [00:54] retailer initially abolished the gender divide in the toy [00:57] section, after facing pressure from shoppers. Target [00:59] said in a statement, " preferences and needs Change [01:02] and as guests have pointed out, in some departments, [01:05] suggesting products by gender is unnecessary. Now [01:08] Mel Garts comments have been reposted in articles, all [01:11] across the internet. Along with the negative Target [01:13] bashing post that inspired them. But the fake Target [01:16] account does at least aluminate some of the absurdity [01:19] of this discussion. As a writer for Time puts it, gender [01:22] identity has nothing to do with signage in a store. The [01:25] products will still be there, and parents will still buy [01:29] whichever they like for their children. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/"},"headline":"How Target Just Proved Donald Trump Right About Something","datePublished":"2015-08-13T20:17:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:31:40.120Z","description":"Gender neutrality ignores that boys and girls are biologically different","url":"https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/","keywords":["Business topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8536591fd9fe40/698781f9cd1bba09256f5808/target.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Suzanne Venker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/suzanne-venker/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde8536591fd9fe40/698781f9cd1bba09256f5808/target.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A sign for a Target store is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois on Feb. 10, 2015.","caption":"A sign for a Target store is seen in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois on Feb. 10, 2015.","creditText":"Jim Young—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/","name":"How Target Just Proved Donald Trump Right About Something"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Target's Gender-Neutral Push Endorsed By Internet Troll","description":"Someone made a fake Target-branded customer-service account to troll those who were angry about the retailer's move towards gender-neutral toy aisles.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5T6VFyGq/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-08-14T03:07:35.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5T6VFyGq.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3992485/target-gender-neutral-policy-and-political-correctness/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```