We've been polling my daughter on the gender of her "friends", the entourage of plushies et. al. that she takes to bed with her. Our "control" is asking her whether she's a boy or a girl, whether mommy is a boy or a girl, whether daddy is a boy or a girl, whether grandma is a boy or a girl, etc. The results: - Mali doll - invariably girl - Owl (white plushie) - girl or boy, depending on the day - Baby (generic baby doll) - almost always girl - Space Penguin (a blue and chrome plush penguin promoting Cincinnati Sub Zero) - always a boy - Giraffe - always a girl, in fact she will often point between Giraffe's hind leg's and exclaim "look! Giraffe's labia!" - Gus the Sloth - Ambiguous as Owl We're letting it roll. So far, most of the stuff she reads is either very specifically gendered (and we have "I'm a big sister!" as well as "I'm a big brother!" or relating to animals.