Mr. Potato Head Is Not Going Gender Neutral
It's been a very confusing week for the entire Potato Head family -- and the rest of us. Feel free to fry up your own spud puns.
Reports this week claimed that Mr. Potato Head would be becoming gender neutral and losing the "Mr. Potato Head" moniker from the toy's brand name. Toy company Hasbro stated:
Hasbro is making sure all feel welcome in the Potato Head world by officially dropping the Mr. from the Mr. Potato Head brand name and logo to promote gender equality and inclusion.
As with many rebrandings based on evolving attitudes toward race and gender, the internet exploded.
What wasn't clear in the statement was that the "Mr." and "Mrs." were being dropped from only the larger "brand name" but Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head would still remain exactly that.
If you look closely on the lower left of the box, the packaging clearly states: Mr. Potato Head and Mrs. Potato Head.
While the excitement might seem fleeting, it further illustrates how even small changes in culture as a whole can easily result in what some critics call an attack on "woke culture" while at the same time becoming an opportunity for online communities to attack LGBTQ, women and racial minorities.