My Trip To Wal-Mart: Different Color Differences

Toy Aisle Review

For this research paper I decided to go to Wal-Mart. I noticed a lot of differences that I never really paid attention to before. I noticed a lot of differences between the aisles. Obviously aisles had very distinct color differences, pink for the girls, dark blue for the boys. The boys aisle had more rugged and fighting toys while the girls aisle had more dolls and home cleaning supplies. These are the more obvious differences that I saw. There were, however, more differences than just these. In the girl aisles for example, it seemed to be much brighter and happy. As I said before I mostly saw dolls, both Barbie dolls and baby dolls. Within the home supplies, I noticed kitchenettes, easy-bake ovens, and cleaning supplies
such as toy vacuums and brooms. There was also an abundance of play make-up and nail polish. Within the toy car and bike section I noticed the same color scheme. I saw pink Barbie jeeps and bikes with sparkly tassels. I also noticed a lot of princess outfits and crowns. The aisle was very neat and together and inviting. When I looked in the sports sections, I noticed that the jump ropes and hula hoops were definitely designed to appeal more towards girls. In the boy aisles, it was much darker.
The colors were mostly blues and greens. There toys were very rugged. Most of the toys were fake guns, action figures, and toy vehicles such as hot wheels. Within the home supplies, I noticed instead of kitchenettes the boys had grills. Instead of vacuums or brooms, the boys had lawn mowers. I also noticed a lot of toy hammers and screwdrivers. As for toy cars, the hummers, race cars or more rugged four-wheeler type jeeps. Boy’s bikes were a lot different than girls. There were no tassels but they had parts that light up and were mostly blue or green. The costumes that were in the aisles were mostly super hero costumes or occupational costumes like a firefighter or
cop. In order to tell which toys were for boys and which toys were for girls there are very obvious clues. The most obvious clue is the fact that the aisles are not mixed together. It is very clear that when you walk down an aisle that is all pink that it is for girls and when you walk down an aisle that is dark blue that is for boys. What is really crazy is that you don’t even need a sign to tell you that. As soon as you walk down the aisle you already know who the toys are for. That is due to the fact that we do learn these gender roles and stereotypes at such an early age and basically become desensitized to it. The items that the store considers boy toys and girl toys definitely reinforce gender stereotypes. Having kitchen and cleaning supplies for girls and tools and cars for boys is the epitome of gender stereotypes. Toy companies unintentionally or maybe intentionally put these ideas into our heads at a very early age. Maybe if toy companies would attempt to make more gender neutral toys, the severity of gender roles in society would decrease. The one type of toy that I noticed is pretty gender neutral is the learning toys such as leap frog.
It is very good that they are neutral because that allows both genders the opportunity to learn equally. It is interesting that even the way that children learn is neutral even though society works so hard to separate by gender. Even the learning toys for babies, such as the farmer noise maker or any of the shapes and numbers toys are very gender neutral too. This was surprising to me since babies are identified very early on by colors blue and pink. This is the earliest stage in life when the gender identification and roles begin to be influenced into the
child. I think gender stereotypes in society are a lot more obvious now than they were in previous decades. I think now that the world is very pro-equality that these gender roles and stereotypes have become an issue, especially with the feminist supporters. I think parents these days are a lot more comfortable with their children playing with toys even if they are marketed for the other gender. Society is becoming more and more accepting of steering away from the gender roles. There are male nurses and female doctors. There are women construction workers and truck drivers. There are men that work at the mall selling clothing and becoming teachers. There could even be a female president! I don’t think gender roles are ever going to ever disappear completely but they are definitely minimizing. Gender roles and stereotypes also changes with age. You go from being separated by pink and blue as a baby, Then by dolls and action figures as a child. Then in your teen years you are separated by things such as what sports you play or hobbies. Then when you get into the college level, you can be separated by majors. Then obviously when you get married it’s about who is the bread winner and who makes dinner and stays home with the children. Gender roles kind of grow with you as you grow up. It all just depends if you decide to step out of them every once in a while or not.