Gender Stereotypes: Article Analysis

Children’s perceptions of how girls and boys have to act can be manipulated by their surroundings. Target and other toy stores teach boys that they have to like fast cars, jobs requiring manual labor, and sports. There was certainly a type of “manliness” portrayed at boys from the toys. Its almost as if they were influencing them to be aggressive and unkind. The toys are teaching girls that they need to enjoy playing house and that the ideal female role is to be a homemaker who takes care of the kids. Many people may think that it is ok for boys and girls to like different things, which it is. But, it is important to recognize that preferences don’t emerge out of each child’s unique personality but that they are shaped by nonstop pressures of different socializing influences. children are given roles of subservience or dominance before they can understand the words. Target is an example of how society is manufacturing products that ultimately encourage inequalities and gender

Scope – this essay is limited to how children toys enforce gender stereotype by the color and play function of the toys.

The first thing a person notices upon walking into a store is all the different categories separated by different aisles and giant signs hanging from the ceiling. The categories are then separated into smaller, more specific sections. Like in the bathroom accessory aisles, there are different sections in it that include the towels, curtains, and soap dispensers. Kid’s clothes and toys are no different, they are both separated into two different major categories which are boys and girls. This separation between boys and girls does carry on throughout a person’s life, and influences many gender roles and biases.

Sociologist Dalton Conley wrote his book, You May Ask Yourself, addressing how “gender is a social construction” that is so normal for society to think how a man or woman should act towards the public. Society often categorizes roles that females and males are suppose to play in, but not only are they categorized they are also being taught what their gender role is suppose to do. The beginning of gender socialization can start with a child who is not born yet by simply having the parents purchase items that are all pink if its expected to be a girl, but if its expected to be a boy then everything they purchase will be blue. Conley states that gender roles are “sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany ones’ status as male or female” (Conley [2008] 2013:134). So even when a child is growing into their infant years, toys are made specifically for their gender. By examining how social construction places gender in categories it becomes apparent that males and females get differentiated a lot which emphasizes inequality between them.

In the world of toy marketing, choices are made with direction put in place for both genders (girl and boy). For example, as I walked down each toy aisle, I felt the gender conformity among the parents as they were with their children. With multiple aisles and two dominant colors (pink and purple) designated for girls, the message (in my perspective) marketed on the toy package yelled: “Your ambition is to be stylish, while a nurturing mother who partakes in domestic works!” In addition to the toy packages being in pink, the words (on the toy) were predominately frivolous and amusing. On the contrary, the boys’ aisle contained wide varieties of colors, although the color blue caught my eye the most. The boys’ toys entailed sports, building sets, as well as action figures. Conversely, the message in my perspective, marketed on the toy package screamed: “You have the power to do whatever you want; however, it is imperative that you build yourself physically, as well as train yourself in order to properly excel.” This type of act, referred to as the social role theory—“a gender difference that mainly results from the contrasting roles of females and males” (p.165),—gives a great cause of difference in gender regarding power, nurture, and

Growing up, many Americans ' childhood consisted of playing tag outside, having cooties, and experimenting with as many toys as possible. Hundreds of thousands of toys flood kid stores such as Toys R ' Us, Baby Depot, and KB toys. With imagination, kids are able to become doctors, presidents, and princesses during the contents of one day. Television shows such as Barney or Blues Clues encourage having such imagination, thus inspiring kids to want to become one of the many options stores can transform them into. Walking into a regular toy store, people generally do not dissect the sexism that lays within the aisles, however, when walking in specifically to compare and contrast boys and girls toys

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.

In our society, there are norms of what is considered to be feminine and what is to be considered masculine, but how are these norms constructed? Through the use of toys, books, and clothing, children are socialized into their “appropriate” gender. These objects provide influence over behavior and appearance, showing boys and girls what is appropriate for each gender. After some investigation it was found that the toys, books, and clothing that children use not only foster the norms of gender behavior and appearance, but also construct gender roles in their young minds.

We as a people should care about gender specific toys because play is an important part of a child’s life. Toys give children a sense of belonging, and help them to decide how they will behave, how they will dress, and how they will play with other kids. Each toy has a way of helping children to learn, whether it is by growing their muscle memory, teaching them special skills, or helping them to solve difficult problems. The problem isn’t the toys themselves but it is the division of the toys, between the girls section and the boys, the colors, and the misconception that boys and girls should only play with certain types of toys, and they must be distinct for both sexes. The boys and girls sections are divided by the

According to Elizabeth Sweet (2014) toys are “more gendered now than even 50 years ago, when gender discrimination and sexism were the norm” (“Toys are More Divided By Gender Now Than They Were 50 Years Ago”). In the 1970’s gendered toys declined, it may have been related to more women in the labor force or decrease in marriages. In this article, Sweet explains that in the Sears catalogue in 1975, “there were many ads in the 70s that actively challenged gender stereotypes- boys were shown playing with domestic toys and girl were shown building”. But, with the deregulation of children’s television programming in 1984, gender-neutral advertising receded. By 1995, half of sears catalogue was once again made up of gendered toys.

In modern day America there is an ongoing disagreement between people of all ages about the topic of gender roles in children. According to Barrie Thorne and Zella Luria, the word gender is used to refer to “cultural and social phenomena- divisions of labor, activity, and identity which are associated with but not fully determined by biological sex” (Sexuality and Gender in Children’s Daily Worlds). Whether or not young males should be able to play with stereotypical female toys such as dolls, and should girls be able to play with stereotypical male toys such as cars/trucks is a big issue that many people disagree on. Should it be acceptable in this modern time that children are almost forced to play and behavior the way that society believes is the social norm for that gender? All of these things happen everyday in the lives of children, and these things can be damaging to their personality, identity, and the way the view others.

I visited a Toys “R” Us and looked at the various toys arranged by gender. There was a clear delineation between aisles of toys geared towards males, and aisles of toys geared towards females. In addition, there were some areas of the store in which toys appeared more gender neutral.

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.

Toy manufacturers are now starting to promote gender-biased toys by showing children that certain behaviors and actions are for their specific gender. Many toys are neutral or gender-biased but many people seem to disagree with the manufacturers of the type of toy children want to play with. In the article published by the Associated Press, “Asleep at the switch? Force Awakens heroine missing from toy line” expresses how toys, especially from Star Wars, can be played with either gender. Men and women are equally attracted to play with a toy that is intended for an opposite gender. Furthermore, children and adults should have the choice to play with any toy they decide, but toy manufacturers still produce gender-biased toys.

Toy manufactures has enforced the belief that children should play with toys that correspond with their genders, while never feeling guilty because they value business greater than children. At early ages children begin to develop a sense of their gender, preferences, and play style. Gender socialization appears to begin at infancy, where a newborn baby girls receive their pink outfits and little boys receive their blue outfits. By about 24 months they begin to define themselves as “girls” or “boys” (Freeman, 2007). The problem with the toy industry is that they value business greater than the children’s needs, following societies and parent’s demands for what is proper for children to play with based on their genders. This affects children because they are vulnerable and absorb everything during their early playing ages. By the age of five they are apt to have rigid definitions of how girls and boys should behave (Freeman, 2007). As long as children are around, the toy agency will never die out, as they need to create toys and games for children to create imaginations and dreams. Stating that the toy industry is one problem with gender socialization in society, however it is not the only one affecting the gender roles and children’s interest in toys. Gender role socialization takes place in the microsystems of family, peer group, school, community and media (Oncu & Ulnuer, 2012).