Gender Stereotypes To Play With Boy Toys

In “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls” Pollitt gives a little bit of the background on why toys are still not gender neutral. She talks about how some mothers believe that girls have to play with dolls, and others believe that they can play with whatever they want. Pollitt

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 article “Gender-Neutral Toy Sections Are Good For Boys, Too” written by Megan Condis, Condis goes over the recent incident with Target removing gender specific toy aisles. People claim that it will help girls more considering that most of the girls toys are labeled with gender while the boys toys stand as a “default”. In her argument she states that although it will benefit girls from making them have to think they have to stick to only “girl” toys, it will benefit boys because they can now break that idea that they have to play with “boy” toys. I completely agree with Condis in her argument and fully believe that the gender specific toys affect boys just as much, if not more.

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

     Few toys were aimed equally at both genders. Even board games, while intended for both sexes, usually seemed aimed more towards one gender or another. Both sections had a lot of gender- stereotypical toys. General ideas on girls’ and boys’ behaviors and interests were very prevalent in the toys intended for each gender. After really looking at the toys in both sections it is easy to understand why stereotypical ideas about both genders are so strong since these ideas are introduced at such a young

In today’s society, there is a belief that only girls can play with Barbie Dolls while boys can only play with Action Figures. Parents believe if they allowed their sons or daughters to play with feminine or boyish toys that are not meant for them their child would grow up either gay or lesbian. It’s not fair for parents to restrike their children from playing with toys because one toy is meant for girls while the other is meant for boys. Children have the right to play with whatever toy they want. Society and Parents should stop reflexing their opinions and beliefs on children toys. There is nothing wrong with girls playing with Action Figures and there is nothing wrong with boys playing with Barbie Dolls.

In the past few decades, Lego has grown into one of the most prominent brands of children toys worldwide. Unfortunately, the success Lego continues to endure is accompanied by disapproval and accusations. The new Friends line of Lego has attracted criticism as some find it to be too gender specific and sexist. Despite the popularity of the Lego Friends sets, individuals found the sets to be offensive and discriminating towards females. The pink and purple colours with the fairy, princess or family figurines were said to be supposedly stereotyping girls. When compared to the boys Lego sets which incorporate themes such as super heroes, doctors and firefighters, the Friends line appears inferior.

1. I did my research on toys at Target. What I discovered was that mostly all gender-neutral toys have to do with educational toys and toys for children whose mindset does not see that’s a girl or boy toy. All the gender-neutral toys were colorful, but mostly used green, blue, yellow, and red colors, thus making targeting boys and girls. What I found in the masculine toy section was that mostly all the toys were blue, black, or dark colors. Lots of toys promoted violence like the Nerf guns and Power Ranger toys with their swords and killing the bad guys. They also promoted sports balls and cars only in the boy section when girls can play with these as well. What I found interesting is that they had Jake and the Neverland Pirates toys and

Children love toys because they find them enjoyable and help them in building an imagination. Toys are advertised on televisions and radios in order to get parents to buy them for their kids. Playing with toys helps to build character and teaches children the basics of early life, like shape-sorting or building things with building blocks. Some toys are educational and teach kids numbers, letters, and how to read using fun ways that they find understandable and delightful. All kids have their own preference of toys, boys like cars and Nerf guns and girls like American Girl and Easy-Bake Ovens. Girls and boys are different genders and have their own preference of toys based on what society says is “for girls” or “for boys”. Since the beginning of time, societies have made women out to be frail people that do “feminine” activities, such as: making clothes, cleaning the house, and taking care of the children. Today, we see these activities as “sexist”, women can other things when given the proper motivation. It’s demeaning to think of women as people who only love shopping, overly romantic tokens-of-affection, chick flicks, and etc. Stereotypes and demeaning rumors still go around today, it’s even shown in toys that young children play with. Toys in today’s society affect gender stereotypes.

In the article, the author mentioned that her daughter figured out pink is for girls and that’s what she wants to be. Everyone has their own taste and preferences. "I'd prefer my daughter to play with regular construction tools and LEGO, not cutesy heart-embossed pink

I think they should be able to put ads on tv about kids toys or other things kids wants or needs. First think about it what if you had a good business going on and you need to get your business things out world-wide. If you owned a business you wouldn’t want to stay in just one spot would you i think that would be boarding. Because if you stayed in one spot then everyone in that spot might buy it and then you won't be able to any business. But with the help of tv ads they can make their product go all around the world.

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.

I found the findings presented by Carol J. Auster and Claire S. Mansbach in their article titled The Gender Marketing of Toys: An Analysis of Color and Type of Toy on the Disney Store Website, interested, but not surprising. There is an apparent difference in available toys between boy and girls. What is interesting about their finding is how color of the toy is associated with gendered behaviors. Boys only toy typically are bold in color which relates to extraversion, loudness, and visibility among others. On the other hand, the girls only toys are mainly pastel in color which represent introversion, quietness, and delicate. The color of the toy does not just place girls and boys in a different category, it also encourages a type of behavior

Another point made earlier is the variety of items that Barbie has. For example there are several different vehicles that are “Barbie” items (pictures below). The appeal of these different vehicles to young consumers is imbedded in the need to play “pretend”. Also, children often mimic their parents or older siblings, not to mention society’s images of popular vehicles. The idea here is to provide many options for a consumer, this way there is at least one item that every consumer can be attracted to. Also it is important to note that all the vehicles, whether child-size or Barbie-size, are all a variation of the color pink. The color connotes femininity and the social gender association is with females. So although there is a choice on types of products the color choice is limited. According to about.com and Barbie.everythinggirl.com every second two Barbies are sold somewhere in the world. The popularity of the doll provides us with some insight to Barbie consumers. They are willing to conform to ideas of what is socially acceptable for colors of toys specifically for girls; and by willing I mean either not prompted to voice change or not generally factoring this in which is in

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