Tv Heroes Research Paper

In ‘Gals and Dolls: The Moral Value of ‘Bad’ Toys (2011), Marni Jackson argues the bizarre misconception created by some parents with respect to gender specific toys. Jackson is an award winning journalist, a co-host for the TVO book program ‘imprint’ also teaches creative writing at Ryerson Polytechnic University. Jackson has also collaborated on theatrical productions with the Clichettes. She is a mother and an author of family related books like; The Mother zone: Love, Sex and Laundry in the modern family (1992) in which she discusses the effects of some parental pedagogy. Hence, I find her well experienced and credible enough to discuss family relationships. I understand her intentions and agree with all her claims regarding this issue.

Toys play an important role in childhood development as children learn roles and skills from playing. As a result, the toys children are subjected to have an affect on which roles, interests, and skills are learned and practiced. Through Lego’s product Duplo, I will demonstrate the influence particular gendered toys have on children and their performance of traditional gender roles. Gender, which is a learned performance, is something society has been taught from a very early age and toy advertising has played a significant role in reinforcing the performance. One tradition that is reinforced and naturalized by society is the ideology of a male dominated society, representing strong characteristics of heterosexuality and masculinity; also known as hegemonic masculinity. Therefore, using Ideological Criticism, I will analyze how through the branding and design of Lego’s Duplo toys, children have been constructed to do gender differently, ultimately perpetuating and reinforcing hegemonic masculinity.

Launched on March 1959, the Barbie doll is a toy that was first put on display in New York. It quickly garnered a lot of attention with the target audience of the creators, young girls. This doll was different than its previous dolls because it was a doll that was an ideal representation of a woman. Thus allowing young girls to use their imagination to create and act-out what this doll’s life is like and what their future would potentially be. To successfully understand this toy, we must think like C Wright Mills, a sociologist who asks to use our sociological imagination, the intersection of one’s biography and history. This artifact reflects and perpetuates the dominant ideology of how to perform your gender the “right” way in the early 1960s. I will argue this demonstrates West and Zimmerman’s concept of “doing gender” which is clarified with Judith Butler’s concept of socialization of gender.

Many people can agree that the toys they played with shaped their childhood. A child should be allowed to play with toys of their choosing; however this is not always the case due to traditional gender stereotypes. There is a clear separation that girls should play with dolls and other domestic-like toys while boys should play with action figures and toys that are more educational or physical. This was not always the case. Before the 1990s toys were primarily gender neutral. But in the 1990s, toys became increasingly gender divided due to marketers seeing an opportunity to sell products to two different audiences, which would increase sales. Consequently, gender toys have lead to many negative effects including girls and boys believing

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.

Toys also influenced children with gender roles. In our society, the typical expectations of men is to financial support the family, and for females it’s to cook, clean, and take care of the children. “Both wives and husbands tend to perceive this as a “fair” arrangement” (Zimmerman 30). To instill this idea in young minds, there are toys that influence these gender roles. Boys have toy tool sets, promoting hands on work. Girls on the other hand have cooking and cleaning toys such as the Easy Bake Oven or toy vacuums. Also “parents tend to encourage more gender-typed activities. One study found that household tasks differ along gender lines. American boys are more likely to mow the lawn, shovel snow, take our the garbage, and do the yard work, whereas girls tended to clean the house, wash dishes, cook, and baby-sit the younger children” (Newman 133). Girls also like to play “house” fostering wife and motherly qualities such as taking care of the family. These toys help with socialization making children believe and understand that these are the norms of our society. So in conclusion to toys, “Sex-specific toys foster different traits and skills in children and thereby serve to further segregate the two sexes into different patterns of social development. “Boys’ toys” encourage invention, exploration,

Sweet argue that it affects a child’s creative process and mindsets towards gender. Lori Day, a psychologist, explains that girls and boys stop playing with each other during childhood, an that leaves a lasting impression that they are different when they are very similar (Hains par. 8). This debate about sex-specific toys shows the core issues about gender inequality in American society. These gender roles teach children what jobs and careers are appropriate for their gender. Boys learn that their jobs include hands-on work, while girls learn that child-care or nursing is for them. This reflects the number of women in occupations like mechanics and engineering. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up 26.7 percent of the jobs in motor vehicles industry. This also affects how many men are nurses. According to Bureau Health Professions, men make up 9.1 percent of registered nurses. Gender stereotypes that are learned when kids are younger affect their future occupation. This article disrupts gender roles by explaining how sex-specific toys affect children’s individuality and view on themselves and

