Gender Biased Toys Gender

This paper will summarize the ERR articles from the bulleted topics and issues. This paper will also include summaries on toys that may encourage violence and aggression, toys that may promote pro-social behavior, gender stereotyping in toy selection, and cultural stereotyping or, lack of cultural awareness in toys.

When you walk into the toy section of any store, you do not need a sign to indicate which section is the girls’ side and which section is the boys’ side. Aside from all the pink, purple, and other pastel colors that fill the shelves on the girls’ side, the glitter sticks out a lot as well. The boys’ toys however are mostly dark colors – blue, black, red, gray, or dark green. The colors typically used on either side are very stereotypical in themselves.

The sexualization in children’s toys does not stop at the commercials for them that are aired on TV. Around the 1980’s, products for children suddenly saw a stark divide in gender. The gender difference in toys is characterized by often harmful gender roles. Toys for boys are usually based on being macho, tough, and violent, while girl’s toys tend to focus on appearance, being pretty and attractive to boys. These toys are often highly structured, limiting creativity and are centered around adult themes. According to Levin and Kilbourne, when we give children these toys, “We’re letting the sexualized media and popular culture, not ourselves, control the lessons children will learn” (44). When a culture that treats sexuality in such harmful ways controls children’s experiences, it creates an artificial and harmful identity in young girls that focuses on sexiness, and an identity in boys that values violence and devalues kindness and nurturing.

Gender norms today have become a big part of our society as they are present in our every day life from advertisements, clothes, to the way we are supposed to act, and even in toys. In order to appeal to a certain customer, advertisements use many gender norms that apply to customers. One of the most impactful gender norms that I find to be is in the kid’s toys because I believe that it’s teaching these kids about how to act. Kids ranging from very early ages know what types of toys they should play with and what toys they aren’t supposed to play with. For example, little boys would play with cars and action figures while on the other hand girls would play with dolls and a tea party set. Many of the toys for girls have been shaped to show them that are supposed to be more friendly and kind. These toys have made it so that there are certain way’s little girls should act and also what things they should like.

In the blog post Gender Bias in the Toy Aisles, the author discusses the issue of big-box stores’ gender gap in the toys they market to children, and the difficulty she encounters when trying to find toys for her sons that do not enforce gender bias. Her main point emphasizes the gender gap by pointing to the stylistic choices made by toy companies – girls’ toys are laden with pink and incite feelings of innocence, while boys’ toys are highly ruggedized, typically bearing camouflage or other male stereotypes such as flames. Finally, the author expresses her wish for the toy companies to stop enforcing gender biases to better equip children for their future. The author’s statement on the bias of toys is clearly well-supported.

Should toys stores separate toys by gender? All toys should not be marketed as a boy or girl toy. In the article Are gender toys harming childhood development it says, “All toys are neutral genders. What is not is not neutral is the way toys are marketed.” When they say this it means that that all toys can be played with a boy or a girl but the way stores market the toys they usually say Boys or Girls. According to the passage called Are gender toys harming childhood it say,”If you take a truck and show a girl playing with the truck, that girl would most likely play with it and see it as a girl’s toy” This means that some toys are not only for boys but that if you someone other than yourself playing with a toy you would probably go with the

Like most people I have nieces and nephews. Whenever I take my niece to McDonalds she always orders the Happy Meal. Without asking whether we wanted a girl or boy toy, they automatically gave her the Polly Pocket Doll, instead of the Smurf toy that she actually was hoping for. Being a girl, the cashier assumed that she would prefer the doll over the Smurf toy. This sort of incident happens more often than you would think. It really made me, wonder how gender roles and stereotypes affect

The toy manufactory industry has implanted the idea that toys that children play with should correspond with their gender. Manufacturers differentiate whom the toy is for by the color of the toy and type of toy. The toys that I observed at Target, were categorized based on the stereotypes of gender roles, and age groups. For children ages two and under, the types of toys included in their aisles were musical “instruments” that are geared to help them learn.

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.

For years children’s toys have always been segregated, with it being overtly clear that the blue and more physical action type toys are marketed at a young male audience, while the pretty pink domestic style toys such as kitchens and babies are aimed at little girls. But has this always been the case? Are toy manufacturers stuck in less modern times when a man would go out and work and a women would keep the house respectable? Are children’s toys what’s holding us back from achieving complete gender equality? Through research, surveys, interviews and making my own observations in local retail stores this investigation looks at the prominence of gender differences and stereotypes in children’s toys and their marketing today and comparing that

For the past decades, toys have been classified by gender. Boy’s toys in particular are classified boy’s toys because the toys are related to fighting or violence. For example, Star Wars toys are classified as a boy’s toy and because it is classified as a boy’s toy, toymakers don’t add Rey, the new female protagonist, probably because toymakers believe that she won’t be a big hit among the boys who buy Star War figures. Well, toymakers need to face the fact that first of all, a lot of girls love Star Wars too, as well as, a lot of boys would like

Everyday, children and adults encounter toy stores that are rigidly segregated by sex. Mainstream toy stores such as Toys R’ Us divide their toys, games and movies into two primary categories: male and female. A detailed look through a popular Toys R’ Us location exposes an undeniable hidden sexism that occurs through children’s toys. Gender socialization through children’s toys and games teaches as well as reinforces stereotypical gender roles in a harmful way. Through the gender-biased toys available to children, boys and girls learn to take on hyper-masculine and feminine roles and focus on stereotypically feminine or masculine activities.

“Raise boys and girls the same way,” a phrase originally said by neo-conceptual artist Jenny Holzer, that urges parents as well as people to raise children without a heavy influence of gender stereotypes and let the child discover how they want to represent themselves. A large divide between little boys and girls is shown in the toy industry. The retail chain Target recognized the influence of the gender bias toys and the impact they have on children and parents and began neutralizing labels within the toy department. Toys should not be gender biased because gender stereotyping has wavered back and forth over the past fifty years. Gender-biased toys can have an impact on a child’s development, and the unnecessary labeling of toys has sparked a cultural shift in society.

Toy manufacturers play a crucial role in the embedding of gender stereotypes within society - they are consumed by the idea that girls are born with inherently different passions, hobbies and skill sets to boys. Although it may not seem a monumental decision in your child’s life to either buy them a doll or a train set to play with, studies have shown that the latter has knock on effects in later life. A recent study found that both sexes are still being held back in their careers by outdated stereotypes. The Worldpay Zinc survey which questioned 2,000

In today’s society, parents throughout the United States differ on their views towards children’s toys. Some children face different options and consequences when wanting a toy from the opposite gender section. Occasionally, you will see in the headlines of a newspaper saying how progressive a mother is because she allows her son to wear a princess costume. Mainly, the toys that are aimed towards boys are associated with sports and aggression. Yet for girls, the toys that are aimed towards them are associated with homemaking and glamor. These qualities are so recognized and known that I have decided to do an essay on them to see what is alike and what is different in the areas of the toys. I decided to follow two families for this analysis. These two families both come from a Mexican culture. In household X, the family is both Mexican and American. In household Y, the family comes from a strict Mexican culture. In response to my analysis, based on what I have seen in both of the households I visited, I feel as though the children should choose what matters to them in relevance to the fun. Allowing the children to have a variety of toys opens up different skills. Different toys bring different challenges. Parents should not restrict their children to strong gender toys, as though it could not help them develop physically, academically, artistically, cognitively, and musically.