Theme Of Gender Norms In Children's Toys

“A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing.” That is the definition of taboo. Some current controversial/taboo issues include gun control, animal testing, medical marijuana, the death penalty, gay marriage and more. One particular issue is sexism, specifically the gender norms that surround children’s toys. I will give you a brief moment to read through some examples for yourself.

The articles I have selected explore the themes of gender norms in children’s toys. Both articles target the global toy company LEGO. Article one is titled ‘Lego Friends’ Can Go Straight to Hell, or Why Gendered Toys are Bad for Kids, by Brett Ortler and article

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. This is why the Friends set is predominantly consisted of parts to play with in the interior of the

She writes “I love Lego. I had a big bucket of it when I was a kid, and I spent many happy hours constructing anything and everything from it.” By conveying this, Czerski similarly persuades the audience to trust her through the use of the personal pronoun “I”. Additionally, the author reflects on her childhood such as “When I was 14, I was the only one in my class who knew what a worm gear and cam were.” The fact that the author knew what these complex mechanical arrangements were (which are largely associated as being boys-toys), establishes her as one who challenges gender norms. Furthermore, suggesting that she may be opposed to marketing Lego solely based on gender- given that she played with boy toys as a child and then pursued a career as a physicist and oceanographer. Additionally, the author incorporates a number of rhetorical questions as to lay emphasis on her point and to engage the audience. After stating several new female characters such as a paleontologist, a chemist and an astronomer, she wrote “That’s progress surely?” acknowledging that society is moving forward with the jobs and occupations that women can have. However, she reveals her frustration when she continues, “Even if, in 2014, we should be miles beyond that sort of progress.” She also writes further on in the article “Is this Lego’s problem? They just make small plastic bricks, after all.” This is a demonstration of the