Children’s playdolls play a significant role in shaping the worldview and values of girls. The doll industry designs playdolls primarily for girls with features of various colorful wigs, costumes and accessories, reflective of social fashion. Oftentimes, playdolls are placed in various situations, such as dollhouse, baby room and kitchen. All of these doll features may teach children how to look beauty and care for babies and do housework (Wagner-Ott, A., 2002). Likewise, Kuther and McDonald (2004, P.44) recognized that “play with Barbie dolls influences gender role development, as most of the girls reported play scripts entailing decidedly feminine and sexualized roles. Perhaps girls explored feminine gender role through play.”

The fond memories of childhood are often associated with a favourite toy. When one reminisces on a certain time of their life, toys are amongst the most prominent things that come to mind, as they evoke a strong symbolic image of early childhood. Although toys play a significant role in a child’s life, they have also been criticized for reproducing gender stereotypes. Boys and girls often have different toys that affect the development of their gender orientation during their younger years (Blakemore & Centres, 2005). The toys that parents choose to buy influences the way that children socialize and play with themselves, their peers, parents and family. Toys provide a gendered experience in which girls are often secluded to playing with dolls, kitchen sets and doll houses that

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.

It is noted that between ‘30 and 36 months’ children begin to play predominantly with same-sex peers and that this continues across childhood’ (Serbin et al, 1977). A UK campaign called Let Toys Be Toys sought to get retailers to stop categorising toys and books for one gender only, in order to try and eliminate gender stereotypes. This is because they believed a child should feel free to pick up and play with any toy they like, and that by marketing toys by gender, we,

Many people love superheros, they make movies, books, and many more things based on these characters. Superheros have been around for hundreds of years, but how do they better ourselves?. Todays heros inspires us to be our better selves because they us to help us to help people no matter what they look like.

The toy industry is a booming retail market in the United States, 2016 alone made a whopping 20.36 billion dollars (“Annual U.S. Sales” n.p.). These toys range from action figures, arts and crafts, dolls, puzzles, and building sets. More often than not, toys are appealing to a child based on what he or she likes to do, but as a nation, a stereotype has been set in place regarding what toys a boy or girl should be playing with. People usually associated Barbie dolls and princesses with girls and superheroes and Legos with boys. Gender plays a huge role in this industry, it consistently markets toys to either boys or girls. In recent years, the toy industry has been emphasizing gender separation and influencing stereotypical norms but this seems

American culture continues to reinforce gender stereotypes, especially when marketing to children by segregating toy and bedding sections into “boys” and “girls” sections. This segregation is detrimental to the way that children develop their view of gender roles and equality. In the article titled "Target Will Stop Labeling Toys for Boys or for Girls. Good," author Rebecca Hains examines the decision by Target to eliminate gender specific labels for their toy and bedding items (Hains). It is extraordinarily clear that eliminating gender specific labels on toys and bedding items will absolutely make an impact on what toys children choose to play with and in the way that they perceive gender. Target’s decision will impact toy choices and gender

Everyone can remember their favorite toys as a child. From Cabbage Patch Kids to Hot Wheels to Legos, one can reminisce fondly about sitting on the floor and playing with one of these. However, depending on sex, a specific child may have found themselves playing with specific toys. For girls, things like baby dolls, Barbies, or dress-up kits are quite popular. Boys can be found playing with action figures and Nerf guns. This is where a problem is to be seen. Toys for children have actually had a quite short history of being gender-typed. Yes, it wasn’t alway like this. In fact, most children’s toys were marketed to both sexes and only recently has gender-typing toys become a fad. To see why this is a problem, one should explore the history of gender-typing in the toy industry, understand why it is a negative thing for today’s youth, and try to synthesize a possible solution to this problem in society.