Gender is just another form of branding.
It’s not often that Mr. Potato Head manages to make headlines; unless your child is a Toy Story obsessive, the antiquated spud isn’t exactly a hot commodity. But Hasbro, rather remarkably, managed to make the toy the center of attention after announcing that it was dropping the “Mr.” from the Mr. Potato Head brand, in an effort to make sure that «all feel welcome in the Potato Head world.» I’m not sure if any customer was ever too intimidated to purchase a Mr. Potato Head based on their identity, but the idea certainly makes good fodder for the culture war. Believe it or not, LGBT activists have far bigger concerns than removing the “Mr” from Potato Head. Of course, the usual suspects took to Twitter to mock the announcement (and to be fair, the way the rebranding was framed is genuinely funny).
