An Article On Target Going Gender Neutral

When it comes to the social construction of gender, the way toy stores advertise their product play a huge role in the contribution. Sitting on the floor looking at the Walmart toy selection, I noticed a few things that I never really paid close attention to before. First, when did the colors pink and blue become a tool used as a gender binary? Second, why does it seem to be a pattern of the professions that the toy emulate in regards to each gender? Third, what does this all mean?

The toy section at Target had many clear differences in the toys for boys and the toys for girls. The types of toys that were out on the shelves were different, but also the way the toys were presented were different. Girls toys mainly consisted of stuffed animals, dress up clothes, babies and dolls including Bratz, Barbies and fairies. The primary colors of all these toys consisted of different shades of purple, pink, and white. There were bits of blue and yellow but it seemed that all the colors stood out and had a type of feminine aspect to them. Besides color, the girl’s toys were often soft and fuzzy or

In the U.S, many public organizations are highly influenced by its connection between its outlooks about sex and its use of space. Within these gendered places, men and women act out masculine and feminine characteristics and gendered actions. In this ethnographic research paper, I will establish how a normal department store strengthens the gender and space association through its use of space, products within those spaces and customer use of these spaces.

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

Target is representative of gendered spaces, because Target has many regions within itself that cater to a specific sex. This makes Target a gendered space, because a gendered space is a space in which it is only appropriate for one sex to occupy. An example of a gendered space in Target would be the feminine care aisle, because all the products in that aisle are for females. This makes the feminine care aisle a gendered space, because most people find it inappropriate or weird for males to occupy the feminine care aisle. In American culture, people believe that it is only appropriate for females to occupy the feminine care aisle.

In a near by Walmart I analyzed some of the toys that were on the boy section. Most of the items that I saw had an influence of violence and/or job related roles that men are usually known to work in. For instance, the Nerf N-Strillee Elite Cross Bolt Blaster, is designed to make boys feel the experience of having a real crossbow which can be viewed as a violent toy. This item had two main colors, blue and orange, which usually signifies as

This was interesting to me because I had never really noticed that before. I thought it showcased how much our culture focuses on youth compared to the elderly as the signs were mainly advertised with young and beautiful faces. Also, I was surprised that there were no items featuring Native American representation. Especially with Haskell here in Lawrence, I expected to see at least a few things with Native American representation but that wasn’t the case. Overall, my conclusion from visiting Target is that the store very well demonstrated what our culture showcases as the ideal beauty or standard for individuals as it primarily showed young good-looking white people (whether on the signs or in the toys), able-bodied (not much recognition of physically challenged or signs featuring them), thin (no plus size section and very few signs featuring overweight individuals) and heterosexual (minimal LGBT representation). This poses a huge problem because it’s not representative of our world and through this lack of representation of others it seemingly puts out the idea that the only form of beauty is young, white, thin, able-bodied, and heterosexual which is not the case as there are so many more forms of beauty that should be represented both in the signs and in the

I decided to do the second assignment. As I walked in to Target's store isles that have toys and games section for young children I noticed right away the division of color's for sections marketed to different genders. The first isle I walked into was full of vivid in bright pink and purple colors. The isle had toys most likely marketed to girls, since some of the toys consisted of dolls, princesses, small purses, kitchens, and babies. It never caught my attention how it's the packaging for such toys are full of pink color and how they stand out to show the toy. In addition, it's evident that such isle was intended to be just for toys who girls would be interested in because of the abundance of the pink color and how it's packaging it showed

Envision yourself entering a toy department and noticing numerous diverse aisles. In one aisle, you encounter toys packaged in complementary and color triads colors that include building sets (such as “LEGO”, “LEGO Super Heroes”, and “Angry Birds”) and a wide selection of action figures—Spider Man, Transformers, The Dark Knight, Power Rangers, etc. In the next aisle, adjacent to the aisle with complementary and color triads colors, you find toys packaged in shades of pink and purple. These toys range from “Hello Kitty” dolls to “Barbie Dream” house play sets. Inside a toy department, such as Toys R Us, it is extremely difficult to retrieve a toy that is not marketed explicitly or subtly by gender. If toys were marketed only according to

Ryan McMaken defends Lego’s gender marketing issue as he focuses on Lego primarily as a profit-seeking business, as well as a business who has proven to know exactly what they are doing. McMaken concentrates on how Lego’s introduction of their Friends Line increased the worth of the female construction toy industry’s from 300 million to 900 million dollars. Evidently, these Lego sets may appear stereotypical or sexist to some, but there are what many people prefer to buy. He explains that Lego, in a competitive industry, must aim to please consumers, meet their needs, and gain a competitive advantage. To do so, it is crucial to offer products that other companies may not; products that will satisfy the needs of all children. Therefore, after extensivea research, and various

In NPR’s article “The End of Gender,” they discuss the emergence and growth of gender neutrality. NPR goes in depth with various examples of how gender neutrality is slowly being implemented and first-hand accounts from individuals that are practicing gender neutrality.

Gender socialization often begins early once parents are shown the sex of their child; from then on, baby showers are planned according to gender “appropriate” colors, which are often pink for girls and blue for boys. Even differences in how children are spoke to can be picked up easily in Western cultures. Girls are called pretty and sweet, whereas boys are handsome and strong. Ultimately, the way children learn to identify with their gender culture is in part due to not only family and friends, media, schools, and religion, but also from the toys that may inexplicitly advertise gender expectations. Gender-typed toys may be bought for children as a way for parents to encourage and reinforce gender-appropriate behaviors. However, recent debates have engulfed toy manufacturers and major retailers, which has brought about changes in toy design and marketing in an effort to make reflect more realistic and gender neutral options.

Last year Zest Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published “Tomboy,” a graphic memoir for young adults by Liz Prince, about her experience growing up as a tomboy. Nowadays, if you are in high school and still wear boys’ clothes, people will definitely think you are a lesbian. Also, a girl who likes baseball or wants her hair cut short in liberal government, will grow out of such behaviors by condemning rather than honouring them. In early August, Target announced they will remove any gender references, including the use of pink, blue, yellow or green wall-paper behind the shelves in the toy section. Tomboy is an unhelpful word which defines girls who are brave, athletic or strong, the opposite of those characteristics are defined as

My article is called Pink for girls, blue for boys? Not with new bedroom designs for any kid. This is a nonfiction article and was made by Star tribune. This article reads on how bedroom designs could be for both genders. At target stores, they have created a new brand called “Pillowfort”. This brand was created for girls and boys so they would not have to shop in different aisles. Target listened to what people's feedback would be about this change. Target even listened to kids opinions, too. Soon enough, with the feedback from others, perfected the “Pillowfort” brand.

Going into different stores, one can easily pick up on the major gender roles each store supports. Even the morals of an innocent toy store, such as KB Toys, is tainted by the gender-differentiating dolls for girls, and trucks for boys. Upon entering the store you can tell right away which aisles attract which kids. To the left there is pink fluffy bears, pink Barbie and friends toys, white teddy bears etc. To the right there is a less vibrant color setting, coordinating army green, black, and gray color schemes. I think it is apparent to anyone who enters these stores that the pink pretty isles are meant to attract little girls, and the dark green and gray isles are meant to attract boys. Upon the packages of toy trucks and guns, there are pictures of young boys playing with them and/or cartoon male figures controlling them. On the packaging of Barbie and her friends there are also other girls on the packaging. I was unable to pick up on a single female on the package of any toy truck or gun throughout the entire store. The