Essay On Gender Toys

Let’s say you’re a little girl in a toy store. You walk down the aisles, touching all of the toys available to you. How lovely to have all of these things to play with! You finally land on a box of action figures. When you show them to your mother, she wrinkles her nose at the superheroes and army men. “Wouldn’t you like a doll instead?” she asks. You don’t know how to answer. Maybe she’s right. After all, that’s what all the other girls want. Now you’re a little boy, and you don’t want those building blocks. You’re hooked on the barbie doll. Your father just shakes his head in disgust. “Find a toy more appropriate, son.” But you don’t know what that word means. You just know that trucks are what all the other boys want. You suppose that’s
And trust me, this isn’t a mistake. The toy industry feeds off of and benefits from these gender roles. This can really harm children in the long run - and that’s exactly the point of this essay. Gender roles for children (in clothes, toys and the media) are, in all seriousness, ruining our society. Target, Kohl’s, and Fat Brain Toys all gender their toys on their websites. The especially scary part of that is that those are the first three websites that came up on my search for “kids toys.” So why do we love gender? Professor Blakemore of NAEYC did a survey. She asked people to check whether the toys she presented to them were very feminine, somewhat feminine, gender neutral, somewhat masculine, or very masculine. She found that toys that are very gendered are usually not conveying educational or positive messages - very feminine toys are focused on physical beauty, while very masculine toys focus on aggression and fighting. On the other hand, somewhat gendered toys help teach children skills for adulthood - somewhat feminine toys teach about cleaning, cooking and taking care of children, while somewhat masculine toys teach about building. No matter a child’s gender, they need somewhat gendered toys for both genders to teach them important skills for the