Suggested gifts

I hate what corporate gift suggestions say about how retrograde our views of age and gender are.

Or maybe we are not that retrograde. Maybe it's just the inherent conservatism of most organizations trying to sell us stuff.

I find it most striking around Father's Day, when I see gift giving ideas for dad that would be totally unsuitable for me and for most of the other dads I know. Things related to golf, for instance. I'm waiting for the day a retailer targets the kids of dads like me: "Get dad the latest from 3 Inches of Blood!"

But, of course, you can see our cultural cliches front and centre this time of year -- in holiday gift guides. While ordering some items on Amazon the other day, I clicked on the link to "Gift Central" to see what the company suggests for different types of recipients.

And I was appalled.

I started with the suggestions for 10-12 year-olds. I've heard lots of people dismayed about how much time kids spend playing video games and how little time they spend reading. And they talk about it like this is something that just happens. Well, it doesn't just happen. The games are pushed on them and their parents all the time. When the first of two pages of gift recommendations consists almost entirely of video games, you're sending a message about what you think kids want and what they should have.

Teens? Same story, only with more expensive toys thrown in too: games, cameras, computers.

Grandfathers are conservative and nostalgic: World War II, A book on "The fall and rise of Canada's Founding Values" and Fred and Ginger. Actually, there was one item on the grandpa page I'd go for: Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus Volume 1. But if you're getting it for me please pick it up at Strange Adventures instead.

Apparently my wife would like Susan Boyle (mysteriously, this one, along with Michael Bublé are suggested for "music lovers" too), cooking, cake decorating, and pastel-coloured electronics.

Grandma is interested in a lot of the same stuff as grandpa, substituting the odd gardening book for the odd sports book. And she also apparently has no taste, given that a "Family Circus" book is recommended. It seems to me there was a mixer featured for Grandma the other day too, but I'm not seeing it on there now.

And kids, if you are shopping for me, please don't believe Amazon when they suggest I might like anything by Dan Brown, Carrie Underwood or Blue Rodeo.