Video footage
has emerged of the US President and First Lady, Michelle Obama, helping out
earlier this month in sorting out toys for a charity initiative to provide
gifts to less fortunate children.
The couple were
helping to sort items in the ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ bins for the US Marine Corp’s
annual Toys for Tots program in early December.
Michelle Obama
has helped out with the program on several years previously, but this was the
President’s first time. The event took place at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in
Washington, D.C.
In a move that
will be welcomed by those frustrated by the gender stereotyping of children’s
toys – and probably attacked by some of the President’s more rightwing critics
– the President didn’t appear too concerned about sorting the presents along
strictly tradition boy-girl lines, pointing out that some girls like playing
with toys normally associated with boys.
The President –
a father to two daughters – put science and sports-related toys in the girls
bin. When he then placed a basketball in the bin, he said; ‘I just wanna make
sure some girls play some ball.’
He then comes
across a T-Ball set, which he also puts in the girls bin: ‘T-Ball? Girls like
T-Ball … I’m just trying to break down these gender stereotypes.’
Tots for Toys
has been delivering gifts to children since the 1940s, since which time is has
given out over 469million toys.
Click here for more
information about the program, and watch video of the President below.
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