Will you let your son play with Barbie dolls?

PETALING JAYA: Will Malaysian parents allow their sons to play with Barbie dolls? Majority of Malaysians won't, according to a survey conducted by YouGov.
The survey found that Malaysia ranked third among nine countries polled by the UK-based online research firm with 61% of respondents either very unlikely or somewhat unlikely to let a boy play with a Barbie doll.
The top two on the list were Indonesia (69%) and China (62%).
"At the other end of the spectrum, Australia is the only country polled where the majority of respondents would either be very likely or somewhat likely to let a boy play with a Barbie doll (50%), an easy bake oven (62%) or a tea set (57%)," the YouGov research revealed.
Data was collected online between March 26 and April 4 using YouGov's panel of over 5 million people worldwide. It polled over 10,000 people across the Asia-Pacific.
"Nearly half of Asia-Pacific residents (45%) believe children's toys are too gendered; just one in five (19%) disagree. There is an even broader consensus around which types of toys children should play with; 70% of those polled believe it's important for children to play with a wide range of toys and not just those that are considered gender specific," it said.
"Only slightly more than one in 10 of the respondents (13%) think Barbie is suitable for boys to play, while just a quarter of those polled believe that it is suitable for boys to be playing with either an easy bake oven (26%) or a tea set (23%).
"By contrast, more than nine in 10 (91%) believe Barbie is suitable for girls to play, while three-quarters (74%) of people feel it is suitable for girls to play with an easy bake oven or a tea set."
While 85% of those polled think trucks/cars are considered the toys most suitable for boys, just 29% believe that trucks/cars are suitable toys for girls to play with.
Of the toys surveyed, Lego is the only toy that the majority of respondents feel suitable for both boys and girls.