Jason Ankeny's Argumentative Essay

Gender-specific marketing can be found in almost any toy section of any store. Whether it is in the form of color coding or the use of a certain gender on the box of a certain style of toy, most stores implicate some sort of gender based marketing. This type of marketing, however is not good for children or for businesses using it. Gender-specific marketing causes harm for children because it hinders their learning, limits their interest occupations, and can cause them to be bullied. Gender-specific marketing also causes harm to the business that use it. Gender based marketing limits the amount of people that a company sells and therefore limits their revenue. Any sort of gender based marketing will influence kids’ ideas of what toys they play

Ankeny gives many examples of when toy companies, such as Hasbro and Mattel, cut major female characters out of their playsets. The biggest example of this being Hasbro’s failure to include “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” main character and heroine Rey in much of their toy sets. Ankeny will later address how because Hasbro didn’t have enough Rey toys to satisfy consumer demand they lost out on much of their revenue. Ankeny also mentions a new line of superhero line Mattel has released call DC Super Hero Girls. This line of toys and apparel focuses on female DC characters such as Wonder Woman and Harley Quinn. He then mentions that this line includes many first when it comes to female action figures. This fact is drawing a lot of attention. Ankeny uses quotes from comic book store owner, Patrick Brower, that say that not only kids want a product like the DC Super Hero Girls but so do their parents. This article will fit into my research paper because it shows how removing gender specific marketing will not only be beneficial to children but also