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Kids Toys & Socialization
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.
I went to a Target store at a plaza in Framingham. When I arrived in the toy section of the store I realized that there were separate toy aisles for boys and for girls. The aisles that had girl toys had pink color schemes and the boys’ aisles had a blue color scheme. The boy and girl toy aisles were broken down into age groups. I observed a family of 4 in the toy aisles (a mother, father, boy and girl). The young girl looked 4 years old and the young boy looked around 6 years old. The little kids were walking down the aisles playing with all different kinds of toys. The color of the toy and the type of toy didn’t seem to matter to each either of them. The mother called the daughter into the next aisle over and helped her pick out a Barbie while the father helped the son pick out a toy from the boy aisle.
In the girls’ section there were lots of dolls, pink themed tricycles and scooters, princess themed Lego castles, plushy pink dolls, Cabbage Patch babies, and plenty of doll strollers. The shelves in the aisles that contained these princess dolls and toys were pink. They had...
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... wouldn’t change the way the toys are made, but I would change the placement of them. It would give children the opportunity to play with whatever they like.
Works Cited
Auster, Carol, and Claire Mansbach. "The Gender Marketing Of Toys: An Analysis Of Color And Type Of Toy On The Disney Store Website." Sex Roles 67.7/8 (2012): 375-388. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Fisher-Thompson, Donna. "Adult Sex Typing Of Children's Toys." Sex Roles 23.5/6 (1990): 291-303. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
Conley, Dalton. (2013). You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking like a Sociologist (3rd edition). Columbus, OH: W. W. Norton & Company.
Martin, Karin A., 1998. “Becoming a Gendered body: Practices of Preschools” American Sociological Assosciation (4): 510.
Interview #1, Target, Framingham MA, April 10th, 2014
Gender Stereotypes Among Children's Toys When you walk into the toy section of any store, you do not need a sign to indicate which section is on the girls’ side and which section is on the boys’ side. Aside from all the pink, purple, and other pastel colors that fill the shelves on the girls’ side, the glitter sticks out a lot as well. The boys’ toys, however, are mostly dark colors – blue, black, red, gray, or dark green. The colors typically used on either side are very stereotypical in themselves.
Conley, D. (2008). You may ask yourself: an introduction to thinking like a sociologist. New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton and Company.
...vel and Sex-Stereotyped Toy Choice in Toddler Boys and Girls. Journal Of Genetic Psychology, 146(4), 527.
Inside Toyland, written by Christine L. Williams, is a look into toy stores and the race, class, and gender issues. Williams worked about six weeks at two toy stores, Diamond Toys and Toy Warehouse, long enough to be able to detect patterns in store operations and the interactions between the workers and the costumers. She wanted to attempt to describe and analyze the rules that govern giant toy stores. Her main goal was to understand how shopping was socially organized and how it might be transformed to enhance the lives of workers. During the twentieth century, toy stores became bigger and helped suburbanization and deregulation. Specialty toy stores existed but sold mainly to adults, not to children. Men used to be the workers at toy stores until it changed and became feminized, racially mixed, part time, and temporary. As box stores came and conquered the land, toy stores started catering to children and offering larger selections at low prices. The box stores became powerful in the flip-flop of the power going from manufacturers to the retailers. Now, the retail giants determine what they will sell and at what price they will sell it.
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.
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
It's not necessary for our kids to have so many toys. They don't need to be.
From this research of examining how gender socialization is projection through toys to children, have led to conclusion that in order to prevent children from living by these stereotypes portrayed through toys, parents should encourage gender-neutral and cross-gender play in children at an early age. Just for the mere that their brain is so receptive to knowledge into creating to become the person they are to be in life. Give children a chance to not only have fun while playing with their toys and that there aren’t any pressures on them that this what they should be and that there a mind full options that they can choose from.
I conducted my research and collected my data for this experiment at 3:30pm on Tuesday March 8th, 2016 at the Walmart Supercenter in Abilene, Texas. I walked around the toy section of the store and observed the differences between the aisles that are clearly assigned to certain genders. The store has sectioned off specific aisles for each gender and they make it very obvious which aisle is for girls and which aisle is for boys. The “girls” aisle has barbie dolls and princess dresses and the packaging on these items are bright pink. The “boys” aisle is filled with star wars action figures and toy guns all dressed in black packaging. There are obvious stereotypes and gender roles being subconsciously produced in these aisles.
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.
Emily Kane begins her book, The Gender Trap, with a flash back on her attempt at gender-neutral parenting in the midst of “traps” that make this effort frightening: our societal world is arranged to focus on the differences amongst girls and boys, as Kane saw in such ordinary experiences as the narrow selection of “princess” or “cowboy” themes when shopping for children's apparel. Kane also observed some of the everyday consequences of gender-unbiased parenting in, for example, the social rejection her son faced as a result of not having the toys unofficially necessary for playing with the other boys at his preschool. The rest of Emily Kane's book explores this “gender trap”—“a set of expectations and structures that inhibit social change and stall many parents' best intentions for loosening the limits that gender can impose on us”, in a social scientific manner.
Gender specific toys affect sexism in America by having heavily gendered toys and only marketing these specific toys to certain groups of children. Due to the restricted options for both boys and girls, they are put into the roles that affect them throughout their life. Early education is also affected by sexism and gendered toys. A child’s early education is done primarily through playing, depending on the toys they play with a child could miss out on fine or gross motor development. Along with this, how parents raise their children affects sexism in America, because girls are taught to believe specific things about their bodies. Due to this, girls tend to be ashamed of their bodies rather than proud of them. Although many stereotypes impact girls, hypermasculinity is one that affects the boys in America. Hypermasculinity set the stereotype for young men that emotional behaviors are typically feminine, and an insensitive behavior towards women. This insensitive behavior towards women is toxic for both boys and girls and causes boys to feel pressured to fit into this intensely masculine
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.
Walking down the busy streets of Tempe, I found myself at the local CVS located on University and Mills Ave. As soon as I entered the store, I immediately began my search for the aisle that haunted my childhood set the social construction of gender within my pre-adolescent mind. It took me a while to locate the aisle, due to the simple fact that I am not fond of asking for assistance, for that is something men do not do. I could not help but notice the bright florescent light that guided my vision to a purple sign which encrypted “TOYS”. While looking at this adequately small assortment of toys, I unconsciously started to pace back and forth and eventually found myself sitting on the floor. I was stumped. I kept thinking, “What is this lady talking about? What gender binary? I am so confused!”. This particular assignment not only puzzled
The origin of the word toy is uncertain but according to Harper, in 1300 a toy is meant t0 be an “amorous playing, sport later piece of fun or entertainment.” Today’s definition is an “object of a representation of something familiar, as an animal or person, for children to play with.” The definition of a toy doesn’t say a very fancy and shiny electronic device that effects a child’s development. The exact time of when toys were created on Earth is unknown due to the fact that we as humans haven’t been around for a ver...