First off Sweet is using a strong credible approach to her article which makes her knowledgeable in what she is presenting. In a Sears catalog that she found over the 20th century in not man toys were directed towards gender and that “70 percent showed no markings of gender whatsoever”. Ads portrayed girls “building and playing airplane captain” for boys “cooking in the kitchen”. The Sears catalog proves that she has done her research on the topic.…
Source 1 (scholar article): Auster and Mansbach cite a study done by Blakemore and Centers in 2005 that many adult, including college students have not change their attitude about toys. They still judge and see children’s toys in a gender stereotyped way. The logos, packaging, color and function of toys are used by adults as “gender markers.”…
“I’m going to Disney World!” shouts the quarterback of the winning team. This scene is played out every year in front of millions of football fans watching at home with their children. Who is this advertisement focused on? Is Disney Corp. telling grown ups they should vacation there because that’s where rich football players go? Absolutely not! This promotion is bypassing the grownups altogether and attacking their true target audience. Disney’s marketing demographic is children. Everything about Disney is designed to entertain and capture the attention of kids. Disney is not only creating a market based solely on children it is telling these kids who and what is beautiful and desirable.…
My last observation was in the boy’s aisle. It is already a known gender stereotype for boys that they must be dominant and masculine by socialization. By following up in the boy’s aisle, I wanted to find toys that stressed those known gender stereotypes that society has created for boys. First, I came across toys such as, “Starwars Double Take Death Kit,” “Small Soldiers Karate Fighters,” “Small Soldiers Action Figures,” and “WWF Ring Warriors Wrestling Kit.” These four toys have already made gender stereotype for boys to be masculine. Not only does it encourage the trait of being masculine, but it encourages competitiveness, dominance, aggressiveness, and violence. Through these toys, it reflects boys negatively by encouraging boys to stereotype themselves that violence is the way to solve problems and to be dominant and strong. It stresses importance from society that those traits, especially dominance,…
Children would most likely learn certain gender role jobs. This was shown in lots of the toys as I was collecting my data. An example would be Legos, they represent any construction type of job where they build things, and they are found in the boy’s section of the toy department so, mostly boys buy/play with Legos. Therefore kids are learning that a construction type of job correlates with men doing that type of job because only boys play with it. However, Legos introduced there Lego friends line to attract more girls. Also, a lab kit that included 30 pieces of lab equipment was only found in the boy toy department and we generally associate science with men. However it's not just gender based jobs they are learning, it is also showing gender…
It is said that girls generally gravitate towards the toys labeled as girls’ toys and young boys always choose trucks over dolls. This way of organization makes it easy to find the right plaything for each child. When given the choice between a doll and a truck, female infants are most likely to choose the doll, and male infants choose the opposite (Cherney et al., 2003). Girls seem to be attracted to pastel colors and role play toys such as dolls. Boys automatically want to play with guns and toy soldiers, things that are aggressive in nature. The separation of toys has never had an effect on children or their future. They have been marketed in this way for years without trouble, so why change these…
Gender plays an important role in the way children are raised in today’s society. The common stereotype that feminine toys are for girls and masculine toys are for boys is prevalent, even with all of the political advancements our society has made to try to free the world from these stigmas. It starts as early as when a child is in the mother’s womb. Most women will celebrate the arrival of their bundle of joy with a baby shower. Pink colors will be used for baby girls and blues for baby boys. In toy stores you will find aisles filled with toys separated by gender: baby dolls for girls and action heroes for boys. During ages three to five children enter their peak playing ages where their minds are most vulnerable to absorb everything and anything at once. Due to a failing economy, many more families are depending on early childcare programs to care for their children while they are forced to have both parents enter the workforce. During this sensitive, and impressionable time in a…
Walking through almost any toy store today, the first thing to be noticed would be that there are two main sections. One, displaying an immense amount of colors from pink, yellow, to purple. Glitter and frill were not absent among this section that held children’s toys ranging from dolls, stuffed animals, plastic play houses with kitchens as well as telephones, and common feminine characters scene on young television channels. Looking at the bikes or toy motor cars here, the same color variations appear only along with streamers and prominent words such as “princess” or “sparkle”. Looking more closely at the toy dolls, there is a very common attribute in almost every one having blonde hair, blue eyes, and large breasts. These can be found more often then dolls portraying ethnicity of African American or Hispanic denomination. Stuffed animals are often seen with name tags such as “Candy” or using the prefix of “Miss” before their…
