Toy brand Hasbro has announced the Mr Potato Head brand will drop the honorific ‘Mr’ in an effort to broaden the customer base by making the line gender neutral. 

Child development expert Dr Michael Nagel told Bill McDonald the “sexual politicisation of childhood is highly problematic”.

“I think the real crisis in this is any attempt to encourage kids to be distressed by gender.”

“For the most part, I’d say lay off and let kids just be who they are by and large and in time, they sort themselves out as nature takes its course.”

But LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD applauded the idea of a genderless spud.

“Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms,” said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD’s chief communications officer, in a statement.

Press PLAY below to hear the full interview 

Image: Getty 

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