Gender Neutral Toys
Should Toys Be More Gender-Neutral?
This topic is one that does hit me close to home because I have a ten year old sister and a few other cousins younger than her. Though I did not really think about this topic much until now. It is the twenty-first century after all, shouldn’t gender-neutral toys be a thing? With this I researched this topic more with this help of my sister to learn more about. Though sadly I do believe that toys should be more gender-neutral even though they currently aren’t.
I started off by asking her for a few names and brands of “girls” toys. She gave me Barbie®, American Girl Dolls® and Ever After High™. The first thing I noticed was that all of the brands she gave me were dolls which already says something. I feel …show more content…
One brand specializes in cars (Hot Wheels™) the other in toy and water guns (Nerf) and the other in collectible grocery items that are “gross” hence the name (Grossery Gang). These three toys help represent the cliche phrase “boys will be boys” which I do not agree with. For Hot Wheels™ and Nerf I looked at their websites and for Grossery Gang I looked at one of their commercials. As you would have expected they showed boys playing with their toys. Nerf even has a line of toys targeting girls called Nerf Rebelle, which one would not have known at first glance.
What shocked me the most out of all this was that she couldn’t name one brand that had toys that targeted both girls and boys. And I couldn’t think of any either minus board games which aren’t always consider toys. Many big name brands target a specific gender and even age group.
What I have gotten from this is that it’s up to parents to make sure that toys for their children are considered gender neutral. I am proud to say my family does that. When my sister was five she had Hot Wheels™ and my 7 year old male cousin has Barbies®. Toys are toys they have no gender they are inanimate
This topic is one that does hit me close to home because I have a ten year old sister and a few other cousins younger than her. Though I did not really think about this topic much until now. It is the twenty-first century after all, shouldn’t gender-neutral toys be a thing? With this I researched this topic more with this help of my sister to learn more about. Though sadly I do believe that toys should be more gender-neutral even though they currently aren’t.
I started off by asking her for a few names and brands of “girls” toys. She gave me Barbie®, American Girl Dolls® and Ever After High™. The first thing I noticed was that all of the brands she gave me were dolls which already says something. I feel …show more content…
One brand specializes in cars (Hot Wheels™) the other in toy and water guns (Nerf) and the other in collectible grocery items that are “gross” hence the name (Grossery Gang). These three toys help represent the cliche phrase “boys will be boys” which I do not agree with. For Hot Wheels™ and Nerf I looked at their websites and for Grossery Gang I looked at one of their commercials. As you would have expected they showed boys playing with their toys. Nerf even has a line of toys targeting girls called Nerf Rebelle, which one would not have known at first glance.
What shocked me the most out of all this was that she couldn’t name one brand that had toys that targeted both girls and boys. And I couldn’t think of any either minus board games which aren’t always consider toys. Many big name brands target a specific gender and even age group.
What I have gotten from this is that it’s up to parents to make sure that toys for their children are considered gender neutral. I am proud to say my family does that. When my sister was five she had Hot Wheels™ and my 7 year old male cousin has Barbies®. Toys are toys they have no gender they are inanimate