Unfortunately, in the present days, in the contemporary era, toys have a great influence in gender roles. This influence creates a lot of pressure in the little ones who are forced to buy ‘’girl’s’’ toys and ‘’boy’s ‘’ toys. However, if a boy buys a toy that are labeled and directed for girls, such as Barbie dolls, pink bicycles and Polly’s, they are very likely to suffer bully from their colleagues at school. That can lead into severe mental problems such as: depression, high levels of insecurity and anxiety.…
My paper titled toys and gender, is based on the toys of today and how they relate to gender socialization. I decided to go to the local Wal-Mart in Cookeville, Tn. I chose this store because it is a worldwide known large retail store. I concluded that it would be a good store to analyze because it is thought of as a family store where many families go to shop. Therefore, I knew that there would be a wide variety of toys to analyze and collect data. I went to Wal-Mart December the 3rd. I analyzed the toy sections of Wal-Mart and how the toys are associated with gender, color sound, types of play they encourage, types of interactions they cause, and what they prepare children for. With the exception of preschool toys that were sometimes offered in gender-neutral packaging, kids’ toys were largely segregated into different aisles according to gender. And within those aisles, the markings of gender were clear. The “girls’” section resembled the aftermath of an explosion of Pepto-Bismol. In the “boys’” section, there seemed to be a profusion of aggressive, hyper-muscled, weapon-wielding action figures. And in both realms, the majority of toys seemed to be explicitly tied to movies and television…
Although changing one’s sex is a biological process and often unchangeable, changing one’s gender is a fluid social process. It is hard to distinguish so-called natural and social qualities of one’s gender or sex since culture strongly impacts what society believes to be natural (TAW Social construction of gender 26). The social construction of gender is important to note when thinking about domesticity, because girls are taught from young age to believe they are naturally better suited for family work rather than market work. For instance, toys for toddlers mimic gender norms as toys directed for girls involve care-centered play, such as pretend vacuums, kitchen sets, and baby dolls. On the other hand, toys for young boys involve science experiments and building blocks, toys that help to develop cognitive skills (39). The differences in toys relate to the different skills boys and girls learn at a young age; girls tend to learn nurturing skills while boys tend learn motor skills. As a result, the difference in toy design, as well as the fact that there are toys made for one gender over the other, are examples of how domesticity pervades US society. Girls grow up to believe that they are more suited towards…
Gender stereotypes are exaggerated generalizations that are based purely on gender. The area of study for this investigation is sociocultural influences. This is a contemporary issue as it is becoming an excessive thing in modern society due to companies increasingly gender marketing their products towards children. The toy sections at shopping centers are divided into two categories: girl’s and boy’s toys. Aisles are filled with either pink, frilly princesses or blue, aggressive action figures. Toy marketing has changed dramatically in the past 50 years. As a matter of fact, it was not until the 1990s that toys were exceedingly targeting specific genders…
As I walked through the toy section of Target, I felt like I saw what I’ve seen ever since I was young enough to shop for toys in this section with my mom. When I was little I would go straight to the pink, Barbie aisle and then venture into the other pink aisles as well. This time, though, I looked through all of the toy aisles (including the boy section) and looked at the toys and dolls and games through a different lens. The color choices for the toys themselves and then the packaging as well are very specific to the gender they are targeting. And each age range appeals to its buyers in different ways. When I looked even closer into the details of the toys, appealing to specific races and social classes were more apparent than I had realized as well.…
Concurrently, both the Barbie doll and “Girl” suggest that socially constructed gender stereotypes begin to affect girls early on in their life. Girls…
Recently, Women’s March, a worldwide protest that emphasis on advocating women’s rights and other human rights, has remarkably attracts media and public attention. In the end, these significant events have proven how gender stereotypes have become major concern that receives close attention. Classifying gender as binary has resulted in gender stereotypes and discrimination. In order to get rid of the gender stereotypes that are harmful to the society, people need to be more open-minded and be willing to perceive gender classification in a different perspective. Most of the time, children are raised in societies where there is either black or white perspectives on gender, and they are expected to adhere to the rigid gender roles that have been formed and shaped by the society. Media and industry market target specifically at boys and girls using gender advertising and gender-specific products. For instance, toys companies will take advantage of the use of pink and blue color wrapping paper to attract and manipulate children’s perception on their preference of…