Sociology of Greeting Cards When looking at greeting cards at Target this is what is found. Girls are pink and boys are blue, weddings are white with a bride and groom, according to greeting cards. Taking this into account it is clear to see that, the greeting card industry does not do a good job at representing everyone. This is clear due to the fact that, girl’s cards are pink and glittery, with princesses and barbies. Boy’s cards are blue, with superheroes, and sports. Weddings are white and delicate, with brides and grooms. Although greeting cards are just greeting cards, by recognizing the fact that they are aimed to please one portion of society, society as a whole can help make a bigger variety of greeting cards, to please everyone. …show more content…
The reason for this is, where with the girls there was one card girls who did not like “girly” things, the same thing can not be said of the boys’ cards. The boys cards had nothing but sports, superheroes, and other “cool” “boy” things. Although there were a few cards with animals on them, they were not like the ones for girls were. Where with the animals on the girls’ cards were puppies, and kittens, the ones of the boys’ were dinosaurs. Again this is a very wrong and sad representation of boys this is because it does not represent the boys who may not like superheroes, sports, or dinosaurs. Again this is due to the fact that book pointed out, that when a baby is born is it’s a girl, she gets pink and dolls, but if it’s a boy he gets sports and bright colors. However, it’s mentioning again that even if the parents try to avoid these stereotypes, there is no avoiding them. However this is due to the fact that most products, such as toys, and even food in some cases, are directed for each sex. Some examples of this are again in toys or girls will get dolls, and ponies. Where boys get legos, action figures, and nerf guns. However, it should be noted that there are some legos that a directed at girls, but these sets are “girly.” But again this is unfair because it is stereotyping the boys into the category that all boys must like sports superheroes, and dinosaurs. In doing this unfair stereotyping of boy, it makes it next to impossible if not impossible for parents to find a card for their son who like puppies, or who like disney princesses. Again this is society forcing the saying “snips and snails, and puppy dog tails, that’s what little boys are made of”
To begin, the poem presents gender and their associated stereotype with items usually linked to one gender. As the poem opens Redel addresses her sons “scarlet nails” that are decked with “rings’ and “jewels.” As nail polish and jewelry are typically feminine items, one can sense the challenge in Redel’s tone as she describes her son wearing them. Additionally, Redel presents the items “a truck with a remote that revs” and “Hot wheels” to introduce items that generally young boys own. These toys are described since society would prefer her son to play with such toys rather than to “love the glitter.” Thus, gender stereotypes are presented in mundane items that typically the opposite sex does not experiment with. This interaction is looked down upon by others, but Redel is
Another stereotype I saw demonstrated in the girls section was the idea that all girls are animal lovers. A large section of the girls’ side was filled with different stuffed animals or other toy animals like “Pound Puppies” or “My Little Ponies”. Mostly the girls’ toys used fine motor sk...
Envision yourself entering a toy department and noticing numerous diverse aisles. In one aisle, you encounter toys packaged in complementary and color triads colors that include building sets (such as “LEGO”, “LEGO Super Heroes”, and “Angry Birds”) and a wide selection of action figures—Spider Man, Transformers, The Dark Knight, Power Rangers, etc. In the next aisle, adjacent to the aisle with complementary and color triads colors, you find toys packaged in shades of pink and purple. These toys range from “Hello Kitty” dolls to “Barbie Dream” house play sets. Inside a toy department, such as Toys R Us, it is extremely difficult to retrieve a toy that is not marketed explicitly or subtly by gender. If toys were marketed only according to ethnic and racial stereotypes, many individuals would be infuriated. However, we come across toy departments that are highly, as well as strictly segregated—not by race, but by gender.
Based on my observation, Walmart is one of the toy retailers labeled and categorized toys by gender. They placed “Girls” and “Boys” signs over their toy aisles. Initially, I studied the toys under
Whether the rules created by the New York School Board, as established by the DOE Holiday Display Memo, are in violation of the Free Exercise and Establishment clauses of the first amendment.
