Children will have to say farewell to the usual names of Mr and Mrs Potato Head, as the manufacturer will now produce the figures with a gender-neutral name, allowing the children to decide the gender of the toys.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, known from the Toy Story films, are a tarditional couple – a male and a female character – who have children. Toy manufacturer Hasbro, however, wants to get rid of this stereotype, so it has renamed Mr Potato Head to honour gender neutrality.

The company would drop the „Mr” from the brand s name in order to be more inclusive, calling the figure simply „Potato Head”, and the change will be rolled out across packaging this year. Hasbro also said it would sell a whole new playset this autumn without the Mr and Mrs designations that will let kids create their own type of potato families, including two moms or two dads, along with a baby potato. In gender-neutral games children will be able to decide what gender their parents should be, they will not be told in advance that one is a man and the other is a woman.

However, Hasbro s decision received mixed opinions, most of which were negative. Renowned TV host Piers Morgan tweeted:

Another user, who identified as non-binary, appears more annoyed „with the poor treatment of workers than the pronouns of a toy,” according to her tweet.