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Society's impact on gender roles
Gender roles and children toys
Gender roles are influenced by society
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Recommended: Society's impact on gender roles
A child’s interactions with the opposite gender at a young age has a much greater effect on their development than the types of toys that they play with. Focusing on how toys should be marketed to become gender-free is a waste of time. In Peggy Orenstein’s article “Should the World of Toys Be Gender-Free?” she has this main focus on the types of toys kids play with. I do not believe this has a great effect on child development. She barely touched upon how boys playing with girls has an effect on development, which she should have done because I think that this aspect of childhood play is much more important than the toys themselves. The fact of the matter is, kids will play with whatever toys they want to play with. It does not matter if the toy is in a pink or blue box. Kids will still want to play with whatever is inside if it seems interesting to them. Changing the way toys are packaged will not have much of an affect at all. If a doll is in a neutral white box then a boy would play with it if he wants. He might choose not to play with the doll because it just does not interest him. The same can go for a girl wanting to play with a toy car in a box, it holds an interest to her. …show more content…
The society that we live in today has more parents who are open-minded and understand that different toys benefit different aspects of a child’s learning. The world we live in is not perfect though, a parent might be a little hesitant to give a boy a doll to play with. Changing the color of the box or making the doll a boy would not affect this parents decision on letting their child play with the doll. If a parent does not want their child to play with a certain toy based on traditional gender roles, then that parent is closed minded and the changing of how toys are marketed will not affect their decision. Children will find a way to get that specific toy anyway, whether it be from a sibling or a
I noticed the girls’ toys engaged fine motor skills more than the boys’ toys did. The girls have several different types and sizes of dolls to choose from – however, this also makes dolls or items used with dolls (Barbie clothes, doll clothes, doll houses, Barbie cars, and doll furniture) over half of all the products in the girls’ section. This shows the stereotypical attitude that all girls like to nurture and will someday be expected to be mothers and the primary care giver for their children. Other toys I noticed that were very stereotypical were the child size vacuum, broom, and kitchen set. Even at this young age we teach girls it is part of their role to cook and clean.
Pike, J. J., & Jennings, N. A. (2005). The Effects of Commercials on Children’s Perceptions of Gender Appropriate Toy Use. Sex Roles, 52(1/2), 83-91. doi:10.1007/s11199-005-1195-6
That is, boys will customarily receive blue clothing or toys while pink clothing or toys will be for girls. “Children‘s toys and games are also differentiated on the basis of sex” (Diekman and Murnen 2004; Seccombe p.99). Through these toys or playing with these toys, boys and girls would eventually distinguish the differences between male and female; also, may strengthen, and perpetuate the traditional gender stereotypes. For instance, boys or men are expected to act and behave in ways that have been considered masculine or associated with masculinity (Seccombe p.104); “men are often assumed to be more aggressive, sexual, unemotional, rational, and task oriented than women” (Seccombe p.93); and thus, action figures, such as Superman, WWE wrestling toys, and Hulk are made for boys to play with. While girls or women’s roles are associated with femininity (Seccombe p.104); “women are assumed to be more nurturing, passive, and dependent” (Seccombe p.93); and so, cooking and baking set and baby dolls with bottle feeding and diapering set are made for girls, so, they could apply their nurturing and culinary skills when they get older and mainly do household chores. Personally, I believe these toys have both negative and positive influence on children’s socialization. For instance, playing with toy guns or military toy set with a knife may lead to early exposure to violence and aggression. However, some toys, such as Lego building set and blocks, arts and crafts have a powerful and influential influence on children’s thinking and
Although, the pictures illustrate that girls 'enjoy dresses ' and pink toys while boys enjoy active play toys, such as balls. Most of the toys in this store would seem to prepare girls to be princess and boys to be athletes. In contrast, there is a miscellaneous section that had gender neutral toys for an age group of kids 3-7; these toys had cooking sets, medical sets, and farming sets. Subsequently, it can be said that some of these gender-neutral toys could be preparing children for roles as farmers, doctors, and chefs. This section of gender-neutral toys seemed to be just randomly placed in the middle of the store, and the only other gender-neutral section seemed to be in the 1-5 age range. I didn’t see a ‘strategy of attraction’ for these gender-neutral toys. For this miscellaneous section, it seemed to be more of the predisposition of a child, for example, a child that may like horses might gravitate towards the gender-neutral farming set. For the 1-5 age, the attraction would be the sounds, touches, and movements of the toy. In this TOYS R US, it seemed to
Even though our country supports equality in gender, differences still exist. This issue of gender and sexuality of our society has had one of the biggest impacts in my life since I was raised with five brothers. Since birth, I was immediately perceived by my parents as my gender role of girl and daughter. My brothers were given action figures, cars, and guns to play with. I was given the traditional girl toys Barbies, baby dolls and kitchen sets. Of course, I enjoyed my traditional girl toys but it might have been nice to have a choice and be able to have the same toys as my brothers to play with. I eventually concluded that I should be satisfied with whatever toys were given to me by my parents.
