Toy Store and Gender Project On Saturday, the tenth of September 2016 I went to Target at 5pm with my roommates. As I walk to the toy aisle I saw parent with their young children. The store was busy but not crowded their where about five to ten families at the toy section. The adults in the toy section with children or without where mostly female. Target had multiple aisles for children’s toys it was divided pretty evenly between girls and boy’s toys with one or two aisles for newborns.
The newborn section uses primary colors in its designs of toys and is not as gender specific than the other aisles. This idea stops as soon as the toys age range increases. The aisles amid toward the girls filled with pinks and purple colors. The toys geared toward girls are generally dolls, princess, fairies and animals. Then boy aisles are next and are geared to super heroes, rescue squads, trucks, and first responders like policemen. The constant colors seen are reds, blues and greens. The colors in the aisle reflect the socially constructed idea that colors go with genders. The order of the aisles is as following infants, girls, and boys then comes sports equipment. The social construct of sports is more geared towards boys and girls should stay home and care for homely topics. Target ordered their aisles is a way that expresses societies ideas of gender; in that girls should be closer to the home maker thing like learning to car for babies with baby dolls and that boys should
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
There is this particular Target store located at the city of Signal Hill that I really enjoy shopping all the time. I love the nice organization of the store, it has excellent lighting, useful new products to my everyday necessities, and I always find tempting good deals. Throughout the years I have notice some population changes and racial diversity among the residents that shop at target, which I think is very interesting. Around ten years ago, Target used to be different, there was not much variety in clothing, no groceries section, and Black Friday was not as popular as it is today. One interesting fact about Target now days, is that it is the third largest discount store in the world, based on sales. Back when I was younger, I clearly
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.
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
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
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.
The store in which I completed my observation was Target. Target’s general layout made it easy to decipher the section designated for boys and the section designated for girls. While Target did not specifically label the aisles by gender, it was not difficult to decipher where the toys for each gender were located. The section designated for boys encompassed about three aisles consisting of various toys that would interest boys, while the section designated for girls encompassed three aisles as well. Target also consisted of about two aisles of gender-neutral toys. The kinds of toys offered for boys included guns, action figures, building sets, and cars. Types of toys offered for girls included dolls, stuffed animals, play kitchen sets, and
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
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.
Our roles as men and women start at the hospital when we are born. Boys get blue blankets while girls get pink blankets. The toys we play with growing up are targeted at either males or females. Toys that are made
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.
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
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.
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