Gender Socialization In Children

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Recommended: Gender stereotypes in children's toys

Toys are a key factor when it comes to gender socialization. Children are given toys based on their gender for most of their childhood. For this assignment, I went into an average Wal-Mart to analyze the differences between various toys and their respective aisles. One large factor in any toy section layout is the infamous “pink aisle,” taking its name from the bright shades of pink on most of the packaging. This is where a large majority of the “girl” toys are shelved. These toys, hardly deviating from perhaps a handful of brands and characters, typically fall under some category that teaches caregiving. The caregiving ranges from caring for a Barbie, to caring for a pink pony. Occasionally, one may find a plastic oven to break up the uniformity. Upon leaving this aisle, one will …show more content…

Just because a person flipped the biological coin and received female reproductive organs does not mean they want to spend their childhood caring for plastic babies, or that a person with male reproductive organs wants to make plastic dinosaurs fight it out. Through social stigma and marketing towards sex, parents are told they must buy blue products if their child is a boy and pink if their child is a girl. However, this can heavily impact a child’s self-image as they begin to grow. A child who has been essentially forced to play with plastic ovens for most of her life might decide that she wants to play with toy racecars instead. However, because she is deviating from the social norm, her friends (and perhaps even her family) will ridicule her for wanting to play with boy toys. Ultimately, gendered toys and the stigmas around them teach children antiquated gender roles that can set girls up for a narrow set of potential interests while boys are given a much broader set of skills from their

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