To begin with, toy stores play significant row when it comes to the gender socialization process in children. I recently visited a Toys R Us in a shopping center near downtown Redwood City. Although It is located on the east side of Redwood City the shopping center is fairly neat and seems to have a wide variety of shoppers. The store was rather big and neatly organized. The front of the store for the most part was gender neutral. It was easy to navigate through the story and find the girls and boys toys. For the most part, boys toys were in blue boxes, while girls toys were in predominantly pink boxes. On the one hand, the boys sections were dominated by darker colors like blue, yellow, and black. On the other hand, girls sections were lighter
Many of the toys I had consisted of pink frilly things that were given to me by my parents or other adults. My dolls were Bratz dolls that were full of different outfits and makeup, teaching me to worry about the way I looked. My animal related toys consisted of little plastic horses and farm animals that were always in “gender neutral colors”, they always came in a red pack and any accessories were always bright and yellow or green. While when I had a gender-neutral toy, a leapfrog leader, that had a distinction of being a girls because of the case being pink and purple, not in in of the “gender neutral” color categories. My sports toys were the same, my soccer balls and basket balls were not neural colors, but pink or purple,. I also played with “boy toys” like cars, footballs, baseballs, however none of these things were ever bought for me. If I asked for these “boy toys” I was told that they were for boys not for girls, experiencing cultural competence, because no adult in my life thought buying a girl those types of toys were
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
Even before the children are born, parents begin choosing clothing and decorations by color based on the sex of the baby. The stereotype of pink, pastels, yellow and white for girls and bright or dark colors like green, blue and red for boys has long been a part of our culture. How many times have you heard kids argue over toys because the girls don’t want the icky boy color or the boys don’t want the gross girl color? The issue of color may go deeper than just fighting for toys. Studies have been done showing that school classrooms, especially for younger grades, are typically decorated in “boy” colors and reflect an environment that is most comfortable for boys (Bruning 23). Parents and teachers may be able to help reverse this thinking by buying toys in gender neutral colors and by using the same colors for boys and girls.
Girls are supposed to play with dolls, wear pink, and grow up to become princesses. Boys are suppose to play with cars, wear blue, and become firefighters and policemen. These are just some of the common gender stereotypes that children grow up to hear. Interactions with toys are one of the entryway to different aspects of cognitive development and socialism in early childhood. As children move through development they begin to develop different gender roles and gender stereotypes that are influenced by their peers and caregivers.
Within our families and friends whom we do identify with develops many different forms of culture, based on the environment we grew up with. The film “Toys” by Barry Levinson, is based on a toy factory that Leslie's father created, but when his father turns ill and turns the rights of the company go to his uncle, a war-mongering general who tries to take over the company by planning to build military weapons disguised as toys. The film shows how different ways culture are used even within an family that don’t always get along.
As a child, our toys were not exactly as gender neutral as earlier times, but also were not as gender stereotypic as the toys in today’s time. The fact that everyone eventually comes into contact with buying toys whether you have kids or you have a friend or family member who have kids which makes this an important topic. Eventually, everyone has to buy a child a present. Would it bother you that all toys are either pink or blue and there is no in between? Or does sticking to what your child is already familiar with and knows the more ideal option when it comes to gender stereotyping with children’s toys? Authors James Delingpole and Eleanor Muffitt both do a good job at arguing both sides to this issue. Although both authors provide valid points throughout each article, about gender stereotyping with toys, James Delingpole clearly was more effective in persuading the audience because he used all three elements; ethos, logos, and pathos to support his idea.
They reasoned that the way girls and boys play with their product are completely different. The results from a series of experiments (conducted over the course of four years) involving over 4000 female children and their parents, supports this claim. One particular testing had both genders build a Lego castle together. The mixed groups successfully built the castle together but then took different approaches in playing with it. The majority of girls were concerned that the castle had no interior aspects whereas the boys continued to play and used the creation as the ‘background’ for their games.
Boys should definitely be allowed to play with dolls. During childhood, male children witness both of their parents caring for babies, cooking and cleaning. Playing and caring for a doll prepares the boy for his evident fatherhood duties. For a boy to only play with masculine toys such as trucks and guns, the boy is not developing his sense of caring, nurturing, or empathy. Denying any child the right to play with the toy of their choice in fear of who they may become is taking away the right for the child to find his or her identity. Playing is essential to the development of children, and limiting their toy choices is detrimental to that development. Not allowing a certain type of toy would affect the child more negatively than allowing him to play with dolls. Also, society tells a boy that playing with feminine toys is wrong, causing an early condescendence towards females. It will not affect the child negatively, therefore in order to become nurturing, respectful adults with a sense of empathy and self, boys should be allowed to play with dolls.
Toys for girls and boys differ greatly. An obvious characteristic would be the colours. It was noted that “girl” toys tend to be in pastel shades such as pink and purple whereas “boy” toys tend to be coloured more intensely, especially blue and black (Chiu et al., 2006). In addition, gender-typed toys differs in their shape as well whereby “boy” toys is often in an angular shape, while “girl” toys tend to be rounded (Iijima et al., 2001). As such, it has become a trend whereby children were given toys that highlighted their genders. Rheingold and Cook (1975) observed that boys had more vehicles, spatial toys, action figurines and sport equipment, whereas girls received more dolls, doll