Why are we toying with our ideas over gender?

An excited enquirer as to the sex of a new baby in the time honoured way by asking 'boy or girl?' might do so at his or her peril.

Prepare for a sharp intake of breath and the stony reply "we don't talk about boys or girls, they're all just children."

If the present trend for over zealous political correctness continues, it's bound to happen.

A curious group running something called the Let Toys Be Toys campaign is triumphant this week as another major company joins a well-known toy shop in removing all mention of boy or girl signs in their departments. It was the pressure that did it and eventually more and more businesses will cave in.

Let Toys Be Toys see the move as a great victory. A spokesman (or woman, or person) goes so far as to say: "It's a particularly poignant victory for us as one of our founders has a personal ambition for the gendered signs to be gone from her local store before her daughter learns to read, and finds out that her beloved space toys and fire trucks are 'for boys'."

Poignant victory? What tosh.

The word poignant – especially in this weekend of Remembrance – has a far deeper meaning than whether a child of either sex chooses a baby doll or a train set. And it's nothing to do with big business and toy departments.

Some people have campaigned against literature to which they object, or even forced gender changes in children's books they think are sexist. And now, it's the high street toy sections in the firing line.

The truth is, boys and girls are not fazed or distraught by these signs until an over-zealous parent drums it into them. A girl eyeing a toy on a counter marked for boys, is hardly likely to be emotionally damaged – unless somebody suggests that she should be. Get a grip, people.

Youngsters are far more affected by grown up fanatics than by a sign in a shop.

Poignant, indeed.