Due to demand and popularity Disney and other large toy companies like Mattel, have begun marketing their popular female characters with a “Princess” moniker (Orenstein 327). Orenstein says “the genius of ‘Princess’ is that its meaning is so broadly constructed that it actually has no meaning” (328). Orenstein is referring to the ethnicity and royal lineage of Disney’s princess lineup. However, if the name “Cinderella” was used instead Orenstein would surely agree it has meaning. How then, if “Cinderella” is substituted for “Princess,” it now has meaning? Cullen indicates the audience for “Cinderella” is middleclass, urban and socializes (322). In today’s world it would be the little girl’s “American Dream” with the little pink house, white picket fence, perfect spouse and money in the bank. Although Orenstein says princess has no meaning she would surely agree that marketing everything from “Barbie dolls” to “home décor” in mall outlets, “in the suburbs,” is aimed at middleclass, urban girls, focusing on socializing (327). Marketing of these movies aims at a group of young girls whose families are, or are moving towards, middle-class. Additionally companies like Disney have already flooded the market with princess products ready to cash in on any consumers. It has meaning, to make a
First off, I will describe the role the toys are playing when it comes to the socialization process for boys and girls. The masculine wrestling action figures and construction vehicles are showing boy 's their gender roles. In the book, “You May Ask Yourself”, defines social roles as “the concept of gender roles, set of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female” (Conley, pg 130). In the store it is fairly easy for parents to find which part of the store will fit their kids gender roles. For parents with young boys, all they have to do is look for the blue in the store. When looking for the girl toys, parents just need to find the pink. Parents are actively doing gender in their child
An observation of the cards easily showed that they were segregated by color. According to the cards, our society denotes blue to boys and pink to girls. Gender neutral cards can be any other color, mainly green or yellow, but blue and pink are extremely segregated into their associated genders. The only time they are put into a design together is when there is no gender specified or it is a gender neutral card. The separation of the genders by color was extremely prevalent in the way that many cards had a counterpart of the different gender. Even if the words within the card were gender neutral, the difference of color would delineate whether the card is meant for a baby girl or baby boy. For example, the difference between the “blue lamb new baby boy” card and the “pink lamb new baby girl” card was the color of the lamb and nothing else. Other cards changed colors and also designs, such as changing overalls to a dress when you change the ‘gender’ of the card. However, there seemed to be an almost equal amount of cards amongst baby girls, baby boys, and gender neutral. The gender neutral cards steered away from the colors of blue and pink, probably due to their connotations, and they often featured animals and a variety of
In the article The gender Marketing of toys: An Analysis of Color and Type of Toy on the Disney Store Website, Auster and Mansbach conducted research to examine the gender marketing of toys on the internet. They looked at what characteristics of “boys and girls” toys share, such as color of toy, type of toy, and witch toys were labeled for girls and boys. The pre - research of this study suggested that children are making gender distinctions of themselves and their group based on the types of toys that are bought for them. Bright and darker colors are meant as a distinction for “boy” toys, while pastel colors are meant for “girl” toys. The previous research also suggested that toys for boys and girls express traditional gender roles and that gender neutral toys are more likely to
In Katha Pollitt’s essay “Why Boys Don’t Play with Dolls,” she explains the differences between the genders and she argues how feminist movements are hardly appreciated. Pollitt further demonstrates that women’s have the same power as any men have, but society doesn’t let women get higher than men. Pollitt explains that, “It’s twenty-eight years since the founding of NOW, and boys still like trucks and girls still like dolls” (544). From here, we can infer that the author is comparing the activities of boys and girls, and their choices of toys. Since, I am able to read and see the World, I saw that all the time that boys are more rivalry. There have always been presumptions in society that boys are very outgoing and bold, on the other hand, whereas girls are a little laid back sometimes. Girls play quietly and with non-hunting objects. However, boys always make noises. In addition, Pollitt keeps using the word “feminism” throughout her essay, and talks about how women and men should have equal rights. For example girls can do the same things as boys can do or vice versa. I can relate to this story as I grew up with two brothers who always played with cars, trucks, and other toys like dragons, but I was expected to stay away from their things and go play with my, so called, girly stuff.
I will not impose “gender specific” toys on them or tell them that it is not acceptable for a boy to play with a baby doll or tell my future daughter that it is not allowed for her to pretend sword fight. My children will be able to decide what they like and what they do not like and I will not allow anyone to decide that for them. This assignment has definitely opened my eyes to the market that is out there stereotyping children without much notice. Taking time to actually look into what is being done with toys and society with children has broadened my understanding and awareness of the impending problem that children are being faced with. I hope that one day we will see an end to gender stereotyping so that my future children will not be forced to feel out of place if they do not identify with a specific feeling or emotion that a boy should have or a girl should have. It sickens me and breaks my heart that things so minuscule such as toys can have such a negative effect on lives, especially on such a young children. This ideology of gender segregation should not be supported or further produced because it is harmful to the children that are directly or indirectly being affected by
Toy stores are perfect places for a sociologist to use their sociological imagination. Gendering and racism is thought to be something that is socially constructed as opposed to biologically constructed. Gendering starts during infancy, and around 2 years old children start to internalize these gender differences. I argue that children’s toys help socialize children into gender specific roles. Toy stores, like Target and Toys R Us help us understand what types of toys help to gender children. I will explain how the toys in the toy aisles differ and compare. Not all toys are either male or female, some toys are gender neutral.
The socialization of children is greatly affected by the toys they are exposed to while growing up. Looking through magazines and walking down the aisles of toy stores it is clear that toy companies are supportive of cultural gender roles biases. Toys designed for girls are commonly found in pink boxes; typically these toys involve housework or taking care of children, for example, dolls and easy bake ovens. On the other hand, “boy” toys are found in blue and black boxes, and a lot of them involve construction and cars.
Often in a piece of literature, a story will appear to be about one issue when, in actuality, the author intended it to be about another. In the short stories "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant and "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison, the issues of class separation and struggle, though they may appear at first glance to be unimportant, are in fact the central points around which these two stories revolve.
...en. Whereas male children are given toys like G.I. Joes, fake weapons, sports toys, and Ninja Turtles. This has many effects on our society's children. Children are more likely to assume that they are supposed to take on these roles in everyday life because that is what they are shown.